UK based app developers Vanilla Pixel have released a new app that could help people overcome their fear of flying. The app aims to calm fliers nerves by giving them statistics on how unlikely it is that their plane will crash.

The app called ‘Am I going down?’ has been designed for iPhone and iPad users and is available in iTunes.

Fear of flying or aerophobia is highly common and according to AnxietyUK, it is believed that at least one in ten people in the UK are affected at some point in their lives.

Husband and wife developer team Nic Johns and Julie Postlethwaite are the creators of the app. Johns said, ‘The inspiration for “Am I going down?” came from my co-founder and wife, Julie, who for many years has suffered from a fear of flying. I wanted to present the fact that the vast majority of flights are incredibly low risk and our app is meant as a tool to help reassure fearful flyers’.

The app has been designed to be easy to use. Users simply choose the type of plane they are travelling in, the airports they are travelling from and to and the app calculates the chances of the plane crashing which will be millions to one.

The app gathers its raw data from sources such as ACRO and NSTB for crash statistics, and ICAO for airport data.

In order to calculate the chances of crashing it takes into account flights that have had at least one passenger fatality, along with the volume of flights in the past 10 years. Once calculated it provides the ‘one in a million’ statistics.

‘The simple fact is that flights are incredibly safe’, says Nic Johns, ‘invariably in the millions to one range, but it’s more useful to someone who is a nervous flyer to know the past performance for their type of aircraft and their particular journey, rather than just generic figures’.

Currently the app is only available to iPhone and iPad users but Johns has said the development of an Android version is ‘definitely a possibility for the future’.

‘Am I going down?’ has just been released and is available from the Apple app store for a cost of £0.79.

Links to screenshots:

http://www.vanillapixel.com/action_shot_airport.png

http://www.vanillapixel.com/amigoingdown_icon.png

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http://www.vanillapixel.com/screenshot2_aircraft_rank.png

http://www.vanillapixel.com/screenshot3_selected.png

http://www.vanillapixel.com/screenshot4_results.png

http://www.vanillapixel.com/nicjohns.png

Some famous aerophobia sufferers:
Footballer Dennis Bergkamp
Actress and MP Glenda Jackson
Boxer Muhammad Ali
Former US President Ronald Reagan

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