MILWAUKEE — Flight anxiety has been top of mind for many amid a recent string of plane crashes across the U.S.

As of March 17, there have been 153 plane crashes in 2025. Twenty-three have been fatal, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. 

Kate Duffy recently took a trip to Washington, D.C. from Milwaukee.

“I was there for business,” said Duffy. “I was speaking on a panel and just came back. It was quick in and out.” 

While Duffy isn’t new to flying, she said it still can cause some anxiety every time she travels.

“Being in a small space,” said Duffy. “Not having control. You clip in and they take off and you’re at the mercy of someone else until you land.”

While she works with her therapist on ways to stay calm when flying, recent crashes have been a trigger, including the deadly one in D.C. 

An American Airlines flight and an army helicopter collided in January near Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. All 67 on board were killed, making it the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001.

“With all of the stories going on and especially flying into D.C. where they just had that horrific accident, I never thought about it before. There’s a lot of airplanes helicopters and flight traffic there,” said Duffy. 

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study from 2024 reports that the risk of a fatality from commercial air travel between 2018-2022 was one per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally. 

Kate Stocks is a licensed professional counselor. Stocks said knowing the statistics can help ease any anxiety before flying.

She said being mindful and using breathing exercises helps as well. 

“With anxiety, it’s pretty easy to start hyperventilating and if we’re hyperventilating, not as much oxygen is getting to the brain and then the brain is not going to work properly and then it’s hard to challenge any irrational thoughts,” said Stocks. “Doing a breathing exercise to calm your breathing so that the body can do what it should be doing is helpful.”

Stocks said visualizing your flight before it takes off also helps. This is something Duffy said she practices. 

“I like traveling but it’s harder for me to do that and get out of my comfort zone and get on a flight that I don’t love doing but you have to push through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff,” said Duffy.