Whoopi Goldberg's Fear of Flying Started in 1978. Here's How She Finally Got Back on a Plane

Whoopi Goldberg has conquered Broadway, Hollywood, and daytime TV, but for decades one thing kept her grounded: flying. The EGOT winner witnessed a midair collision in San Diego in 1978, and the trauma stuck with her for years. She skipped planes entirely, traveling by private tour bus instead, and in a 2011 interview admitted the memory was still hard to talk about.

Things got even heavier in 2005, when she told Ellen DeGeneres about a flight where the passenger sitting next to her died, and the crew said there was no place to move the body. She later described the moment as simply“not cute,”which might be the most understated way anyone has ever told that story.

But Goldberg didn’t stay grounded forever. She went through Virgin Atlantic’s Fear of Flying program, and on a July 2025 episode of The View, she revealed that something she now takes lets her fly without crying. With aerophobia affecting as many as one in three adults, her journey is a reminder that fear doesn’t have to be the final word. So we want to know: what’s a fear you’ve worked hard to overcome?