airplane "near-death" experiences?

[windshieldbug]

One time upon departing DFW on an American Airlines jet the pilot decided to pull up just a hair too soon. I could feel a very pronounced thump as the tail struck the ground. Kinda made me want to go up and thump the pilot on the back of his head.

That probably wasn't pulling up too soon, probably too hard. If the plane had done a stall and sank, you'd've felt the bottom fall out of your stomach just before the tail of the plane tore off.

But I respect the driver of anything big and steel (whether I'm riding or not!)

[trseaman]

flying from Fayetteville, Ark

Been there, done that! But that's what you get for visiting Fayetteville, Ark!

[davet]

Landing in a Bellanca Citabria when crosswind hit just before we touched down. The Citabria is a two seat tail dragger. I was in the back seat and the pilot had to apply maximum correction. The stick was banging my left leg and I thought that I was going to cause us to crash by having my leg in the way.

We landed without incident and I hurried to the closest bathroom!

[Ed Jones]

Most of my near-death aviation experience were of my own doing. When I was about sixteen, I rode along with my dad to a fly-in in his 1947 Luscombe 8-A (no electrical system, hand crank the prop). He wanted to participate in the flour bombing competition and volunteered me to be the bombadier. My job was to cinch my seatbelt up tight, open the door, lean out as far as I could throw a bag of flour at a target drawn on the runway. All this while fighting the door against the propwash. His job was to fly low and slow and maintain about 45 degrees of right bank. I didn't really get scared until after we were on the ground. I think we got third place. To this day, my mother knows nothing of this incident.

I started flight trainging about twelve years ago (never quite finished). One afternoon I went to the airport to shoot a few landings to practice for an upcoming solo cross country. I was in the landing pattern for the first time and about to turn final (a critical time). I pushed back a little in the seat to get more comfortable and pop, the seat back gave away and left me laying flat on my back. My left hand was on the yoke and my right on the throttle so when I went back, I yanked the nose up and the throttle back at the same time. I quickly sat up and dropped the nose and added power as the stall warning horn started screaming at me. A full blown stall at low altitude with an inexperienced pilot is a disaster in the making but I managed to dodge the bullet that day. A few weeks later my instructor, who believed in going beyond the book, decided to show me spin recovery in "Blue Death" a tired old Cessna 152 which was the "other" plane owned by the flight school. When he applied power to recover from the spin the engine sputtered a couple of times and I clearly heard him clearly say "Uh-Oh!". I clearly said "Oh #$&*". The engine did come to life and we lived to tell about it. To this day, my wife knows nothing of either of these incidents.

Having spent a good deal of time in small aircraft, I kind of enjoy a good bumpy ride on a commercial flight now and then.

Ed "who believes any landing that you can walk away from is a good one and one that leaves the airplane flyable is a great one" Jones

[Dylan King]

I remember flying what I think was "Republic" airlines from New York to L.A. when I was a little dude, probably in 1982. The plane lost cabin pressure somewhere over the Rockies, or something similar. I just remember my head, and everyone else on board's head exploding. We were all popping our ears and in so much pain. My father was cool and kept me calm, but it hurt oh so much. It felt like diving down to the bottom of a 13 foot swimming pool over and over again.

I wonder what the actual cause may have been. I don't think there is a "Republic" airlines anymore.

[LoyalTubist]

I never flew until I was 15 years old, when my high school band toured Switzerland, Germany, and Austria (with little side trips to France and we saw all of Lichtenstein!) It was two flights there: LAX to Boston's Logan Field on American Airlines, then to Geneva by way of Zurich on (the now defunct) Swissair. When we went home, the band was split in half. The first group, of which I was a part, was to fly to JFK on Swissair from Zurich and back to LAX on American. The second group flew to O'Hare (Chicago) on Swissair, then to LAX on American. We were just a few feet off the ground on take-off from Zurich and we heard a big BOOM. One of our engines blew up. So we went back. The second group left on time. We left about six hours later. Missing our connecting flight, we had a forced overnight stay at Kennedy Airport. Nothing bad happened but, had this happened a little higher it would have been a catastrophe.

Now I have been in one very serious train derailment. I was on the Amtrak train between Los Angeles Union Station and Pasadena. (Amtrak now goes through Orange County as the old Amtrak route is now used by Metrolink communter trains.) We stopped for a long time and we saw the siren lights. There was a flattened VW Beetle. It knocked the front locomotive off the track. The driver tried to beat the train across the tracks (even though this was in an area where there were no road crossings for miles!) Fortunately, the train was moving very slowly, though not slow enough to miss the car. It killed all four people in the car. No one on the train was hurt but it seriously damaged one huge locomotive.

Incidentally, I have been a passenger on more than 300 flights in North America, Europe, South America, and Asia since that trip in high school. Air travel really is the safest way to go!

[LoyalTubist]

I wonder what the actual cause may have been. I don't think there is a "Republic" airlines anymore.

Republic, a Minnesota based airline, took over Hughes Air West (famous for its yellow airplanes!) in 1980. A few years earlier, Hughes Air West was formed from the remnant of Bonanza Airlines, which used Riverside as one of its hubs, along with Las Vegas. (Riverside hasn't had passenger air service in 40 years!)

What was Republic is now part of Northwest.

[Rick Denney]

Flying out of Wichita, to a connection in Chicago, on a puddle-jumper. As we passed a few hundred feet, the pilot raised the landing gear. Immediately, there was a very loud FLAP-FLAP-FLAP-FLAP-FLAP-FLAP that continued for about ten minutes and then suddenly reduced considerably.

I was sitting on the exit row across from another frequent flyer, and we just looked at each other. My comment was, "Keep quiet. The hospitals are better and closer to the airport in Chicago, and if we don't crash, we will at least make our connections." He nodded.

But the tourist in the row in front of him could not contain himself.

He screamed, which was a good bit more startling to all on board.

After leveling off, the pilot turned off the seatbelt light and the flight attendant came back to see what the scream had been about. "THERE'S A TERRIBLE NOISE! THE PLANE IS FALLING APART!"

She looked at me (since I was in the exit row, that meant I had frequent flyer status). I told her that it sounded like the starboard tire had lost a tread and it was hanging out the gear door for a while until it broke off. She nodded, told the panicky tourist that she'd go consult with the pilot. A few minutes later, the pilot came back and repeated the above conversation to the word. He said he'd check on it.

A few minutes later, he came on the PA and announced that he'd requested Wichita to check the runway for debris and would get back to us. The tourist NOTICEABLY calmed down. I was tempted to point out to him that if we were definitely going to crash, the pilot was unlikely to tell us. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm sorry to have to inform you that the plane is in the process of crashing at this time. We know you have a choice when you fly, and we appreciate your business at United Airlines."

All the while, my neighbor and I were hoping we'd get past that magic halfway point, where it's closer to go ahead to Chicago than to return to Wichita. But it was not to be, even though 40 minutes passed before I noticed that the moon was sliding around in my view out of the window. We were turning back. Apparently, the power that be thought it less damaging to the flight schedules to put a hole in the runway in Wichita than in Chicago.

We landed at 10 PM just as a thunderstorm was approaching, rolling down a gauntlet of emergency vehicles to a slow and steady stop with no turning at the end of the runway. I have never before or since felt a smoother landing--it lets you know what those guys can do when they are motivated. We disembarked onto the runway as the rain started to fall, and rode to the (closed) terminal in a school bus, which was the only bus the airport had.

Then, the airline made us wait while the pilots stalled long enough "filling out paperwork" so that they went past their time limit and wouldn't have to fly again that night, at which time they sent us to a hotel with the command to return at 8 AM the next morning so we could wait until 4 PM to fly out.

When they rolled the plane back to the terminal, a 6-foot long flap of tire would flop onto the ground at each rotation of the tire. The tire still had air in it, thank goodness. There is no tire air pressure monitor in that airplane, apparently, so the guys in the cockpit were actually MUCH more nervous than we were.

Being thrown around in the sky by thunderstorms is normal stuff--I used to fly the Dallas Love--Albuquerque route on Southwest every week. I have actually seen a lightning bolt strike the wing of the aircraft.

Rick "who has never actually crashed" Denney

[LoyalTubist]

When I lived in Indonesia, I had to fly to Guam on business. Actually, the only direct flights to the United States from Indonesia are between Bali and Guam on Continental Airlines. Anyway, I got to Bali from Jakarta on whatever airline was cheap.

I flew on Sempati Airlines, which went out of business after President Soeharto resigned in 1998. Anyway, in lieu of a safety presentation at the beginning of the flight, the attendants told us to look in the pockets in front of our seats for important information, in case of a crash (yes, they did use that word!)

Opening the emergency manual, the Table of Contents page was marked:

• Islam..................................................page 3

• Hinduism.............................................page 7

• Buddhism.............................................page 11

• Protestant/Roman Catholic......................page 15

On page 15 of the booklet was a King James Version text of the Lord's Prayer!

[LoyalTubist]

I didn't read the booklet after that point. I think it was three or four pages that told you how to do that.

[windshieldbug]

I flew once from Kennedy to Rio on Varig, and the whole way there was a viola playing in the seat behind me!

[LoyalTubist]

Ewww! That beats the baby wearing cloth diapers in the seat behind me on a military charter flight to Germany from South Carolina! (The diapers were placed in a plastic bag UNDER MY SEAT after they were soiled!) We had to land in Cologne, where we stayed in the plane for three hours before flying down to Frankfurt--bad weather.

[Albertibass]

All the flying i did came in the early parts of my life. And so i vaguely remember those expieriences. Most of the traveling was from my parents both being military, but after my sister was born they decided to settle down somewhere.

Anywho, the near death expierience that i can think of was not mine, but my dad's. He was flying from Anchorage, AK to San Antonio, TX on buissness, and before the plane had left the ground, an Intoxicated man (Cuban) pulled out a knife and grabbed a passenger, and demanded that the plane be flown back to Cuba. He was tackled, and yeah he was taken off the plane, and thats all that was heard.

i guess Alaskan Airlines didnt offer a one way flight to Cuba...

[Joe Baker]

I've had the usual frequent-flyer assortment of make-your-coke-cup-hit-the-ceiling turbulance. I've had the door next to me open unexpectedly in a friend's Piper Cherokee during a wing-dip at 4000 feet. In that same plane, we landed on a dirt strip... on the side of a hill... with a road going across it (if I'm lyin' I'm dyin')... that required an extraordinary drop to clear the treetops then level the plane (fore-to-aft; the 'side-of-the-hill' aspect required about a 15 degree tilt to the left). Taking off a couple of hours later, while climbing to clear the trees, the intake manifold SUCKED the duct-tape that was holding the intake air heater together THROUGH THE ENGINE, causing a momentary engine stall (it went COMPLETELY through -- intake valve, exhaust valve, exhaust manifold in two cycles) just as we were clearing the trees. That was my last flight in that plane.

Yet none of that held a candle to my most frightening in-plane experience. It was late Dec. of 1988, shortly after the Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. I had flown from Dallas to Frankfurt, and had just boarded a plane headed for Istanbul. I settled into my seat when I looked up the aisle to see a flight attendant, with machine-gun-wielding Grenz-Polizei in front of and behind her, walking briskly down the aisle. I was worried enough about what was going on, but then they stopped at my aisle. The flight attendant checked the row number, then looked me straight in the eye and sternly said "Herr Baker?" "Ja..." "Komm mit, bitte!". Everyone on the plane was fixed on me as they marched me up the aisle, down the stairs, and around to the other side of the plane. There I saw my suitcase lying on the tarmac, surrounded by another half-dozen or so Grenz-Polizei. Amazingly, none of my captors spoke any English, but I spoke enough German to eventually understand that they had X-rayed my suitcase and seen something suspicious. From the description, I knew it was my voltage converter, but (again, amazingly ) none of my HS or college German classes had ever taught me the German word for 'voltage converter'. I reached for the suitcase, offering to open it for them, and the once fairly relaxed gunmen were suddenly aiming their weapons directly at vital parts of my anatomy. It would have been easier if I'd known then that "volt" is "volt" in every language, but I finally explained that in America we plug in machines and have 110, but in Europe they have 220. One of the Polizei got it, and quickly explained to the others. Everyone had a good laugh, relaxed, and they told me to return to my seat. They declined my (now verbal only) offer to open the suitcase and show it to them.

None of that was the scary part.

The scary part was the way the other passengers looked at me when I got back onto the plane!
________________________________
Joe Baker, who only crashes after all-nighters at work.

[windshieldbug]

It appears to me as though Sempati Airlines was hedging their bets.

As do many people in this life..

[Joe Baker]

You should have brskly brushed your hands, shrugged your shoulders, and said,"They should have brought more soldiers."

A friend told me I should have told them (in English, with large gestures):

It keeps my hair dryer from going
<img src="http://members.iinet.net.au/~forrie/BOOM%20WORD.jpg" width="300">
____________________________________
Joe Baker, whose former boss was detained and interrogated for over 12 hours by Mossad when entering Israel once, because of "suspicious" computer parts he was carrying (but that doesn't count, because he was traveling on a bus).

[tubatooter1940]

We flew from Anchorage, Alaska to Magadan, Siberia.
As we flew over the coast the ground looked just like Alaska-except no roads.
Pulling up to the hangar area many Russian troops were in sight. No guns that we could see but surely weapons had to be close to hand. A 30 minute van ride into town took us by many of the gulag prisons-watchtowers and all.
Nine days later we were again at the Magadan airport to depart for Anchorage. The police grabbed this Chinese man and pulled him into a room and 30 minutes later brought him out looking much the worse for wear. Looked like they worked him over pretty good.
They gave us each a pass and told us to present it before we got on our plane. The soldiers loaded us on cattle car trucks and drove us out to our Alaska Airlines plane. A soldier checked and counted our passes and found a problem with the count. An officer ordered him to recheck and recount-still there was a problem. The officer ordered us all back onto the cattle cars and returned us to the terminal for another count of our passes.
We could see our plane waiting for us-so near but so far away.
A middle aged lady got irritated with the delay and started mouthing off at the soldiers. An older gentleman with a soothing voice reminded her that this was their country and they could hold us up or far worse as they pleased. She clammed up and the officer decided to amend the count and again to the trucks out to our plane.
Once aboard the plane we were in America again with cool ice water, Budweiser beer and flight attendant ladies who smelled wonderful because unlike Siberian women they had and used perfume and deoderants.

[LoyalTubist]

...and flight attendant ladies who smelled wonderful because unlike Siberian women they had and used perfume and deoderants.

Teaching in Indonesia was both a joy and the pain. Indonesian women used perfume and deodorant. The men thought the idea of deodorant was not such a manly thing (or else they would soak in a tub full of Brut). When you're in close quarters, you hold your breath a lot.

[LoyalTubist]

Fat chance of that happening here in Southern California, except during the winter in the mountains.

[LoyalTubist]

The worst accidents in this neck of the woods have been commuter trains being sabotaged by people who put their car in the track. It's not so bad if the locomotive hits the car first. The car driver is killed and the locomotive falls off the track. But the trains usually move backwards with the locomotive in the rear. There was one accident in Glendale some time back that was especially horrendous.