Have you ever known anyone killed in a commercial airliner accident?

No. I hope that helps.

I, myself, have not.

Yes. A business colleague died in the Buffalo bound Colgan Air plane crash ten years ago.

A friend of mine's father was.

An aunt was in the Pan Am/KML Tererife incident. She survived since she was on the Pan Am.

The parents of a woman I barely knew died in United flight 232. She got a fuckton of money from the airline and blew through a millions dollar settlement in about 3 years and has nothing to show for it now.

Also a friend, who had just had her third baby just missed that flight. If she'd been on it it would have killed her and the three kids, all who were under the age of six.

I just watched an old new clip of that Jet Blue flight where the landing gear was jammed and the passengers watched the news coverage live on the satellite tv screens. It ended up ok but I think I would have had a heart attack if I watched that go down live while on the flight.

I didn't know him personally, but David Algers was the manager of my mutual fund. He was on the receiving end of one of those planes that crashed into the Twin Towers. In fact, his whole team was killed with him.

When I was young, there was a man who lived in my town who had gone bankrupt. He blew up a plane so his wife would collect his life insurance. When I went to camp, there were two brothers who lived with their Grandparents because there parents were killed in a plane that exploded. It was the same flight. The man who blew up the plane was named Julian Frank. I don't need to say the name of the two brothers. Frank and these brothers all lived in the same Connecticut town, Westport. When I went to college, I dated a girl who lost her parents in a plane crash. As I got to know her, she told me her parents were traveling with their friends who were the parents of those two brothers. All four parents died, leaving two sets of orphans.

Not that I now of, but I knew someone who worked for a company-- ION?--in the WTT who lost many colleagues. She survived because she had gone to vote that day, so was late to the office.

A work colleague died on 9/11. He was in one of the planes that hit the WTC. My company established a scholarship in his name and awards money annually to the child of an employee that submits a winning essay. A nice tribute to him.

No but a plane crashed on our property. We had about 40 acres and it crashed right on the border of our property and woods. We were playing outside and then you heard the plane start to have problems. Then its altitude got very low and it was making circles and getting lower. IT GOT SO LOUD. Then it crashed. The boom of the crash was so loud. Then we got in the truck and rushed to see if there was anything we could do. There wasn't. It looked like the plane went through a food processor. Debris and body parts everywhere. EEK. I was in 4th grade.

Yes I did. He was a partner at a law firm where I worked. His name was Stanley Klein. He worked on this one deal for a long time and one weekend he went to Switzerland for the signing. He was very excited that the deal was finally over and he got a trip out of it. He left on Friday and that’s the last we ever saw of him. He was on Swissair flight 111.

Years later I was in Nova Scotia and on an excursion to Peggy’s Cove and I left the tour group and walked over to the bay where the plane plummeted in. It was weird, finally seeing where Stanley went after leaving the office years before.

A wonderful girl I went to high school with was on that Delta flight that crashed in Dallas from "wind shear". 1985. She was such a happy and smiling person in high school. I remember watching the news that night in my hometown and the mom was actually interviewed. I couldn't believe it. The odd thing was the mom was so composed. That's when I learned what "shock" was. That mom had absolutely not absorbed the horrific news yet. It makes me sad to think about it because the crash victim was just finished w her freshman year of college and doing so well.

My neighbor a pilot. His name was Sum Ting Wong.

Canary Islands PanAm-KLM. Our family attorney’s wife was killed.

Taught a student whose parents were among the 132 passengers who perished on US Air 427 in 1994.

Had some students whose family knew one of the pilots on the hijacked 9/11 planes.

But have not personally known any crash victims or survivors.

A colleague and a former colleague were killed on the Swissair flight that went down off Nova Scotia.

I haven't , but Steven Colbert's father and brother killed on Eastern crash at Charlotte.

I'm more fascinated by stories of people surviving major plane crashes.

I live near the airport in Raleigh and dozens planes fly over my house each day. Over twenty years ago a American Eagle commuter plane crashed in our backyard and only a couple of people survived. My partner went out to see if he could be of any help while the emergency services were on their way. A female survivor was walking barefoot through the woods with a shoe in her hand and when she saw my partner she asked him to help look for her shoe. She didn’t realize she’d been in a plane crash.

They built a road into the woods and collected every single piece of that plane. It was all taken somewhere and put back together like a big jigsaw puzzle. Several months later a guy showed up asked if we’d found any pieces of metal in our yard and we had found a piece about the size of a deck of cards. His eyes lit up when he saw the small piece and said, “Yep, that’s the piece we’re looking for.” and took it away.

Yes, a workmate died in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 plane crash around Santa Barbara on January 31, 2000.

I wish, but no.

I shit my pants at the lightest turbulence...so thank goodness, no.

I experienced a brief phobia re planes flying over my house about 30 years ago. Can't explain it, but for maybe two months overhead planes sent me into a panic state, and then I just got over it for good. Wonder if there's a teen for that.

***term

Well I overslept one day and so I missed boarding the Lusitania.

If I hadn't been such a sleepyhead the entire 20th Century history of the American musical would have changed and there'd be no Follies.

Leaving god knows how many theater queens with no point to their lives.

I’ve actually known three people killed on three different commercial plane crashes. One was the dad of a classmate, another a neighbor and one was a woman who I met in a business context.

I’ve traveled a lot and have been on some rough plane rides but my worst experience was on a private prop plane in Africa during high winds. We were tossed all over the place and I was completely convinced I was dying. It was absolutely terrifying and my biggest fear is dying in any plane.

Who’s job is it to recover the bodies and identify them? A lot of times there are body parts strewn all over the place. Who has to collect them and try to piece them together? Also who does the fingerprinting and dental records? What a horrible job!

I'll probably never go to Europe again because the intense turbulence is too terrifying for me. On one trip it was so bad they had to take all our meals away. It truly felt that the hand of God was furiously shaking the plane and we were going to be pitched into the black ocean. Even the stewardesses looked frightened.

Not a good sign.

My sister went to school with one of the guys working for a company at the top of the World Trade Center on that fateful day. She said he had been a total fuck up as a teen but had managed to turn his life around and become successful.

Knew three people killed on 9/11. One of them was a rancid cunt and I believe the whole plot was orchestrated to kill him. He was that awful. Also knew 3 people on EgyptAir 990. Have known several who died in private plane crashes. I’m so fucked up when I fly that I wouldn’t notice anything leading up to a crash.

Oh FFS R30 the turbulence that you’ve described happens on transatlantic and transpacific flights every day.

The flight attendants clear drinks and meals to stop them spilling on the passengers. Don’t be so melodramatic.

A friend of a friend, someone I met a couple times in NYC, was on TWA 800. The one thing I remember about him is that he talked to a whole bunch of street dealers because he was determined to find weed he deemed to be good enough to buy. Then he house-sat for our mutual friend, couldn't follow the basic, simple instructions to keep our mutual friend's huge pot plant alive.

I went to school with a girl whose sister died on Northwest 255 Detroit to Phoenix in 1987.

some relation of my mother's died in a private plane crash in the 40's before I was born. They didn't find them or their bodies until the 1980's.

I was in a small prop plane going from my small town to Pittsburgh to catch a flight to DC. We were halfway there when the cabin started to fill up with smoke and then all of a sudden it was gone. I looked out the window and the propeller was no longer moving, the other one was. There were only 4 of us on the plane. No one was saying anything and I turned to the young couple behind me who looked terrified and I told them it would be okay. In the meantime I asked God to please make it quick. They made us turn around and go back because they didn't want to shut Pittsburgh down and we were at exactly the halfway point. We landed but had to come to an immediate stop when we hit the tarmac or we would go into a spin. They drove us to Pittsburgh and I got another flight to DC. I saw the copilot of that flight the next week on my way home and said something to him and he tried to ignore me and I said I was on the flight last Friday. He came and sat next to me and told me how terrified he and the pilot had been. Thank God I didn't know that at the time.

I wasn't scared but my adrenaline was pumping.

A relative had a friend who died on the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11 and one of my friends lost their son in law in the 1st tower that was hit. He was from OH but had a meeting there that day on the floor that the plane hit.

R25 I've found that a good teen can really take my mind off of things...

Well R32 I had a cousin whose father worked for Air France so they were traveling to Europe often when we were very young. She told me I never had to worry except when the flight staff looked scared.

Believe me they looked scared. I thought oh god.

A bit OT but a friend of mine used to own the house in Beverly Hills that Howard Hughes crash landed into back in the 40s....I think. Tour busses used to slow down for tourists to see.

My high school history teacher was killed in an airline crash into Hong Kong Harbor. It was a long time ago and after I graduated. He was a great teacher, made history come alive.

R33 Or himself, apparently.

I knew someone on Swiss Air Flight 111 and someone on the Pan Am flight that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Don't fuck with me.

When I was in high school, one of our neighbours-a private pilot for a mining company-died along with his passengers when his small plane flew into a tv tower about an hour north of Toronto. It was foggy at the time and there was an air traffic controller's strike going on in here Canada, so he was limited to flying with instrumentation-apparently getting no help from the striking air traffic staff. Their son was a year younger than me-he turned into a complete druggie and was never the same :(

[quote]I shit my pants at the lightest turbulence...so thank goodness, no.

Oh for fuck’s sake... the poor people that have to sit next to you.

[quote]It truly felt that the hand of God was furiously shaking the plane and we were going to be pitched into the black ocean.

You sound tedious.

R38 I assume your friend had moved out by the time of the crash?

Indeed, R43. The stench is so bad that they no doubt would prefer the quick death of a nosedive into the ocean.

My parents were in an emergency landing. Twenty minutes out of New York and the plane started shaking violently. The plane was turned around and everyone got into crash positions. My mom said people were crying and praying. When the plane landed (safely) there were all sorts of emergency vehicles at the ready. No explanation of what happened was ever offered.

Had a coworker on the 9/11 flight that crashed into WTC. So spooky because he was in First Class with the hijackers and I often imagine what the process must have been like for him. Only 33. Strangely though, because I had been through the AIDS crisis, it seemed like just another random cruel early death. Saw so much cruel death, 9/11 and my friends death just seemed to be part of the constant onslaught of young men dying too soon.

I wish that it had felt tedious. One of the scariest most endless experiences of my life. I mean for fuck's sake it was God. And he's nasty. I think each passenger had committed an ugly crime and we had been collected on that plane to be chastened.

We had three employees die at the WTC. One was his first month as a broker in training. I think he went to a presentation at Cantor Fitzgerald. I do not fly anymore

A woman I went to school with from elementary through high school died on 9/11 on flight 11. She was very sweet. Worked for the airline and decided to go to Vegas since she could fly for free.

Yes, and it was the beginning of my cinnamon roll empire.

Women who wear a necklace outside of a turtleneck should all be in a plane crash

R52, that Lisa Beamer woman always gave me the creeps.

Crash animations

R49 EVERYONE has committed an ugly crime.

A girl in college that I didn't know - before I attended - died on Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie. I hooked up with a guy whose father had died in 9/11, he was working at Kantor Fitzgerald. I remember taking such an enormous dump in his toilet bowl that night that it wouldn't flush, so I snuck out and went home while he was asleep. When I lived on Long Island, I found wreckage of TWA flight 800 which blew up over the Hamptons, an occurence most people believe was friendly fire. For a few weeks, they had closed all the beaches and the army and other service people were combing the beaches picking up the wreckage.

Some years ago, I learned, many years after the fact, that a kid I knew from 9 -- 13 (and lost touch with) had died in the crash of a small craft he was piloting when in his 30s.

Not on a commercial flight, but someone that I worked with had his own plane. He crashed on the way to Oshkosh Wisconsin for the air show and was killed.

Oh that’s terrible about the enormous unflushable dump, R58. You’re very brave for sharing.

Thoughts and prayers.

A friend of a friend works with the guy who was the only passenger survivor of this crash.

Three girls from my high school were killed in a crash outside New Orleans in 1982. IIRC, they were rich girls returning from a cruise during summer vacation.

Well, R58, at least you left him something to remember you by.

Thankfully, I haven't. I can only imagine (and want to keep it that way) what these people go through. I think 9/11 had to take the cake for most terrifying. First the hijacking and then knowing they were going crashing directly into the Towers.

[quote]Three girls from my high school were killed in a crash outside New Orleans in 1982. IIRC, they were rich girls returning from a cruise during summer vacation.

Pan Am Flight 759. The plane only got about 150 feet off the ground due to wind shear.

How do people who survive cope? I’ve not known anyone to die in a plane crash but a few in helicopter crashes I really don’t think they are the greatest form of travel but it’s not a dilemma I ever have to consider

R58, did you ever see the guy again? That would be so embarrassing. Given that he was asleep I think I would have tried to find something to chop the turd into smaller pieces, rather than just run away.

One of my good college friend's fiancee's (now husband) father was on Flight 93. He was a civil liberties lawyer in SF and all around great guy. He actually left a voicemail to his wife and kids when he knew they were going to bring down the plane and most likely die. I heard it. Cut to me bawling before my bio lab.

Our neighbor across the street was on Pan Am 103. He was on his way home for Christmas, and had three kids, the youngest of whom was only a few months old. His widow got a boatload of money, I believe.

Stephen Colbert lost his father and TWO brothers in that plane crash, r19.

yes R57 which is why we are all going to die a horrible death.

R29: Here's the thing about fingerprinting - it's not a good method to identify most people. That's due to the fact that the only time your fingerprints would be on record is if you've had contact with the criminal justice system.

No deaths but I've been pretty scared twice. The first was a flight from Nashville to Kansas City. We flew through a storm which turned out to be a hailstorm. Apparently, the hail cracked the outer windshield of the plane and the pilots lost control of the plane because they were startled/scared. The plane plummeted and we passengers were in free fall for a good 30 seconds. The guy in the seat in front of me was convinced he was going to die and he was loudly praying to Jesus to come take him. Fortunately, they regained control of the plane and turned us back around and we landed safely. We got to see the cracked windshield from the safety of the boarding area.

The friend who was driving to the airport in Kansas City to pick me up told me the storm was so severe there that she had to pull off to the side of the highway for the worst of it, as the storm was dumping so much rain and so much wind blowing it about that visibility was practically zero. One plus was that the plane I took an hour later skirted south of the storm and I got to see what a thunderstorm looks like from the air. It was absolutely amazing: totally dark except for the flashes of light that lit up the whole cloud structure of the storm every few seconds. Totally silent from where we were but eerily beautiful.

The second time was taking a small commuter plane from Chicago to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Same story again: we flew through a thunderstorm. Only this plane was tiny, with space for 2 pilots, a stewardess, and something like 16 passengers. We were being flung around by the storm, with massive shifts from side to side and up and down, hundreds of feet at a time, neck-jerking and terrifying. No beverage service on that flight, as the stewardess remained buckled in the whole flight. The worst part for us is that we could see the pilots, since the plane was too small to have a fully enclosed cockpit, and they were obviously frightened themselves. White-knuckled grip on the controller, frequently looking at one another, desperately trying to bring the flight back under their control again.

When we finally landed, we found that it had been one hell of a thunderstorm in Fort Wayne, too, with downed power lines, tree limbs and trees, and flooded streets everywhere. The storm had dumped several inches of rain in just an hour or so and it overwhelmed the town, with power outages, stranded cars, and street closures.

Richard Guadagno, Flight 93. He was a federal law enforcement officer and no doubt fought back, despite his name’s omission from the movies and documentaries which focus on those who called loved ones. His law badge was found in its leather wallet in a tree. His family sent wildflower seeds to those who sent condolence cards.

Although I’ve flown a lot, the only scary incident was when our plane was almost on the Minneapolis runway, in nice weather, when all of a sudden, the plane goes into a steep climb at full throttle. It felt like a carnival ride with the G forces pushing me back into my seat. We circled for a while, then landed. I don’t remember the pilots explaining why they did that.

My mother's best friend and her daughter were both killed in the ValueJet 592 crash into the Everglades in 1996. They had taken a cruise to the Caribbean prior to the daughter's wedding and were on their way back home.

Note to self : do not travel in an airplane or anything that has the word “value” in it.

My Dad used to date a stewardess that died in the Tuskar Rock crash off the Wexford Coast in 1968. It was an Aer Lingus flight from Cork airport which appears to have lost it's tail. One prevalent theoir was thit it was accidentally shot down by the British Navy which was conducting exercises in the area that day, and whose boats appeared very quickly at the scene. Some parts of the aircraft were never located.

[quote]One of my good college friend's fiancee's (now husband) father was on Flight 93. He was a civil liberties lawyer in SF and all around great guy. He actually left a voicemail to his wife and kids when he knew they were going to bring down the plane and most likely die. I heard it. Cut to me bawling before my bio lab.

Way to make 9/11 all about you, R69 you self-involved twat.

Several.

It must have been terrifying that time you landed under sniper fire in Bosnia...Cillary at R79.

[quote]Note to self : do not travel in an airplane or anything that has the word “value” in it.

You’re not the only one who felt that way, as ValuJet changed its name to AirTran after the Everglades crash in 1996.

^amd. Ow they have to change it to "AirFluid".

[quote]our plane was almost on the Minneapolis runway, in nice weather, when all of a sudden, the plane goes into a steep climb at full throttle. It felt like a carnival ride with the G forces pushing me back into my seat. We circled for a while, then landed. I don’t remember the pilots explaining why they did that.

That maneuver is called a “go-around”, when the plane is on final approach...but the pilots decide to abort the landing and apply full throttle to climb out of the approach.

Sometimes it is due to an issue on the ground, like another plane blocking the runway. And Air Traffic Control tells the pilots to do a go-around.

It may not have had anything to do with the plane you were on, or been a weather issue.

Close. A college friend was on a flight to DFW and there was bad weather, they started circling, the pilot and crew came across as vague and unsettled, finally announced that a plane had crashed on approach. I wanna say they ended up at Dallas' other airport, Love Field, saw the wreckage from the air.

TWA and Pan Am seemed like they did nothing but crash and kill people.

You never hear Continental or Delta having this many issues these days. American gets a bad rep but that was mainly due to 9/11.

R85 since the days of TWA and Pan Am ,technology has increased flight safety dramatically(minus the MAX debacle). Delta had its share of mishaps as well as American in the past

Not exactly, but my mom had a good friend die from sky diving.

In 1991, at LAX, a US Air and a commuter plane were involved in a fiery crash, the worst disaster ever at LAX. I was on that exact flight from SFO on the US Air plane one week earlier. Same time of departure from SFO to LAX, same day (Fri). Horrible accident but I believe some passengers on the US Air did survive. All on the commuter plane perished.

[quote]How do people who survive cope?

Below is an example of a website that is maintained by the survivors of Eastern flight 401, which crashed into the Everglades while trying to land at Miami, way back in 1972.

75 people survived, and 101 died.

These survivors still regularly post on that message board and organize reunions. Apparently some of them get together regularly near the crash site on December 29th, the anniversary of the crash.

Flight attendant Beverly Raposa, who was 25 at the time of the crash, is still active and is a big advocate of making sure that the people who died in this crash are not forgotten. She still makes TV appearances and gives interviews about the crash after all these years.

The passengers and flight attendants on board had no idea this plane was about to crash. It was a “controlled flight into terrain”. The pilots lost track of their altitude over the dark Everglades at night while approaching Miami because they were distracted by a malfunctioning warning light in the cockpit.

I dated a bi guy summer after college and he took me out sailing, saying ominously,” I’ve started flying, but haven’t gotten the hang of it-sailing u make a mistake and it’s no big deal-flying one mistake and your history.” I go off to grad school 1200 miles away and a friend back home calls sometime that Fall semester telling me that guy along with his parents died in asmall plane crash and pilot error was “suspected.” Odd thing was, my friend and I knew he was really uncomfortable “the gay side” of his sexuality and hid it from his “very strict Christian” parents. We wondered if he could’ve had some Freudian unconscious death wish going on in that not only he took himself out-but his parents too.

My stepmother was a stewardess aboard a DC-10 that crashed in Boston, but she survived the crash.

R89, "The Ghost of Flight 401" is an excellent book. It tells of the reported paranormal occurences both crews and passengers swear happened on planes that received salvaged parts from the doomed Flight 401. I believe the ghost referred to in the title was the Flight Officer who was down in the lower level of the plane trying to check the malfunctioning light bulb that you refer to in your post. It's a really well written story and quite frightening because the events are all documented.

Thanks R92, I had not read that book...but I was aware of the stories about paranormal events on other L-1011s that were fitted with spare parts from the crashed plane. I will check it out.

Thread

[quote]A friend of mine's father was.

Oh, dear!

[quote]there were two brothers who lived with their Grandparents because there parents were killed

Oh, DEAR!

[quote]Who’s job is it to recover the bodies and identify them?

Oh, DEAR, DEAR!

[quote]One of my good college friend's fiancee's (now husband) father was on Flight 93

FFS, couldn’t you have just said your friend’s father-in-law?

And a fiancée will never become a husband.

Not to self: do NOT ever meet r28!

The Ghost of Flight 401 was turned into a tv movie starring Kim Basinger. Whole thing is on YT.

When I was a teenager and driving by our city's small airport, I looked up to see 2 small planes crash. There was a pilot mix-up about which runway to use. The larger plane was able to land. The Cessna, which had hit the side of the larger plane, starting spinning like a top and crashed to the ground. two fatalities in the Cessna - the student pilot and his instructor.

A college friend and his dad were killed when the Cargo door blew off the American Airlines DC9 (was it Chicago?). The night before I had a premonition about it and so did one of our other college friends.

A neighbor had his home burn down in the Far Rockaways due to the fire that started when American Airlines flight 587 crashed into homes. This is the first time that I've seen animation of what happened. As the co-pilot says, "Holy shit!" See link below.

Please stay the fuck away from me, R98! Jeez.

Mortis Goodman - The Miracle Man

[quote]There was a pilot mix-up about which runway to use.

How can anyone be so stupid and make a mistake like that?!

[quote]How can anyone be so stupid and make a mistake like that?!

These British Airways pilots just flew to the wrong country.

I knew a girl who was on Pan Am flight 103, but then she died.

Laughing at those British Airways pilots....

That’s an easy mistake to make r102.

When I was a kid we lived in a neighborhood that looked down on the local airport in Evansville, Indiana. A charter plane crashed in terrible weather in the field field behind the neighborhood in December 1977 killing the entire University of Evansville basketball team. Many of the neighbors saw and heard it go down and went out to the crash site to try and help, and I heard lots of stories from kids at school about what their parents had seen.

Anyway, growing up it always seemed like there were a couple of airliner crashes in the US each year. There were a rash of them in the late 90s going down off the east coast, then 9/11 and Far Rockaway and then, since that time, very few. I recall only two catastrophic ones in Lexington, KY in 2007 and near Buffalo in 2009. In the last decade the major crashes have all been overseas.

A friend of my aunt had a son who was killed on American Airlines Flight 11. She was in denial for quite awhile since his remains were never found. She finally realized that he was dead when she never heard from him again.

Don't forget American flight 587, shortly after 9/11

Only flights I've been on originated out of Providence, RI PVD and to Florida, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Princeton etc. Worst flight was the one out to Chicago - when aircraft hit turbulence that drops the aircraft 100 or so feet it's pretty bad.

USAir had a rough patch in the 90s where it seemed like they had a crash almost every year, two of them in 1994.

“US Scare”

r67, I knew some people killed in a helicopter crash, too. #sad

R109 - Hey neighbor!

R106 - one player wasn't on the plane when it crashed. Two weeks later the player was killed by a drunk driver.

Two of my high school classmates - one of whom's locker was across from mine - died in the Air India bombing. Until 9/11 that was considered the worst terrorist attack in history.

I dated someone who was scheduled to return from a semester abroad on Pan Am 103 that blew up over Lockerbie. He (and perhaps another member of the student group, can't recall) decided to stay an extra night in London for a concert and catch a later flight. Tremendous survivor's guilt.

Jesus, r112, is that true?

God didn’t like that team for some reason!

I went to school with a guy who died in one of the 9/11 planes. He was absolutely stunning and so smart— the full package.

Sadly his brother had also died in a car accident two years before.

They were the only two children their parents had

At a bathhouse, I was engaged in some pillow talk with a guy.

He said he had some renters he had been trying to get out of the apartment he owned for two years. They all died in the crash of the plane going from JFK to Dominican Republic soon after 9/11.

He wasn’t too broken up about it

R116 Always have a couple of spares in case, silly commoners

I work in the UN so, yes, I've known many who've died in air crashes. We're told air is the safest method of travel, but it certainly doesn't seem so in terms of international travel.

R101 It happens, even with big airlines. There are near misses in the news at least once a year.

Those aren’t near misses r120, those are near fucking crashes.

R121 My reply was in response as to how a pilot could make an error in approaching the wrong runway.

In 2006, on Sept 11th, I flew from Chicago to LAX. I didn't really think of the odds of flying on that particular day until I was on board the plane and we were delayed for take-off due to severe lightning and rain. I was not a frequent flyer at all, and the absurdity of being on a plane at ALL on that day had me ordering drinks ASAP! Btw the rest of the flight went smoothly.

R122, pay attention to signature lines. You’ll get much more jokes that way.

Yes, unfortunately not one but two. Late eighties , my personal trainer and his boyfriend who was a producer on a PBS Show This Old House flew on China Airlines it skidded off the runway and was decimated on impact , several hundred died , I cannot imagine the horror they went through, such sweet kind souls.

R124 I got it and it's still not funny.

It is a little pondered fact that everyone who gets on a plane eventually dies.

r33 Lol. I know exactly who you mean. I actually knew both him and his brother. They were both cunts.

A friend in college had a sister who was on that NYC to Paris flight that fell out of the sky after take off.

Horrible experience flying to the Carribbean...there was a hail storm in the middle of the flight and the afternoon sky was as dark as midnight. Hail got in the engine and the plane dropped. The flight attendant said the plane fell 3500 feet in the space of like a minute or so. People were throwing up, praying out loud. It was just horrible and we all thought it was the end. Somehow the plane was able to recover from the incident and we were able to finish the flight without incident. I haven't liked flying much since that flight, though.

R125 Several hundred people died? How big was the plane love?

R131 It was a 747-200B with 206 fatalities - big enough for you, love?

Nothing like a clueless fucking American who doesn’t possess a passport throwing shade on people who have travelled.

This is an interesting thread to me. I have been both fascinated and terrified by airline crashes, read any/all accounts of air accidents and regularly watch "Why Planes Crash" on The Weather Channel. I have three posts in this thread (R88, R92, & R123). I realized I actually did know someone who died in a crash, although I knew him only briefly.

In 1993 I worked at a very prestigious Lexus dealership in Orange Co., CA. The CEO of In-N-Out Burger, Rich Snyder had purchased a gorgeous $60,000 SC 400 from us that year. Lexus was really the "IT" car in the early 90's! On Dec 13th Rich brought in his Lexus for it's 1500 mi service check. He was a big man, (all those burgers!) but a nice and jovial personality. He really loved his Lexus!

He remarked to me he was going on a business trip scouting new locations for In-N-Out. On Dec 15th apparently on his return from that trip, Rich, the CFO of In-N-Out, another Co executive, as well as the pilot were killed as they were attempting to land their private jet at John Wayne Airport, crashing into a car dealership lot at Santa Ana Auto Center. There were thankfully no others harmed on the ground as it was a very populated area the plane crashed into.

Knowing I had just seen him earlier that week and he had spoke of his upcoming trip made watching the live coverage of the accident all the more tragic.

Someone who went to my high school died in the TWA 800 crash in '96. He was two grades above me. Really handsome guy and was only about 19 at the time. There's a small tribute to him in my senior yearbook.

The KLM pilot in the 1977 Tenerife disaster was featured in a KLM magazine ad.

One of my mother's cousins, who also was a bridesmaid in my parents' wedding in 1954, died in the 1996 TWA Flight 800 NYC to Paris crash. The one where they say the plane was taken out by a missile.

[88]: David H. Koch was on that US Air flight at LAX and survived! Elderly couple sitting opposite him in First Class did not survived. Crash occurred on the ground.

It's amazing that 61 people survived the Tenerife disaster.

I had an extremely bad landing in Halifax once. All later flights to Halifax were cancelled because of the wind, and we were three hours late leaving Toronto. I have no idea why they let us go. When we were coming down in Halifax, the plane was rocking back and forth so hard people were puking and crying. At some point, maybe a few hundred feet from landing, they aborted and went back to Toronto.

They gave everybody free liquor for the rest of the flight. It was surreal. I just remember staring at the floor and thinking ”is this really happening?"

R116, that is really heartbreaking. The poor parents.

R134, I don't normally believe in conspiracy theories, but in the case of the TWA flight, I do. I believe that it was accidentally shot out of the sky by the US military and covered up.

Not plane related per se, but I remember a guy who escaped 9/11 and moved to Europe only to die in a train bombing. Recently another 9/11 survivor was killed in Kenyan hotel terror attack.

Anyway, I remember this little girl was the lone survivor of a plane crash in Detroit. Her mom, dad and brother were all killed. There are others interviewed that were lone survivors. That's got to be a mind fuck.

A friend of mine was friends with one of the opera singers who died on the Germanwings plane that was deliberately brought down by the co-pilot. Absolutely terrifying

I had a colleague I knew only via email who worked for ABN AMRO who apparently just happened to be in the WTC on 9/11.

My mother was staying with her great uncle's family near Unionville MO in 1962 when Continental Flight 11 was blown up, and a couple of bodies landed on their farm.

Not commercial, but a doctor I worked for was flying his small-engine plane and crashed just after takeoff. He was traveling with a guy I'd met once at university, who was also killed. His widow was an absolute monster to the doctor's family and took out her anger on them, though the courts kept stopping her. Must have cost the doctor's family tons of money to defend themselves, though.

I made the mistake of listening to some of the cockpit vouce recordings of crashes. The alaska air crash off santa barbara creeped me the f out. The plane was literally flying upside down as pilots were struggling to control...then nothing. I will post the link to the site, but listen to them at your own peril.

Everyone in my neighborhood heard the Valuejet crash in the Everglades in 96. Some people in my class said they were outside and saw it.

The Paris flight that my friend's kid sister died in was the TWA 800. She had a memorial out on the back windshield of her car.

96 was a bad year in aviation.

R144 is trying to give everyone nightmares.

I won't listen.

Many people!

R138, to me it’s even more unbelievable that anybody survived in Sioux City IA in 1989.

I was in the Dallas airport changing planes when the crash occurred there. Crazy.

The pilots in the sioux city were the first Sulleys.. A different crew and the result would have been so much worse. There happened to be an experienced pilot and DC flight simulator trainer on board who came in to assist the pilots. When the crew reached out to United by radio they were basically told they were SOL. It was considered a total failure scenario. They literally had to figure a solution themselves while trying to keep the plane from driving into the ground or going inverted.

My former bosses brother was piloting the flight that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11

R89 thank you for bringing some salvation to this thread

[quote]to me it’s even more unbelievable that anybody survived in Sioux City IA in 1989.

As R151 pointed out, it’s amazing that plane got anywhere near an airport to attempt a landing.

The pilots were able to fly the crippled plane for about 45 minutes after losing all hydraulic power. They had almost no way to control it and had to make it up as they went.

⌃⌃ [quote]Some of United Airlines' best pilots and a pilot for the aircraft maker, McDonnell Douglas, tried dozens of simulated landings under the same conditions and could not bring the aircraft down safely, said Phillip Battaglia, a test pilot for DC-10 manufacturer McDonnell Douglas.

Ghosts of Flight 401 is total bullshit, and has been debunked many times. The author should have been sued into oblivion for exploiting a disaster.

Yes, a cousin of mine. We went to high school together, but never talked to each other. Bad blood on my mom's side of the family, she's Italian. From what I was told, her family was awarded about $1.5 million.

Which was it, r157?

The 1991 crash of United Flight 585 from Denver to Colorado Springs, a routine flight of less than half an hour, was almost identical to that of USAir Flight 427 in that both planes had almost made it to the airport when the rudder malfunctioned and the planes dove almost straight down, carving out a crater on impact.

A rumor started circulating that the male pilot and the female co-pilot had been having an affair and they had an in-flight lovers' quarrel, culminating in him killing her with an ax and then crashing the plane on purpose. This was before USAir 427 revealed the problem with the 737's rudder servo valve.

I don’t personally know anyone who’s died in a plane crash but if it’s any consolation you’re a few magnitudes in order more likely to die from a medical error in the hospital than you are to ever die in a plane crash. Cheers!

R151 and r154, he was also very calm.

I remember hearing the ATC tapes and this always struck me as amazing:

ATC: You’re cleared to land on any runway.

Pilot: (Laughter) You want to be particular and make it a runway, huh.

R158, when my grandparents on my mom's side of the family immigrated to the US, my grandfather's parents owned a substantial amount of property in Italy. Long story short, one of his brothers went behind the other siblings backs and sold it for millions.

R162 oh. No, i meant to ask which crash?

My high school Spanish teacher did. She was the school's "slutty" teacher. Lots of rumors about her. By the time I was a sophomore she pretty much gave up teaching us anything and I got an A - which was great, I was a lousy student.

After I graduated, she met a guy and had his baby. They moved to the Outer Banks, taking along her daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was doing a school project and got super glue in her eye. The guy decided he would fly them to a hospital in his private plane. Thank God they left the baby with a sitter, because the plane crashed and all 3 died.

One of my classmates, who was a relative, ended up raising that baby.

People dont realize the enormous number of small plane crashes every year.

[quote]My former bosses brother was piloting the flight that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11

A co-worker's friend was the first officer on this flight. There were so few degrees of separation on 9/11

I once had to see an orthopedist in Baltimore named Dick Otenasek. Not long afterwards one of his children, a daughter was killed in that plane crash in Lockerbie, Scotland.

My late uncle's girlfriend, who is also now deceased, lost her husband in an airplane crash. No one in my family liked this woman as she was a complete bitch, but I remember my father telling me she had a lot of money because she sued the airline and they settled for a lot of money, which she invested wisely. I've never been able to track down which crash that was, but I assume it must have been a larger airline since she got a lot of money. It would have been in the 1960s.

This thread is scaring the hell out of me! I'm a nervous flyer who can't stand turbulence. It didn't used to bother me much, but in the 1990s, I was on a flight headed from the Midwest to the East Coast when we hit some really bad turbulence. Before the turbulence started, the pilot came over the loudspeaker, and in an urgent voice said, "Flight attendants, take the first available seat immediately." All of us in my row looked at each other, then next thing we knew we were being slammed all over the air. It was really bad turbulence. It was so bad that some of the overhead compartments opened, emptying their contents and things were flying all over the plane. Then people started screaming. I remember thinking This is it. I'm going to die in a plane crash. It seemed like it lasted an eternity, but I bet it was maybe a minute at the most. Then just as quickly as it started, it ended. The plane suddenly smoothed out. Everyone was still shaken, but then the pilot came over the loudspeaker and said, "Well folks, sorry we hit a little bit of turbulence there." The whole plane started laughing at his understatement and it cut the tension. The rest of the flight was fine, but any small bump and I was instantly paranoid. I hate flying now because of that experience.

That Alaska Airlines Flight 261 is horrifying. The plane was completely inverted during the last 81 seconds before it hit the ocean.

I hate turbulence too, R168. Even the in-flight videos on YouTube make me feel queasy.

I competed (in athletics) a couple of times against the sister of Jeremy Glick, one of the passengers of flight 93 who lead the hijacking foil.

As a college student, my partner was on a flight in Asia that had to turn around when it developed an enormous crack in the windshield. Thankfully, it returned to the airport without incident. They didn't tell the passengers why the plane turned around until after landing and chartered a new flight for them the following day. My partner says it was all over the local news.

THAT’S WHAT KILLED ME!!

My aunt's mother-in-law & father-in-law (who were like another set of grandparents to me) died in the Tenerife KLM/Pan-Am crash. They were on the Pan-Am flight. Based on where they were seated, it was thought that they were likely killed instantly. Their remains were never found.

R58, TWA Flight 800 didn’t blow up over the Hamptons. It exploded offshore as it turned out to sea near East Moriches.

I heard it explode. I heard three explosions and the final one made my house shake from the bottom to the top (not from the top to the bottom). I contacted the FBI and the FAA that night via email and wrote about what I’d heard and I never received even an acknowledgement of my emails.

My husband has always told the story of how he was friends with a boy whose father died. His mother got remarried a few years later and she and her new husband were on their honeymoon when the plane got diverted to Tenerife and both died in the crash, making his friend from high school an orphan. But they lived in NY. I just looked at the passenger list of the Pan Am flight and only 2 people from NY were on the plane and they were both men.

Hmmmmmm

R125 / R132, are you referring to China Airlines flight 611, from May 2002?

Because it didn't crash after skidding off the runway, it broke up in midair and in mid-flight.

Yes I know a few people (none close) who have died in plane crashes.

Teneriffe has had more than one commercial plane crash.

I was molested.

R25 / R132 is telling porky pies. There were no China Airlines 747 crashes in the late eighties.

Why would she lie tho?

Yeah, I knew a few...

[quote] Teneriffe has had more than one commercial plane crash.

He said it was the one where two airliners filled with passengers and crew crashed into each other on the runway. I don’t think there was more than one of those at Tenerife.

yes, a guy I went to school with, his dad died in a plane crash. I don't remember the flight number but it took off and exploded after a few seconds, and crashed at the airport, killing a few people on the ground. His family sued and got a lot of money, I think it was United. During the trial, it was revealed that the airline was faking maintenance reports.

Yes , a lesbian couple owned the home next door from my parents , on a visit while walking the dog she (Not both)was mowing her lawn , I chatted briefly with her , the next day she was on that flight on 9/11 , horrible.

No, what’s horrible is your grammar and syntax. Jesus!

I had completely forgotten about this one. I had a work associate back in the 70's whose sister was one of 63 killed when a Southern Airways jet crashed on a country road in New Hope, Ga. in 1977. The crash also killed 9 on the ground. 20 passengers survived. The part of the airplane containing most of the dead ended up in a ladie's front yard.

"lady's front yard", that is.

[quote] Have you ever known anyone killed in a commercial airliner accident?

Not yet, but hope springs eternal.

R125, NO China Airlines plane crash matches your description, at all. Are you sure it was China Airlines??

Let me tell you, those pilots of Alaska Airlines 261 were true heroes.

From everything I have heard and read, these brave men were composed and calm under intensely disturbing conditions.

The passengers and those pilots went through a living hell as that plane dropped out of the sky 2 or 3 times. That Marie Shiavo gave an interview once about it, and she was always professional and stoic, but got choked up when she talked about this flight and what those passengers must have gone through. This was not 30 seconds, but a long period of terror.

But to me, the most horrifying on crash on every level, was that 1987 PSA Crash where a disgruntled employee shot a co worker, the pilots, and a stewardess. The plane crash at an insane speed.

These people truly witnessed and lived through a horror.

I knew four people who died in 9/11.

Once had to land braced for impact in San Juan. We had time to prepare so the flight attendants put strictly English speaking, young, able-bodied males next to all the emergency exits. I was college age, so was one of the selected. I’ll always remember all the training and instructions that were drilled on us for various different emergency scenarios. Thankfully the pilot was able to control the landing gear and its blown-on-take-off tires so we were fine.

And finally, I was in a Continental night flight that without any warning hit a jet stream so violently, that a flight attendant landed on my lap and the ice pail from the drink cart landed on her. That was much scarier than the previously described emergency landing twenty years earlier!

Holy fuck, that PSA crash was worse than even I recalled!!

This crazy fuck killed his coworker.

Then proceeds up to the cockpit. The CVR records the flight attendant telling the captains that they have a problem- The captain asks What is the problem?

Crazy fuck says "I'm the problem" and kills the stewardess. He then KILLS the captain and co pilot.

It turns out there was a pilot in the cabin who was deadheading or whatever they call it, he runs up to try to save the plane, and this motherfucker shoots him dead!!!

This plane crashed going over 700 miles per hour- past the speed of sound!!! I do not recall another crash that was over 500 miles per hour.

Simply insane. And god bless those folks.

No. Maybe because they were killed in a plane crash before we had a chance to meet?

R149, did I hear right in the Alaska Airline's recording? Someone says the plane is out of control and the air tower person says very good. Weird. I guess it was about him keeping an eye out, but such odd response.

The Egyptian airlines crash was another crazy one. One of the pilots intentionally crashed the plane.

THE STEWARDESS IS FLYING THE PLANE!!!!!

What bothers me to no end is the Alaska plane crash was caused by some maintenance worker who didn't do his job greasing the mechanism that controls how the plane moved vertically. Because of that stupid fuck, so many people died.

Like, didn't it even cross his mind? How does someone like that live with themselves?

We should be so lucky, R194. How many of these air disasters were man-made by vengeful males who did not get what they wanted out of life? So far it sounds like five: 1) Cloverfield, Iowa where passenger with armed robbery record sneaked dynamite on board & killed everyone to get death benefits for spouse and child; 2) Vengeful PSA incident; 3) German Wings flight when the pilot was about to be disqualified from flying due to losing eyesight; 4) Egypt Air crash, when pilot was once again looked over for advancement. Then all the over-privileged, under-fucked Saudi men who killed scores on 9/11.

We all hear about suicidal people driving off the road, in front of a train, into a tree, etc. sometimes taking innocents with them. This is a form of mass murder that must freak out aviation authorities because there's not much that can be done about failed, yet heavily testosteronal males who freak the fuck out in flight with hundreds in their hands.

This was a crazy one that I barely remember (wasn't a huge news story in the US):

In 2002 a DHL cargo plane collided midair with a Russian passenger jet in Germany due to bad instructions from an overworked ATC whose shift partner was taking a nap. A man who lost his wife and kids in the crash later traveled from Russia to Switzerland, where the ATC lived, found his house, knocked on the door, and stabbed him to death in front of his family. The murderer was hailed in his backwoods corner of Russian as a hero, ended up serving only a couple of years in prison in Switzerland, and was rewarded for his crime with a political post after he was released.

A couple of years ago it was made into a cheesy Arnold Schwarzenegger movie called [italic]Aftermath,[/italic] which I'd never heard of until now.

^^^ "cheesy Arnold Schwarzenegger movie" is redundant.

R197 thanks

Better link

Better Wikipedia link for R197

That Uberlingen mid-air collision was a pretty horrific - the Russian plane, mostly consisting of children heading to a vacation in Barcelona, was cut in two by the cargo plane. The [italic]Mayday[/italic] recreation showed people being thrown into the air as it dived to the ground; the final report noted that 40 of the 69 victims were ejected from the plane.

The photo in the OP is of the doomed Pacific Southwest Airlines flight that crashed into San Diego, California on September 25, 1978.

I was on a flight once where a very sharp smell of smoke filled the cabin, at the same time that we were experiencing turbulence. The flight attendants were visibly concerned, walking through the aisles despite the turbulence and opening and closing overhead bins. They looked truly panic stricken. Fortunately, after a few minutes it just passed as quickly as it came and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Scary for a few minutes though.

May 25, 1979 Chicago Illinois American Airlines Flight 191

Earlier in 1979 we flew from Toronto to Chicago on American Airlines new DC-10, because my father was obsessed with flight and had read that you could view the plane taking off and landing thanks to a closed-circuit television camera installed.

I always wondered if those on doomed A/A Flight 191 watched their plane hit the ground - found this on Wikipedia: "As the cockpit had been equipped with a closed-circuit television camera positioned behind the captain's shoulder and connected to view screens in the passenger cabin, it is possible that the passengers were able to witness these events from the viewpoint of the cockpit as the aircraft dove towards the ground. Whether the camera's view was interrupted by the power loss from the number one electrical bus is not known."

This woman had been in the news a few years before TWA 800 crashed for fending off a sex offender.

One thing that stuck with me about TWA was reading about one passenger who was terrified of flying. Through treatment or something she got on the plane. I can't even imagine what was going through her mind if by some chance she didn't die instantly.

Which was better?

Pan Am coffee or TWA tea?

Flights numbered “191” have a history of bad luck, including:

American flight 191, which crashed after takeoff in Chicago in 1979.

Delta flight 191, which crashed on landing in Dallas in 1985.

JetBlue flight 191, in which the captain had a mental breakdown, and had to be locked out of the cockpit and restrained by passengers, while the first officer landed the plane in 2012.

About JetBlue 191, from Wikipedia--

"Captain Clayton Osbon was locked out of the cockpit by First Officer Jason Dowd and was subdued by passengers after he started acting erratically and ranting about terrorists and 9/11 and apparently suffered from an unspecified mental breakdown. The aircraft was then diverted to Amarillo. Osbon received medical treatment by Northwest Texas Healthcare System.[3]

Dowd grew concerned when Osbon made comments such as "We need to take a leap of faith", "We're not going to Vegas", and "I can't be held responsible when this plane crashes." Osbon began giving what the first officer described as a sermon. Dowd tricked Osbon into going to the passenger compartment, then locked the cockpit door and changed the security code. Osbon railed at passengers about Jesus, Al-Qaeda, countries in the Middle East, and a possible bomb on board. Alarmed passengers tackled him and tied him up with seat belt extenders. An off-duty JetBlue pilot who was travelling as a passenger joined Dowd in the cockpit and the plane landed about 20 minutes later.[4] Osbon was arrested and charged with "interference with a flight crew."[5][6][7]

The 49-year-old[8] Osbon was suspended from work after being with JetBlue for 12 years.[3] He had attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated in 1987 from Nathaniel Hawthorne College,[8] an aeronautics and aviation college located in New Hampshire[9][10][11]"

That is so weird about all the awful 191 flights. 🤔

That is a bizarre story, R209. I thought pilots were carefully evaluated so that people at risk of psychotic breaks couldn't fly commercial aircraft. Glad it all ended safely, anyway.

R211, the punchline is that that pilot later tried to sue the airline.

Because--why not?

[quote]Fortunately, after a few minutes it just passed as quickly as it came and the rest of the flight was uneventful. [bold]Scary for a few minutes though.[/bold]

A few minutes?! I would’ve been not breathing with fear the whole flight. Just your retelling of it got me a little panicked. Jesus that must’ve been some scary shit!

I do a podcast about this kind of stuff, and was wondering what to do for my next episode. This is giving me some good ideas.

Glad to help. OP here. These stories always grab me. Warped I know

R209 I'm just relieved that people aboard had the presence of mind to help. Within the last few years, all anyone seems to do during a chaotic event is wave their camera phone around idiotically. Glad these people were different.

This accident always seemed shocking to me. Aloha 243 had part of the fuselage break away during mid flight at 24000 feet, due to metal fatigue.

It was able to continue to fly and land safely.

Only one person died, a flight attendant who was sucked out mid-air when it first occurred.

Airline pilots should be subjected to far more mental health reviews than they are currently in my opinion.

Would have a walloping case of PTSD after that r217.

Indeed R218 - If there were, Germanwings 4U9525 might not have happened. But then again, if it hadn't, the new regulations about "solo in the cockpit" might not have come about.

The problem with strict regulations about mental health, however, is that it prevents people from seeking help when they’re having problems.

Issues like depression, or trouble dealing with stress. People just aren’t going to seek help for that if they think they’ll be flagged for “mental health concerns” and put their job at risk.

There has to be a balance between patient privacy, and employer-mandated screening.

It all should depend on the mental health condition. A pilot with well controlled anxiety or mild or moderate depression can fly just fine. Someone with a history of psychosis and suicide attempts operating a plane is a higher risk to the public.

Great point r221.

I’ve seen every episode of Air Crash Investigation, Mayday and the Nat Geo Plane Crash recaps. Some of them even overlap. And sometimes they use stock footage of screaming lips, explosions and balls of Fire. I loved all the low rent re-enactments, and especially the interviews with survivors.

Almost always the actors are more attractive than the real people, except in the case of the Azores emergency landing done by a pilot who had been previously suspended for drug smuggling but then reinstated. That guy was gorgeous and they hired an older geeky looking guy to play him on the show.

But lately I haven’t been able to find any new episodes. Just those brief flight simulation episodes with the subtitles and the video game-like graphics

Did they stop producing the big shows?

I want to know that, too, Cunt.

Anybody with inside info on this.

[quote]Almost always the actors are more attractive than the real people,

This is shocking.

[quote] If there were, Germanwings 4U9525 might not have happened. But then again, if it hadn't, the new regulations about "solo in the cockpit" might not have come about.

[quote] The problem with strict regulations about mental health, however, is that it prevents people from seeking help when they’re having problems.

I read a column by a pilot back when the Germanwings happened in which he thought that the only way to deal with this conundrum was to go back to having three pilots* in every plane instead of two. (It used to be three before the planes became more automated.) So that if one of them went mental, the other two would be the back up. You remember in the German wings thing the mental one locked the second pilot out.

*Or staffmembers. I think it was two pilots and one navigator.

So after the Germanair crash, two pilots had to be in the cockpit at all times, but in that JetBlue story the co-pilot was able to trick the crazy one out of the cockpit. If the JetBlue pilot wasn't able to do that then they would have gone down. Seems like a no win situation.

"Air France Cunt who complained of bad service post-crash and wanted her laptop"

Haha! That woman is legendary among the [italic]Mayday[/italic] fandom. The producers had to have been subtly trolling us by deciding to air her interview, and those comments in particular.

[quote]"Air France Cunt who complained of bad service post-crash and wanted her laptop"

She does have a point. Air France has EXTENSIVE experience with their planes crashing. They should be leaders in post-crash customer service at this point.

They are on season 19 of Mayday/Air Crash Investigation. Only thing is, they're hard to find as they're aired only in Canada, and I haven't been able to find anyone that will load them to Usenet or Torrent them without significant delay.

Her name is Joann Cordary Bundock and she whores herself out as a motivational speaker and all around crash victim to anyone who will pay to listen.

I know the blonde cunt of whom you speak.

Russian billionairess goes down mysteriously in Germany.

[quote]Russian billionairess goes down mysteriously in Germany.

On who?

I just googled Joann Cordary and she apparently lives in Bethesda .She is likely a typical Bethesda, MD cunt. There are plenty like her scurrying around the area. Type A petty little snots. They are miserable sociopathic bores, as are their khaki wearing husbands. During the weekend, they are usually accompanied by their spoiled twat droppings. Too bad the stinking cunt didn't perish in the plane crash. Rich people in Bethesda make wealthy Manhattanites look like kind, humble salt of the earth.

[203]: Opera star Marilyn Horne's brother was on the PSA flight that crashed.

R237 You put a capital R in front of the number you are referencing. You don't put any brackets around it as it is automatically done.

R238 - the r doesn’t even have to be capitalized.

My father was a second officer (co-pilot) on the DC-10 in 1979 and happened to be at O'Hare when AA 191 went down. What I remember most about that is that the government grounded all DC-10s as a result of the crash and so my dad was furloughed until they were ok'd to go back into service. It was odd having him around all the time for so many weeks, and we spent a lot of time flying up to the UP of MI in his Cessna 185.

Because my dad (and now my brother) were/are pilots, I've been flying since I was in the womb, literally; yet, I still get nervous at take-off. The scariest incident was aboard at commuter prop aircraft flying into Memphis -- as we were making our descent, we flew cross-wise into the trail of a 737, which I could see out the window, and our little plane briefly jumped up and down with the turbulence.

R193, 'very good' is just a turn of phrase which acknowledges the communication, it doesn't convey the controller's feelings.

It had to have been horrific to listen to everything as it happened, from the fear in the pilot's voice as he first reported the situation to the pilots of nearby planes describing the inverted descent, and have to carry on working.

Never fly a prop plane. Just don't do it.

An amazingly researched and detailed account of the PSA crash.

Carole Lombard

[quote]Because my dad (and now my brother)

Wait, how did your dad become your brother?

One of the fuckin' funniest moments in AIRPLANE is when the stewardess announces that it is now time to "assume the crash position."

All the passengers unbuckle their belts and lay all over themselves and drape their bodies over the seats like they have just crashed.

Shit cracks me up everytime.

Oh, I also like when they are all watching an in-flight movie of a plane crashing into a fiery inferno.

He's my dad AND my brother!

Fotunately we were late getting to the airfield and missed our flight.

Air Disasters

Mayday:

I can't read the whole thread but before I weigh in with a joke has a Caroline Kennedy troll showed up yet?

1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash

This crash was a bomber breaking up in mid-air over North Carolina, raining nuclear bombs on the coton fields below...

My mom grew up on mainline Phila. Some Mayor or big businessman was in a helicopter crash in the 70s I. Ink and the chopper slammed down on the playground of their school. No kids were outside when it happened. Can't remember the guy's name. Was kinda big news back then.

That was Senator John Heinz (of the ketchup family).

Poor cousin John Kerry swooped in and married his widow.

Sort of....about 20 years ago the father of my partner at the time was visiting us in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We were having brunch at a diner on 7th avenue that had photos on the wall of the crash that had taken place about half a mile further down 7th avenue in 1960. My partner's dad was looking at the photos and said, "I was supposed to be on that plane." My partner was like, "WHAT?!"

His dad was an engineer. He and a colleague were working on a project in Chicago, both were supposed to return home on the plane. The dad stayed behind in Chicago to attend to some problems with the project. The colleague was killed with everyone else on the plane. The Twilight Zone moment came when the dad told told my partner that he was conceived soon after the crash. An added sort of oddness to it all was that my partner's family were English. He and his family lived in the US only for about 8 years. He lived most of his life in London and had just recently moved to Park Slope to live with me.

Planes were crashing around NYC all the time at that point, r255.

“My partner was like, WHAT?””.

What does this mean, R255?

I think there were three major plane crashes in the NYC area in 1959-1962. There was even a novel about it.

American Airlines Flight 320 crashed on approach into the East River. Of 73 people aboard, 65 were killed.[5]

Trans World Airlines Flight 266, a Lockheed Super Constellation bound for La Guardia, collided with a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 over Staten Island, killing all 128 people on board both airliners and 6 more on the ground.[6]

Aeronaves de Mexico Flight 401, a Douglas DC-8-21 with 97 passengers and 9 crew on board bound for Mexico City, crashed and burned after aborting takeoff from Runway 07R in marginally bad weather, there was snow on the runway, 4 crewmembers were killed.[4]

American Airlines Flight 1,[5] a Boeing 707 crashed on takeoff from Idlewild after its rudder jammed. All 87 passengers and 8 crew members were killed.

Three *other* crashes...

Actually, now that I think about it, the novel was about crashes from Newark Airport into Elizabeth, NJ, in 51-52:

On December 16, 1951, a Miami Airlines C-46 Commando (converted for passenger use) lost a cylinder on takeoff from Runway 28 and crashed in Elizabeth, killing 56.

On January 22, 1952, American Airlines Flight 6780, a Convair 240, crashed in Elizabeth on approach to Runway 6, killing 30.

On February 11, 1952, National Airlines Flight 101, a Douglas DC-6, crashed in Elizabeth after takeoff from runway 24, killing 33

But there were still many crashes in NYC in the late 50s/early 60s.

[quote]These stories always grab me. Warped I know

Actually, ever since I started watching those crash shows, I’ve felt more secure about flying in general, empowered by knowledge and information.

All of this underscores how much safer air travel has become over the decades despite some recent high profile incidents.

[quote]A few minutes?! I would’ve been not breathing with fear the whole flight.

[quote]This was not 30 seconds, but a long period of terror.

Japan Air Lines Flught 123 in 1985, carrying over 300 people, went into uncontrollable tolls and roller coaster up and downs for THIRTY MINUTES before crashing into some mountain. Dozens survived but by the time help got to the mountain only four people were alive.

Imagine surviving the anxiety and the crash, and then lying tangled in wreckage for hours ... and then slowly dying.

Also, the Aloha ripped fuselage and United Airlines ripped cargo door and fuselage rides both lasted over twenty minutes before they could land.

Sorry, JAL 123 had 525 people on board. Still the largest single plane crash ever.

wasnt there a crash resulting in people having to be rescued from icy water or was that a movie?

JAL 123 took so long to crash, people had time to write farewell letters.

You’re thinking of the plane that crashed into the Potomac I think, r265. I think it was January, 1982. And there was a TV movie made about it.

Here’s a picture from Air Florida Flt 90, the plane in the Potomac.

That was Air Florida flight 90 taking off from DC’s National Airport with frozen wings, r267. It hit rush hour traffic and then crashed into the frozen Potomac. Only the tail end people survived after a harrowing rescue that included a Good Samaritan jumping in the river (he was hot too, pornstache and all) and a martyr who kept handing the dateline to others floating in the river and eventually died, tangled in debris.

Safe line.

5 smokers and the back stewardess survived. A lady who lost her baby and was rescued in a state of shock became a mess throughout her entire life. She died recently, as did the older passengers. The stewardess became a religious motivational speaker.

R6, my uncle was the pilot of United 232. He was haunted that he couldn't land it safely, but he did save many.

R271, I’m a fan of your uncle’s. Didn’t he pass away recently? If he’s alive, tell him there are many who admire his skills, levelheadedness, good humor and heroism.

Amateurs.

Thanks, R272. He died in 2012, and was a very good man indeed.

R374, were you close to him? Are you a gay man? Did he know you were gay?

Captain Alfred Haynes, r271’s uncle, a few day’s after the dramatic ordeal in the Summer of ‘89.

R266 What's unbelievable about the Japanese crash is 4 people actually survived.

I know the pilot of MH370

Captain Al Haynes is still alive.

R271s uncle must have been Dennis Fitch, the off-duty DC-10 instructor who volunteered to help the pilots in the cockpit.

He died in 2012 of cancer.

I flew through the tornado thunderhead. We had to do a grand detour but the turbulence wasn’t that bad. The tornado touched down near the airport so we sat on the runway forever, and even though it was day, it was pitch black. What WAS astonishing was the thinderhead: I’ve flown through dozens of storms in my time but have never seen such spectacular clouds in the thunderhead — they looked shredded, as if they were being torn apart. As I said, we did a grand detour of this but it was utterly mesmerising to witness, and the scale was jawdropping.

R280, cool. I always love watching vids from the guys who fly into (actually, above) hurricanes.

Those things are awesome, R281. They look so serene from above it's hard to reconcile that with the destruction they cause.

R236

Most of the people that live in Bethesda are from New York or their parents are.

My ghoulish interest in air disasters always sees me returning to a few old favourites, which I pick over like a vulture for any new nuggets of information.

For me, these are: Swissair 111, JAL 123, Lockerbie, Alaska 261, both Malaysian flights, and Korean 007.

R203 Your post reminded me of a connection to this crash. A friend was raped by a man who was a client of her company. She didn't tell anyone at work. After some time had passed, he started calling her at work and harassing her. He'd say things like, "I know you're there alone." Her sister wanted her to buy a gun to protect herself. The rapist died on board the PSA flight that crashed.

A friend of mine grew up on ranch in a rural area overseas. He said everyone had to learn to fly in order to get around. His Cessna crashed when he was 16. He walked away from the crash without any injuries.

R284, Moi aussi. But I include Tenerife, TWA 800, and Pan Am 103.

A fascinating book on KAL (now KA) 007 is "Incident at Sakhalin," by Michel Brun.

Remember: Initial reports (by CBS' Dan Rather, e.g.) were that the plane had landed safely on Sakhalin.

And because you might find it interesting, r284:

"The Downing of TWA Flight 800: The Shocking Truth," by James Sanders.

Not a crash but a hijacking. Rennert that flight from Rome to Athens that was taken over by Middle Ewstern hijaxkers and they starred shooting passengers one by one and opening the plane door md throwing the bodies on the tarmac and it was on tv? One US marine died but one lady was shot in the head, thrown out the door to the tarmac (what's that like 30 or 40 feet?) and she survived !!!! She was on oprah later and described laying on the tarmac awake but shot and no one could come get her body for hours.

^ sorry typos.

How can you avid crash porn watchers list all those flights and still miss the fascinating Helios ghost plane, where everyone fell asleep and the plane just kept flying until it ran out of fuel, eventually crashing in some mountain.

There was a flight attendant - in better physical condition than most everyone else and with access to portable oxygen masks - who attempted to go into the cockpit and communicate with air traffic control personnel - to no avail.

Pilots in surrounding Air Force jets helplessly watched everything unfold.

I can’t find the crash, it was near a beach in the 90s, boats went out to help them? Two survivors spoke about how they survived the impact but then had to make their way past those who had inflated their life jackets too soon and were stuck in the cabin. Then they had to reach the surface while trying not to take in sea water containing oil and acid from the plane. I believe one of them had lung damage from that alone.

^fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. Gnarly

That was the hijacked Ethiopian Airlines flight in 1996 R291

[quote]then had to make their way past those who had inflated their life jackets too soon

I never understood why the safety instructions said to not inflate your life vest. Then I saw that episode years ago and they made it quite clear why.

I once made the mistake of watching one of these the night before a flight. Never again.

That’s the one R293 thanks. I believe it was the two UK survivors I saw interviewed, not sure if they’d written a book. It was a real eye opener.

R290, I never knew someone was awake in that flight. Poor man. I wonder if he just took off the oxygen when he realized he couldn’t save it.

R257, he was surprised/shocked. He had never heard the story. It is kind of weird to be looking at photographs of a plane crash and hear your father say he was supposed to be on the plane and would be dead if he had been.

I did a simple Google search for the Helios crash once and got horrific crash site photos, so be cautious if looking for information.

Though we take it for granted, flight is probably the greatest achievement of humankind, and it was achieve amazingly quickly.

[quote]I once made the mistake of watching one of these the night before a flight. Never again.

They have the opposite effect on me. The more informed I am, the calmer I become about flying.

[quote]Though we take it for granted, flight is probably the greatest achievement of humankind, and it was achieve amazingly quickly.

Artificial intelligence probably tops flight as our greatest achievement. Building machines that behave like birds and insects is less impressive than building machines that think like people.

[quote]They have the opposite effect on me. The more informed I am, the calmer I become about flying.

I [italic]thought[/italic] I would be like that. After all, what are the chances, etc., but every strange noise I heard had me jumping.

I also remember seeing one of those crash-type shows where, to the passengers, everything was normal on touchdown. The CVR heard the passengers’ applause and everything. Little did they know there was a problem in the cockpit that the pilots had been working on and couldn’t get corrected, so the plane wasn’t stopping. It crashed.

So here you are in what is considered a routine flight with no indication of any problems. You touch down and “yay!” except it ain’t over. That one unnerved me.

How about when your plane is calmly taxiing, not a care in the world and then BOOM you’re hit by a departing plane.

Or when you’re in a van with seven people getting some gas at a gas station and BOOM you get hit by a distressed airplane wing.

Or when you’re standing in rush hour traffic on a bridge over the Potomac and SLAM! you get hit by the belly of a plane.

Or when you’re minding your business at your home in Rockaway Beach, Lockerbie, Paris or Amsterdam and K-BOOM!...

R303 has the makings of a Cole Porter lyric.

"You've Got That Sock-It-To-Me Feeling . . . "

R295, they did write a book titled Hijack: Our Story of Survival by Lizzie Anders and Katie Hayes

I like the crash that had Uli Derickson. She was fierce and a TV movie staring the bionic woman was made about her.

But did you KNOW her?!

R274, sorry, did not read thread until now. My uncle knew I was gay before my parents did- he and my aunt were great to me when I was growing up.

excuse me, that was meant for R275. I was the post at 274.

And yes, Denny Fitch (senior, his son is also Dennis) was my uncle on my mother's side. I should have been more specific- he was not the original pilot. I get very emotional, even now, and don't have the chance to speak of him often. He was a great man.

Errol Morris's documentary short about the flight and my uncle is worth watching, I am told, by non relatives. I enjoy it, but I am biased.

^^^He was a VERY handsome young man @ 2:44.

R310- Your Uncle was an eloquent and classy guy. And a true hero. This man could have been an excellent teacher. He explains things so perfectly regarding how a plane works. LOVED this video- what a tribute.

Just a guy I liked, but it wouldn’t have worked out. He was ADD and you know after the accident I realized - he was just all over the place.

Great thread

It is r314, and who knew there’s so many on this board who did know someone.

“I’ve never gone to work. I’ve only gone to fly.”

Thank you so much for posting that video, r310. I have not seen it, despite watching every aircrash investigation show and lurking on pprune. Denny Fitch was an iconic pilot and true hero.

The analysis of what really happened on FLight 800 is on Youtube.

The final simulation showing the last minutes is terrifying.

When the gas tank exploded, the cockpit of the plane was severed from the rest of the plane and dropped into the ocean. The rest of the fuselage (passenger cabin) continued climbing as all the engines were still operating. (Some speculate that it was this climbing, still on fire, fuselage that some thought was a missile.)

Eventually, reaching very high altitudes, the engines stalled and the fuselage plummeted into the sea.

Terrifying images.

Mr Fitch truly is a hero. What a class act. And by being a good citizen/man he actually saved his own life- Nearly everyone in first class where he was seated perished. (I read that due to the way the plane hit and broke apart the survivors were in the cock pit and center of the plane. Those in the front of plane behind the cockpit as well as those at the back of the plane mostly died--

[quote] (I read that due to the way the plane hit and broke apart the survivors were in the cock pit and center of the plane. Those in the front of plane behind the cockpit as well as those at the back of the plane mostly died--

This is EXTERMELY unusual.

We chickenshits always book our seats as far back as possible.

R318. And only I would spell cock and pit like it was a gay bar. COCKPIT!!!

There is a "remastered" simulation of TWA 800. It's totally horrifying, and I wish I hadn't watched it.

Sorry that was me, R318 who spelled cockpit like a gay bar.

R319- I think it is because the plane somersaulted. Very rare for a plane to somersault. A plane crashes usually far differently than that one did.

As we saw our friend's uncle explain so well, it landed at double the speed it should have..

The reason the center of the UA 232 plane stayed intact during that unusual crash sequence was that, because of the wings, it's structurally the strongest part of the plane. However, because it contains the fuel tanks, it's susceptible to blowing up during a crash. That's what happened when that Singapore Airlines 747 crashed on takeoff in 2000 - most of the fatalities were in the center section.

United 232 did not somersault after it hit the ground. One of the wings broke off and tumbled, giving the illusion that the plane was somersaulting among the fire and smoke, but it was actually just the wind.

Wing ^^

But it rolled, r324. One of the surviving crew, the stewardess who has made her life mission to advocate for proper child security in airplanes (because she instructed a woman to put her child on the floor - the guideline back then - which sealed that poor child’s fate), recalls coming to upside down after the crash.

The Alaskan Airlines crash is total nightmare fuel I cannot even imagine the sheer terror those passengers and FAs experienced. The pilots fought valiantly to save everyone’s life.

I’m curious to know what happened to the maintainence guy that overlooked critical repairs? I’m sure he was fired but if my family member was on that flight I would have a hard time restraining myself from what wanting to seek him out.

R327 I don't know what happened afterward, but as an Alaska Airlines million miler, I know that Alaska takes maintenance VERY seriously.

While I didn't know anyone on AS261, but a coworker had several friends on that plane. We talked about it a few years after the crash, and she broke down. We often forget the human toll that these crashes have.

[quote]This is EXTERMELY unusual. We chickenshits always book our seats as far back as possible.

That’s right. Everybody knows the back of the plane is the safest place to be.

Ever hear of a plane [italic]backing[/italic] into a mountain?! Pffft.

R329 and R319 American Airlines flight 965 had five survivors (one of which died after rescue), all in the same two-ish rows. From what I remember, they were over the wings. I could have sworn reading that the safest place to fly was over the wings.

Bless your heart, r330.

I refuse to sit in the back of the plane on a DC-9 or an MD-80.

R322 I flew quite a few Alaska and American MD80s when I didn't have status, and would sit far in the back. Those engines were LOUD.

Over the wings is the safest.

But in the end, when these planes really crash- No one survives. They are generally unsurvivable.

[quote]But it rolled, [R324]. One of the surviving crew, the stewardess who has made her life mission to advocate for proper child security in airplanes (because she instructed a woman to put her child on the floor - the guideline back then - which sealed that poor child’s fate), recalls coming to upside down after the crash.

Correct. The intact center section of UA 232 was upside down in the cornfield.

R332 - I remember that incident from back in 1996, freaked me out at the time. A mother and her young son were killed right where they sat by the flying debris. At any rate, the DC-9 is completely retired and the MD-80 series is being phased out.

R327- That Alaska Airlines crash is one of the most prolonged crashes in terms of emotional suffering/distress I have ever seen.

Those pilots, like Mr. Fitch and Al Haynes, were HEROES. Listen to their composed and professional tone after their plane has just plummeted- Its beyond my comprehension.

And when that Mary Sciavo (I loved her interviews in the early- mid 90's where there were all these horrible crashes- What a professional) got teary eyed in an interview about the Alaska airlines passengers) I knew that they must have suffered and been so afraid. This was not a woman who cried.

Fitch and Haynes were two of the flight crew of UA 232 in 1989. The names of the pilots on Alaska 261 were Ted Thompson and Bill Tansky.

[quote]and the MD-80 series is being phased out.

Delta is still flying TONS of MD-88s and MD-90s.

Delta is the last holdout of the MD series in the United States. Alaska and Allegiant have phased them out. American will have phased them out by the end of this year.

Why can't they just make the entire plane out of that shit they do for the black box?

R340=Jerry Seinfeld (on repeat, no less)

R336

Yes the pilots composure after that first plummet was remarkable you hear just slightly a tremble in his voice while communicating with the tower. After the plane crashes hearing the other pilots say yea it crashed in the ocean gut-wrenching.

I always thought the Air France crash seemed terrifying as while because I believe the crash happened in the middle of the night over the Atlantic. Imagine you’re sleeping or watching a movie on the plane and bam next thing you know you’re hurdling to the ocean.

Let's not forget the Turkish Airline crash outside Paris in 1974. A book about the crash, Destination Disaster, mentioned that tourists soon to arrive at the crash site were using a stick to examine a large penis in a tree. I had very distant relatives die in that crash-mother, father and 2 kids. Other kid was left back in London. And the Swiss air crash off Peggy's Cove had other very distant relatives on board. So, things happen in 3's, n'est-ce pas?

Guess I’m not exciting enough for this thread.

R344 I know this is irrational, but fuel-starvation crashes piss me off more than usual. I'm looking at you Avianca 52 and LaMia flight 2933. Declare an emergency, and divert if need be.

R344, that flight had EVERYTHING. Holding patterns, fuel starvation, wimpy pilots, casualties, subsequently busted and arrested drug mules, all in the vicinity of John McEnroe Senior’s backyard.

[quote]I know this is irrational, but fuel-starvation crashes piss me off more than usual.

Nothing irrational about it at all. Mainly because there is absolutely no excuse whatever for it to happen. None.

Pure human error at its worst.

I can’t believe any airline was still flying Boeing 707s in 1990.

No wonder it ran out of fuel... inefficienct hog.

Thanks for mentioning that extremely interesting paranormal phenomena r92. It is truly chilling.

More on The Ghosts of Flight 401...

r349

Back in the USENET days, I was directed to a website of F401 survivors and victim families, and people IDing themselves as the families of the various ghosts talked about subsequent appearances

They haven't died yet, but if all goes well they will next week.

A cousin who was a NYFD at the WTC for months post 9/11, lived a few blocks from the AA 587 crash and ran to that scene. For some reason, a few weeks later, he starts telling me that his mother is giving him a hard time about his behavior (she was correct that he was changing), he tells me, I said to her: "Ma, I picked up someone's head today." I don't know if he was referring to the WTC or the plane crash.

My partner’s sister died in 1989 commercial flight into Honduras. Notoriously difficult airport in which to land, but pilot was drunk and crashed into a mountain. A few people survived, and they had to wait two days to find out if she lived or died. Her remains were never found.

Let me say that it devastated her family. Her parents never got over it. It didn’t help matters that her brother died of AIDS four years later.

She has said that having a loved one die suddenly vs. watching someone die slowly of a tragic disease, that sudden death is pretty bad.

She is amazing and wise and not much fazes her. Perspective.

This crash, r354?

No word on either of the pilots being drunk though.

Incidentally, all survivors appear to have been flying first class.

R354, who is "she"? The woman who died?

Great and interesting thread. Thanks for starting it OP.

R343, tourists at the crash site were using a stick to examine a large cock in a tree? That’s a really puzzling story.

I cannot conceive of a more disgusting job than crash site recovery person.

The one account of a plane crash I found really disturbing was the one of that domestic Japanese flight that crashed into a mountain in the mid-80s (1985?) Apparently, the plane circled for a while before it ran out of fuel or something like that and everyone on board knew they were going to die within the next 20 minutes or so. If I recall correctly, after the crash, they found notebooks with prayers and passengers' messages to their families. Very creepy.

It’s so much more rewarding if you actually read the thread before posting. Or not.

That was JAL 123, r360, discussed earlier in this thread. And some people actually survived and later died, bringing the survivor total to about four.

R360 Amazingly, 4 people actually did survive that crash.

R359 Yeah - but there are people that do it, fortunately. Back when I was 8-10 years old, when all my friends wanted to be doctors, nurses, astronauts, and race car drivers, I actually wanted to be an NTSB air crash investigator. Never went that direction, but I actually host a podcast that has to deal with the subject (or other incidents very similar). This Friday will be an episode dedicated to the Helios crash. I've been trying to think of a good subject and read about the Helios crash in this thread - subject decided!

R358- I have the book about the 1974 Turkish Airlines crash- Ms. Dirty Mouth/Mind above made it sound far more salacious.

The book did not say the cock was big, just that some ladies were discussing the appendage and its size- and it was NOT in a tree!!!

R364 You may be my spirit twin.

That Helios crash is VERY haunting. And sadly it is the one crash with tons of gore pictures on the internet.

It sounds like all of the passengers were asleep/passed out/possibly deceased from hypoxia so at least they did not experience the crash-

That makes three of us.

R364, you should post a link here when it comes out--IF you dare!

I honestly don't know how those people aren't in therapy every day of their lives.

bump

I myself was killed in a commercial airliner accident.

AMA.

Does anyone know how badly Patsy Cline was damaged in her crash in 63? I read the bodies were unrecognisable..

R370, what are your thoughts about Game of Thrones?

I guess I’ve been lucky. One bad landing in Myrtle Beach in 1991.

I've flown 1.8million miles and haven't had any type of issue so far ::knock wood:: But my husband was in a TWA flight that the engine exploded mid-flight. They had to perform an emergency landing at a military base. That was intense.

I was, but thanks to reincarnation I’m back.

You must not have been good to be relegated to return posting on Datalounge.

Yikes, I better start behaving myself.

This is just an amazing story - though not exactly relevant to the OP. Definitely worth watching.

This is slightly OT but may be of interest. I saw a small private plan collide with a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River ten years ago. Nine killed, no survivors. The plane was directly over the helicopter but in they were in each other's blind spots and the Air Controller who was supposed to be guiding them got sidetracked by a phone call. I forget whether the plane started to descend or the copter to rise but the copter's rotor blades sliced off one of the plane's wings.

It was a gorgeous August day and I was on vacation and decided to walk from Chelsea down to the Village by way of the riverside promenade in Hudson River Park. The park was fairly crowded and I was about halfway between 14th Street and the Christopher Street Pier when I heard the most god awful sound, kind a combination of a huge thud and ripping metal. It was impossibly loud. My head instinctively jerked up and I saw a frightening rain of metal and aircraft parts descending into the other side of the Hudson right in front of that waterside park in Hoboken and right in front of me on the other side of the river. I watched the blades, the plane's wing, the cabins fall. The helicopter dropped straight down while the plane nosedived at an angle in front of it.

It was surreal. The sky really was so blue that day and the park was gorgeous. Suddenly instant apocalypse. All noise in the park ceased as dozens of us gazed on in disbelief. After the big pieces sank in the river, it continued to rain small shrapnel sized pieces for what seemed like forever. And then it was over without a trace. No bodies, no wreckage, no fire or flames. Everything had just sunk into th Hudson and it was bizarely another beautiful day in the park. People were stunned. Finally a guy a few feet from me turned and said "You saw that too, right?" "Right," I said. The whole thing probably took about 30 seconds.

I started to stay and watch some of the recovery operations but I was so disoriented I went home and got stoned instead. There's a mistake in the attached Wikipedia article. It says it happened off of 14th Street but it happened a few blocks south. It happened right in front of me and I was closer to Christopher than 14th.

I tell a lot of boring ass stories that friends and work pals politely listen to, but this one never fails....I was supposed to fly out of JFK to LAX on Monday, Sept 10; four times we watched the safety video after heading out to the runway and each time we went back to the gate; they finally canceled the flight; the crew was cavalier about the whole thing and initially, no hotels offerings.

"weather!" they said; when rebooking, they said you can fly out tomorrow (9/11) at 7, 8, 9, or 10 am;

"SEVEN!" I snarked; the next morning, after a night in a crappy hotel that didn't have shampoo, I get my seat in the last row; "Miss, I hate to complain -- but now I'm going to (she smiled) -- but I was up all night; can I switch to a seat that reclines more once we take off."

She says, yes.

We take off, I fall asleep while the world goes to hell. At 10 a.m. ET roughly, the captain CALMLY announced little security issue back east; it doesn't affect us but as a precaution we're going to land; we landed in the middle of the country and everyone got out their cell phones, calling the person in our lives 'what's going on?'

"We're at war" a friend of mine back in LA said. "Where are you?"

"I'm on the ground." "Stay there!"

The airline put me up in a holiday inn along with everyone else; turns out the ticket is a bit of a contract; they have to get you where it says they will.

I grabbed a greyhound back to LA a day later; saw the Colorado Rockies.

I had flown out of Boston many times over the years on those doomed flight numbers.

Life is so precarious.

Yes, and let's just say it's worked out nicely.

[quote]I saw a small private plan collide

You left out the important part! Was it a 401(k) plan? A health plan? A diet plan? C’mon man!

R379- I am glad you are here-

So, R379, where did your flight land?

How far away were you (distance wise) (on the bus) when you could first see the Rockies?

Wonderful, arent't they?

How long were you on the bus to get to LA? Did any other of your fellow passengers also "Go Greyhouns".

How did the others get to LA?

^^ should have been "Go Greyhound".

bump

Whew ...

I stand by that the crash of that PSA flight in 1987 is the ultimate nightmare crash. So many layers of terror and horror. The plane broke the sound barrier as it crashed and there was NOTHING left. I don' think any plane was ever obliterated like that with the exception of Silk Air 15+ years ago and that horrible Flight 4184 crash in Indiana in 1994.

Did some kind locals put you up like in the nauseating Come From Away making you realize we really are all one despite the pesky fact of Muslims murdering us by the scores that day?

More please!

New disasters thread (all types):

My boss’s brother was killed in the PSA crash in San Diego that is pictured in OP’s post.

R258 I knew a guy who was a junior ad executive in NYC who's father was killed on American Airlines flight 1.

Turns out he'd squandered his wife's fortune. The son had to take care of her for several years after, before she died on a cruise ship. Foul play was suspected, but never proved.

NO! I hate that other thread- this needs its own thread.

[quote] a junior ad executive in NYC who's father was killed

Oh, dear!