7 pilots reveal the scariest thing that's ever happened to them in-flight
Don't read this if you're an anxious flyer!
Don't read this if you're an anxious flyer!
Don't read this if you're an anxious flyer!
Anxious flyer? Look away now, because pilots have been sharing the scariest in-flight situations they've ever been in on , and it's definitely not a thread that's going to calm your nerves.
1.'We tried to land in fast crosswinds'
"We almost crashed coming into O’Hare. The copilot was pretty inexperienced and tried to touch down during an insanely fast moving crosswind. He should have circled around again. I was seated in the back of the plane (CRJ900). Both passengers next to me had a death grip on my hand or knee. Was covered in bruises. I’ve never seen a pilot so p----d off. He was cussing out the copilot the whole way to the hotel."
()
2. 'Our engine failed'
"I'm just a private pilot getting my hours to be a commercial pilot, but the scariest would be an engine failure at 1200 feet. After failing to restart the engine we declared an emergency, luckily I was with my instructor so in that case he handles controls and I do communications and checklists."
()
3. 'The passenger door indicator said it wasn't shut properly'
"I'm a Flight Attendant on small 50 passenger planes (CRJ100/200's). There was about 40 minutes left in the flight, and I get a call from the flight deck that they have an indicator reading that my passenger door is not locked. So I double check the physical deadbolt indicators on the door and two out of the eight indicators were a little misaligned. I stopped service and sat down for the rest of the flight, directly next to the door praying that it was an issue with the indicator up in the flight deck. For the rest of the 40 minute flight, I was cracking down on every person that attempted to stand up and every seatbelt that I heard being undone. I didn't want any unlucky people being sucked out if the door happened to suddenly fly open. Thankfully all was well and we landed with no issue."
()
4. 'The plane just stopped ascending'
"I'm not an airline pilot, but I fly small planes, and me and a copilot were hired to fly a Cessna from Arizona to Florida. We stopped for fuel in New Mexico and on takeoff we got to only about 100 ft when the plane stopped climbing and started doing the exact opposite of that. We turned and lined up with a different runway but we were still coming down very hard and very fast. The plane hit the runway and then went off the side into the dirt and stopped only 70ft from where it first hit the ground, which isn't much considering we were going at highway speeds. I broke 8 bones in my body including 3 vertebrae and was in the hospital for about 3 months as well."
()
5. 'Sparks were flying from the engine'
"[We] took off at night, [and the] right alternator light comes on after takeoff. The aircraft instrument lights start flickering. My first officer is flying the airplane. I tell him to continue as normal until we reach a safe altitude to run the checklist.
"As we're climbing through 500 feet, I see a bright shower of sparks from the right engine. Passengers start gasping and talking. My first officer kinda freezes up. I say, 'turn back.' He starts to turn the airplane the opposite direction of what we had briefed in case of an emergency situation. I say, "I have the controls" and take over, and turn us on a right downwind. I tell him to tell air traffic control we need to return immediately. I turn the alternator off but the sparks are still flying. The engine is running fine though.
We were only in the air for a couple minutes, but the adrenaline was high for sure. Seeing sparks flying from the front of your engine is never a good thing. I was glad it was just the alternator though because it didn't cause any power loss.
"Turns out one of the mechanics that put the engine back together after an inspection forgot to tighten the alternator wire bundle down completely, resulting in loose wires contacting each other."
()
6. 'We ran out of runway'
"In flight training on a go around the engine went to full power then dropped back down to nearly idle. There was no longer enough runway to land immediately. Somehow we managed a 180 degree turn and landed in the opposite direction."
()
7. 'The battery failed'
"An ex boyfriend of mine was flying when the alternator went on the plane. It was just himself and his first officer and they ended up having to make an emergency landing in a field. They slowed down and descended as much as they could before the battery died, but the landing was still extremely rough. They thankfully weren't injured, just very sore."
()