TV star Scarlette Douglas reveals flying phobia after missing doomed flight that killed close friend

The former A Place in the Sun presenter shared that she was meant to be on Air France Flight 447, the ill-fated Airbus A330 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, killing all 228 people on board - including one of her close friends.

Speaking at the Taste of London Food Festival in Regent’s Park, the 38-year-old North Londoner told the Daily Mail: “I lost a really good friend of mine in the Air France crash from Brazil to France. The scary thing was I was supposed to be on that flight. She had booked it.”

Douglas said she missed the flight due to a work commitment in Hollywood, a twist of fate that left a lasting impact. “As a result,” she said, “I hate flying.”

The Channel 4 presenter, who hosted A Place in the Sun for seven years and appeared on I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2022, admitted that her aviation anxiety has posed major challenges throughout her career. Travelling for shoots and filming overseas became a psychological hurdle she often had to suppress.

Her comments came as she was asked about her reaction to the recent Air India tragedy, in which a plane bound for London’s Gatwick Airport crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, western India, killing more than 200 people, including 53 British nationals.

While the cause of the Air India crash is still under investigation, an aviation analyst has suggested that the co-pilot may have mistakenly adjusted the wing flaps instead of retracting the landing gear, resulting in the aircraft losing lift.

The Air France disaster that claimed her friend’s life was similarly attributed to pilot error, miscommunication, and inconsistent airspeed readings, leading to an unrecoverable stall.

The wreckage of that 2009 crash was only partially recovered in the months that followed, and the plane’s flight data recorders weren’t retrieved until 2011, nearly two years later. The final report from France’s aviation safety bureau (BEA) concluded that cockpit confusion and a lack of situational awareness contributed to the tragedy.

Among the dead were five British nationals, including PR executive Neil Warrior and 11-year-old Alexander Bjoroy.