Businesswoman Marci Smith can pinpoint when things began to unravel at her last job. Two years ago, she boarded a flight in Atlanta en route to an important business meeting in Philadelphia.

She panicked at the thought of the looming airplane trip and began to cry. She got off the plane and rented a car to drive to the meeting, which, to the deep disappointment of the import company that employed her, she missed.

"Things went downhill from there, and I resigned" last May, said Smith.

Fear of flying cripples — or at least burdens — the careers of millions of Americans. Also known as aviaphobia, it causes many employees to pass up promotions or miss out-of-town meetings, training sessions or sales calls. It can decrease productivity and strain relationships with employers. In some cases, it limits careers by pigeonholing workers in jobs that they're not well-suited for but that will keep them firmly on the ground.

Besides its toll on employees, fear of flying is detrimental to employers. Less-qualified employees may be hired for positions requiring air travel, and less-capable workers must be sent to out-of-town meetings and industry conferences. Jim Abelson, director of the Anxiety Disorders Program at the University of Michigan, says the cost to employers is "substantial." Many employers "don't know the price they're paying," because the cost is hidden, he says.

Fear of flying "is a huge problem," says Jerilyn Ross, president of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. Like other phobias, it is an irrational, involuntary fear that causes a person to avoid everyday situations.

9/11 AMPLIFIED FEARS

According to a USA Today /CNN/Gallup Poll, 27 percent of U.S. adults would be at least somewhat fearful of getting on an airplane tomorrow, including 9 percent who would be "very afraid." Public fears seem to have subsided since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorism. A comparable poll taken in November 2001 showed 43 percent at least somewhat afraid, including 17 percent who were "very afraid."

Sept. 11 allowed many American workers who had been harboring fears to put a new spin on things.

"Prior to 9/11, fearful fliers were afraid and ashamed to admit to their bosses that they feared flying," Ross says. "After 9/11, they felt their fears were justified, and it was socially acceptable to say so. They could get out of flying, and their boss would understand, although they should have been getting help."

Tony Kornheiser is one prominent aviaphobe who could hardly be more open about the terror that flying instills. Kornheiser is a broadcaster and Washington Post sports columnist recently picked by ESPN to provide color commentary when the cable sports network begins broadcasting "Monday Night Football" in September.

As he was deciding whether to take the job, a major boost for his sports journalism career, Kornheiser anguished publicly about the air travel that would be involved. He ultimately accepted the job but is making plans to take a private bus to as many games as possible.

Recognizing the difficulty of getting to West Coast games, the 57-year-old Washington, D.C., resident says he's consulting a psychiatrist to combat his fear of flying. He longs to overcome the phobia.

"I've had a fear of flying from the moment I first stepped on a plane in my 20s," he says. "There are so many places I'd like to go to, and I would love to get there quickly."

FEARS CAN BE TREATED

Many fliers fear loss of control, the confined space of an airplane cabin or a panic attack. Others fear heights or dying in an airplane crash, although they may not think twice about driving on highways, where thousands are killed each year.

Most fearful fliers can be successfully treated to overcome their fears, Ross and other psychologists say. Companies and therapists who treat fearful fliers point to success rates above 90 percent. But many fearful fliers simply avoid flying and don't seek treatment.

Then again, some do.

Angel Miller and Tracy Leskey, both federal government employees, sought help from former airline pilot Tom Bunn, who runs a company, Soar, that aims to conquer fliers' fears. They bought cassettes and DVDs from the company and were counseled on the phone by Bunn. They've been flying ever since. Leskey has even taken a marathon flight to a business conference in Australia and says she's looking forward to cashing in frequent-flier points for a free flight.

Leskey, 37, a government scientist who lives in West Virginia, says she was "a problem flier" before 9/11. After that day, her fear of flying "became paralyzing." She was booked on a flight from Washington that would take her to a professional meeting in Fort Lauderdale in 2002 and instead spent 24 hours on a train getting there.

"It was excruciating, but at the same time, I felt a total sense of relief — at least I wasn't flying," recalls Leskey, who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "If I were, I would be gripping the seat waiting for the plane to go down."

Leskey says she's not a drinker, but she tried alcohol a few times before seeking professional treatment for her phobia. The alcohol helped her board the flight, but "eventually, I would fall apart," she recalls.

Miller says she was afraid of many things: "turbulence, the unknown, my vivid imagination, the anxiety I'd feel during the flight, a panic attack, the plane crashing, and dying."

The 50-year-old Boston resident, who works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, didn't fly from 1985 to 1991. Then she stopped again in 1992 through 1998. After flying in 1999, she used Amtrak for all her business trips until 2004. She often had to use vacation days to account for the days traveling by train.

"My fear of flying kept me from attending training sessions, conferences and meetings in various parts of the country," Miller says. "If it was not feasible to take Amtrak, I managed to get out of the travel. The last straw was when I turned down a conference in Los Angeles, also the city where my son attends college."

NOT ALL CONQUER FEAR

But for each success story, there may be someone like Sonya Frost, still struggling. Frost, a social worker in Oakland, hasn't flown since 1997, because the last plane she was on encountered turbulence, "dropped hundreds of feet" and "scared me to death."

Frost says after that flight, she took a new job and made excuses, such as lack of child care, whenever she had to fly. She recalls backing out of a trip to New York for which her employer had already paid. "When I found out that the trip was non-refundable, I felt so ashamed. I decided to take another position and give someone else the chance."

Companies have fired employees who could not fly, says psychologist John Weaver, whose firm, Psychology for Business, consults for Wisconsin companies. Such a scenario may occur, he says, when a small company with an infrequent, fearful flier is bought out by a larger one, and the employee is asked to fly more frequently.

Of 95 companies surveyed this month by the American Management Association, 13 percent say that fear of flying has affected their business. Some of the companies say its been an impediment to developing talent, and some say it's relegated some employees with solid sales or marketing skills to alternative jobs where they can stay put.

The nonprofit association, which provides management development services to companies, conducted the survey at the request of USA Today and was assisted by the Human Resource Institute, a research organization.

Workers who seek treatment usually do so when they realize fear of flying is hurting their careers, says Alan Langlieb, director of workplace psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. They often seek help before traveling to a required training session, after getting a promotion or when travel may lead to one. Many seek treatment when their family demands a faraway vacation, Langlieb says.

SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS

More than 60 percent of fearful fliers use sedatives or alcohol to try to reduce their fear, according to a 1997 study by Frank Wilhelm and Walton Roth of the Stanford University School of Medicine. Alcohol may temporarily relax fliers, but it could also make them anxious and hamper business travelers' ability to work after landing, says Ross of the Anxiety Disorders Association. She says a drug prescribed by a doctor could help relax a fearful flier who flies occasionally but, like alcohol, isn't a long-term fix.

Even some hardened road warriors don't always take their flights in stride. Drew Guenett, of Scottsdale, Ariz., travels more than 200 days a year and fears take-off. He says landing and turbulence, which panics many fearful fliers, don't bother him.

"I just hate the lift-off," says Guenett, an automotive training consultant. "No way am I a fearless flier, but it's part of the life I have chosen. Unfortunately, we can't all be John Madden in the Madden Cruiser."

Madden, Kornheiser's predecessor on "Monday Night Football," traveled to games in a plush $800,000 bus and never conquered his fear. Dennis Miller, another former color commentator on the weekly football show, also said he hated flying.

Smith, whose job unraveled at the export company, says she never enjoyed flying, but Sept. 11 made it terrifying. En route to her Philadelphia business meeting, she nervously managed to board her flight at Atlanta's airport before "a surge of anxiety" struck again.

She apologized to a flight attendant, got off the plane and later told her boss she wasn't able to make the meeting because the flight was oversold. The flight was, in fact, overbooked, but Smith didn't tell her boss another passenger had volunteered to surrender a seat so that she could board.

Since that nerve-racking flight, Smith has taken a fear-of-flying course and has flown at least 10 times. "I'm still a little nervous now and then, but it's nothing like it was before," she says. "I am now working at a different job, and everything is going great."