It's no wonder that many people don't even try to overcome so many obstacles to their comfortable flying. Your perception of risk may work against you. Before we engage in a new or difficult activity, our minds automatically begin to assess the risk factors involved. Commercial flight doesn't score very well on this psychological assessment of risk. Let's contrast flying with traveling by automobile .
People perceive that they have very little control of an airplane.
They can't get off the plane and they aren't permitted in the cockpit. It seems much safer in a car because we can typically drive whenever we want and pull over whenever we feel like it. In an automobile accident only a few people are injured or killed at the most. The mind perceives this as a small risk compared to the possibility of over 100 people being killed in one airline accident. In addition, being on the ground while traveling seems less risky than traveling 35,000 feet in the air.