As details emerge on the devastating collision in Washington D.C. between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet on January 29, 2025, HGTV star Jenny Marrs is praying for everyone who’s lost a loved one but is avoiding watching news coverage about it.
Marrs is one of an estimated 25 million Americans who suffer from aerophobia, defined by the Cleveland Clinic as a “severe fear of flying.” Given the “Fixer to Fabulous” star’s decades-long struggles with flight anxiety, Marrs shared in her Instagram Stories on January 30 how she was handling news of tragedy, which is the deadliest crash on U.S. soil in two decades, per CNBC.
Jenny Marrs Thanks Fear of Flying Coach for His ‘Wisdom’ After DC Crash
In her Instagram Stories on the morning of January 30, Marrs wrote in white text on a black background, “I have been and will continue to pray for the families of those lives lost on the flight and in the helicopter last night.”
“I am trying to avoid the news right now,” she continued, “because my personal fear is spiraling and there are so many crazy theories swirling. I am simply praying. As the families are notified, I am praying the God of Comfort holds them near.”
In her next Story, Marrs shared a video post of Paul Tizzard, a “fear of flying coach” and co-founder of Lovefly, an organization that works with people to overcome their flight phobias.
In the video, shared above, Tizzard told Lovefly’s online community to “please stop watching anything to do with this incident because anything that’s reported right now is speculation.”
“We know what’s happened,” he continued, “and these things…in the fullness of time, will be properly investigated, which brings me to the second tip. There is a process already in place now and once the findings are known, we will publish them and then we will all learn from the incident as we always do in commercial aviation.”
Marrs commented on Tizzard’s post, “Thank you, Paul. This tragic accident is beyond comprehension. Thank you for your calm and steady encouragement and wisdom as we navigate our fears of flying and reconcile them with watching this horrific accident take place.”
Jenny Marrs Says Her Flight Anxiety Developed After Multiple ‘Scary’ Incidents
Marrs has been open with her fans about her fears of flying, given that her work with HGTV often requires her to travel. In a June 2023 Instagram post, she explained that in her 20s, she flew often for work with no fear, but that her anxiety built over time as she “had a few scary things happen and I started having nightmares about flying.”
She mentioned an “emergency landing in 2006” and recalled when she and her husband, Dave Marrs, flew to the Congo to visit their daughter Sylvie, who’s now 12, before they adopted her.
“I had my first full-blown panic attack over the sea as we flew to Congo for the first time to visit Sylvie,” Jenny Marrs wrote in her 2023 post. “When we landed, it was nighttime. We were greeted by machine guns and our luggage was ransacked by armed guards. They took the supplies we had brought for the orphanage. From that point on, I was afraid of landing at night in a new place.”
In April 2024, Marrs shared how challenging it was to continually fly back and forth to Italy with her family as they filmed their spin-off series, “Fixer to Fabulous: Italiano,” and how she leaned on her faith to get through each flight.
“I learned that when I’m flying through the air, trapped in a metal tube, with zero control over my circumstances, I depend wholly and completely on Jesus,” she wrote on Instagram. “I cling to Him in those moments. I cry out to him in desperation and He meets me with peace and assurance and reminders of His past faithfulness.”
Marrs also has a set of handwritten index cards at the ready, each featuring encouraging words from the Bible, gifted to her by friends, she shared in an Instagram post on January 25.
“Y’all know I am not a fan of flying,” she wrote, “and I keep these in my travel bag so that when my breathing is shallow and fear threatens to overwhelm, these words of Truth usher in peace.”
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HGTV’s Jenny Marrs Vulnerably Shares Personal Impact of Washington DC Plane Crash