FAMILY holidays for us always involved long car journeys and, as a child, I thought little of it, content with the adventure of towing a trailer tent to France, or a caravan to the Yorkshire Dales.

Friends would jet off to Tenerife or Corfu and come back with suntans and foreign sweets, but I would not set foot on a plane until I was 18 for a post A-level getaway with friends.

Reaching Mediterranean poolside resorts by air were never an option for our summer breaks because, my dad, like BA Baracus, ‘was not getting on no airplane’.

He had flown as a teenager, in 1970, shortly after Dan-Air Flight 1903, a de Havilland Comet 4, crashed into the wooded slopes of the Serralada del Montseny in northern Spain, killing 112 people.

The following year 68 passengers perished when Toa Domestic Airlines Flight 63 crashed into Yokotsu Mountain while on approach due to navigational error after strong winds caused the craft to drift.

Doug, who is now 64, and lives in Gateshead, says: “There was a plane crash a couple of weeks before I flew and that had been preying on my mind.

“I went away and flew and hated it. I had a bad flight with turbulence.

“I went to Majorca the next year and exactly the same thing happened.

“A plane flew into a mountain and everyone was killed. That did not bode well.

“There was bad turbulence then too so I have never flown since.”

The fear of flying was so bad that even watching footage of aeroplanes on television and in films could make him anxious.

During a two week trip to Italy with my mother and brother ten years ago he elected to travel on four trains over 36 hours through the Channel Tunnel, rather than hopping on plane for a couple of hours from Newcastle International Airport.

By all accounts he arrived looking somewhat dishevelled.

But such an arduous journey may be no longer necessary as recently he took part in the easyJet Fearless Flyer course, run by top phobia expert Lawrence Leyton.

The star of Channel 4’s television show ‘Fear of Flying’ and senior pilot Captain Peter West dispelled misconceptions phobics have about air travel and showed proven mind techniques to use onboard ahead of a flight.

The following day, around 100 people put it to the test with a 40 minute flight from Newcastle to Edinburgh, Carlisle and back again.

Afterwards he said: “The phobia expert was very professional and very slick but, for me, the best help was the pilot getting up on stage and imparting his knowledge of all the things that were worrying people.

“On the plane he did a running commentary of all the different noises you were going to hear and what they were for. Like the air conditioning coming on and the engine starting.

“It is 43 years since I have had a flight and then it was an awful experience where the turbulence made the plane drop thousands of feet. Your heart goes up in your mouth and you are just petrified.

“That is what has put me off flying all of these years, but this flight was a smooth as silk and it was brilliant. I quite enjoyed it.”

My dad’s course was not long before the Germanwings disaster last month where 150 people died after a co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have deliberately flown into a mountain.

Given the similarity to the two previous crashes that have stuck with him all of these years, there were concerns he may still be wary of flying.

It appears not to be the case and now he and my mother, Irene, are looking forward to planning their first flight overseas ever in their 40 year marriage as they plan for their retirement next year.

He says: “In the past I could get panic stricken just watching things about planes on television. That was the extent of my fear. It seemed insurmountable.

“But I would imagine I would fly now, maybe a short flight of a couple of hours to Ireland to start off with, and then maybe longer to build it up to somewhere warm and sunny. I wish I had done it years ago.”

*EasyJet set up its Fearless Flyer course in late 2012 and has since helped more than 2,000 people to overcome their fear of flying. The courses take place across the UK throughout the year and cost £189 per person. Places on the course can be booked at www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com