A panic disorder will generally lead to a panic attack, but science hasn't really established what causes the attack. The attacks seem to occur when specific sets of conditions come together, but what makes them puzzling is that the kinds of symptoms experienced by different people before the attack vary greatly.
Panic attacks will happen when someone is anxious or extremely fearful. The biological string of events seems to be the same. The person under attack will experience a typical reaction of extreme fear - the same thing that would happen if they were faced with a real, physical threat. Their heart will beat faster, they will sweat, and they will tremble and be short of breath. Only there is no physical threat that leads them to react this way.
When under attack, your body goes into what is called either fight or flight. It gets ready to lash back or distance itself from the danger. You need more blood for the anticipated increased activity; your heart needs to pump faster, and you need to breath faster and more deeply to distribute the blood to all fight or flight muscles. Fear hormones will cause contraction of muscles and shaking.
One of the things that are thought to be a cause of panic attacks is that the body, for an unknown reason, will go into this series of reactions. In spontaneous attacks, it happens for no reason at all. In panic attacks that have a traceable cause, the body is obviously taking to extremes the danger it's in; you are on a plane, but somehow your mind fails to rationalize your fear and you therefore have an attack.
In some families, panic attacks seem to run through the genes. Research has shown that if you have a sibling or a biological relative who suffers panic attacks, you are 8 times more likely to suffer them. However, this becomes hard to prove as a cause of panic attacks because in identical twins, there isn't 100% correlation - if it was genetically traced, it should exist in the genes of both twins. It doesn't. Many times, one will suffer panic attacks and the other will not.
The other reason thought to cause the attacks, and which has been found to hold true in many people, is pent up stress. Lots of us today live highly stressful lives, but we never seem to realize it. It puts our psychological systems under extreme pressure, almost as though we're under some kind of attack. Our bodies begin to start to prepare for defense, only it doesn't recognize that there is really no physical enemy. The preparation reaches a peak point - it's controlled by hormones, and the result is an attack.
There are also environmental causes of panic attacks, and these unfortunately attack children. Children who constantly see their parents have an attack may also have them themselves. If children are extremely sheltered, they may exhibit symptoms of panic attacks. There are homes that tend to be extremely high stress, where the demands on the children are stretched beyond what kids can naturally achieve. These kids are more susceptible to panic disorder as adults.
In adults, the most easily identifiable environmental cause is a major traumatic event, usually involving the loss of income or the loss of someone who mattered significantly. The amount of stress that builds up will eventually lead to all the reactions talked about here.
As you can see, there is really no directly traceable cause of panic attacks, so it remains with each individual to know what may trigger theirs and manage their lifestyle to avoid triggers. There are medications today that will manage the symptoms of the attack, and if your visit your health provider, they will help you.
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