What is your closest encounter with an airplane crash?

Wibbs · 16-06-2018 08:03AM

I've been on a flight where the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. In the middle of bad turbulence over the Pyrenees. That was a bowel loosener. Another with smoke in the cabin, then one engine shutdown.

StereoSound · 16-06-2018 09:08AM

I remember a paranoid passenger on a plane years ago getting up screaming sending everyone into uncalled for panic.. Heavy turbulence was happening passing over Russia and she screamed " We are all gonna die, we are all gonna die"... Stupid cnt! She then shut up when the attendants came to her assistance. She made everyone very nervous.

bear1 · 16-06-2018 09:13AM

It's a bit off topic I suppose as it wasnt a commercial airline.
Last September I was watching an air show on the beach in an Italian city called Terracina.
We were all waiting for the star of the show, a euro fighter, to arrive.
The noise was simply spectacular so I take out my phone and start to record.
The pilot started doing loops and in the last one you could see something wasn't right but of course you don't think anything of it.
I ended up recording the pilots final moments as he slammed at full force into the sea.
I can't describe the feeling on that beach that day.
Still have the recording of it on my phone and still they haven't released details of why it happened.
Sad.

fxotoole · 16-06-2018 09:22AM

amdublin wrote: »

What was the son case???!!

Do you have a wiki link to it rather than YouTube?

Pilot let’s son sit on his lap and pilot the plane.

What else would you expect with Aeroflot, in fairness

peasant · 16-06-2018 09:41AM

Not an airplane, but a paraglider:D

On final approach for landing the wind picked up, which resulted in the paraglider loosing forward speed but descending faster...in other words my chosen landing spot got further and further away, finally becoming unreachable.

No biggie..the field was big, I would just land a bit earlier.

Except that at the very last moment I noticed a string of barbed wire fence strung right across my path. No amount of pulling up of knees could save me, the soles of my shoes touched and got entangled for a second.

No harm done, except a significant reduction of forward speed for my person. The canopy above me had no such restriction and kept moving forward. The resulting speed difference between pilot and canopy of course meant that on release from the wire, I shot forward like a pendulum...which of course meant that I was going a lot faster than expected, stumbled and fell...flat on my face:D

Again..could have been a lot worse, the canopy was still up, still flying and still carrying most of my weight, so the fall was rather soft.

However, the fact that the canopy was still flying (of sorts) and I was now down on my belly with severely restricted vertical arm movement (which is how you control the canopy and collapse it on landing) resulted in me being dragged through the grass flat on my belly for another good ten meters to the gratification of all bystanders.

The three reasonably fresh cowpads that I encountered on that last distance were just the icing on the cake...or rather the browning of my front

bnt · 16-06-2018 10:08AM

prinzeugen wrote: »

Suggest you never fly to Ascension Island then.. Sea, sea, sea, runway on a rock.

Nice Airport is like that too: sea, sea, sea, runway. You can see what I mean on the map here.

I agree with other folks about London City Airport too, though. Because it's an urban area, the approach is steeper than normal (Originally 7.5°, reduced to 5.5°, compared to the usual 3.0°). I've only flown in to there once, a CityJet puddle-jumper from Dublin, but I think we had three landings instead of the usual one: those planes are built with some seriously springy suspension.

My most WTF moment in a plane was a takeoff, though: Ryanair from Dublin. The pilot must have been bursting for a wee or something, because as soon as the plane was released from pushback, it was off to the races. We went straight up to at least 60 kts on the apron, more on the taxiway, one-wheel turn on to the runway without touching the brakes, then full power and in to the air in about ten seconds. Maybe 50-60 seconds between standstill and airborne. I've never experienced anything like that before or since.

JoeA3 · 16-06-2018 10:12AM

bear1 wrote: »

It's a bit off topic I suppose as it wasnt a commercial airline.
Last September I was watching an air show on the beach in an Italian city called Terracina.
We were all waiting for the star of the show, a euro fighter, to arrive.
The noise was simply spectacular so I take out my phone and start to record.
The pilot started doing loops and in the last one you could see something wasn't right but of course you don't think anything of it.
I ended up recording the pilots final moments as he slammed at full force into the sea.
I can't describe the feeling on that beach that day.
Still have the recording of it on my phone and still they haven't released details of why it happened.
Sad.

Wow - I just googled that. Frightening.
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/25/fighter-pilot-attempting-loop-the-loop-dies-crashing-sea/amp/

Scariest one I remember was about 10 years ago on a Ryanair to Paris. I was in foul humour already, having a bad run of luck at the time.... anyway, coming into land and the plane smacks off the runway with serious force... and then almost immediately powered up and took off again! A real brown trouser moment. I was really wondering if we still had any under carriage left to make the 2nd attempt.
2nd attempt was smooth and I don’t remember the pilot making any announcement as to what happened. Purely routine I guess!

bear1 · 16-06-2018 10:20AM

JoeA3 wrote: »

Wow - I just googled that. Frightening.
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/25/fighter-pilot-attempting-loop-the-loop-dies-crashing-sea/amp/

Scariest one I remember was about 10 years ago on a Ryanair to Paris. I was in foul humour already, having a bad run of luck at the time.... anyway, coming into land and the plane smacks off the runway with serious force... and then almost immediately powered up and took off again! A real brown trouser moment. I was really wondering if we still had any under carriage left to make the 2nd attempt.
2nd attempt was smooth and I don’t remember the pilot making any announcement as to what happened. Purely routine I guess!

Yeah, the pictures in that article are my friends. He was photographing the event for his work and caught the final snaps in every detail.
Also have them on my phone.
Judging by the angle of that video I'd have been more to the right as the crash was right in front of me.
His parents were also there.

foxy farmer · 16-06-2018 10:36AM

I live in an area that sees a lot of small aircraft flight training out of Cork Airport. Often hear and see them cutting engines gliding for a bit and then restarting and carrying on. Once 3 of us saw a plane perform such a manoeuvre but started to nose dive before restarting it's engines. Got scary for a bit.
There is a farm about 2 miles from me where 2 (flight instructor and trainee) were killed back in Feb 1992 after a mid air collision with another training aircraft. Their plane fell to the ground but the other managed to make it back to Cork. Locals claim they saw the 2 planes involved in some acrobatics before the crash. One man i know commenting on the frailness of the planes said that the wreckage when gathered up would fit into a car trailer.

realitykeeper · 16-06-2018 11:16AM

I saw a small show plane crash into the sea in Kerry about 39 years ago. Later on the news, RTE said the pilot was ok.

Paddy Cow · 16-06-2018 11:19AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I have distant relatives who used to take separate flights in case anything ever happened to them.
Then they would pile into the same rental car and head off driving on the wrong side of the road after having been awake all night travelling.

Canard wrote: »

Wow that is grim, essentially when they board their separate flights (to go on holidays presumably) they're saying 'Bye, I think I'll never see you again'. :eek: In a reverse grim way, whenever I'm on a flight with all of my immediate family I think of how if the plane went down, at least none of us would be left mourning. :pac:

Flying used to be really dangerous and there was a rule that two members of the royal family in line to the throne, couldn't fly on the same plane.

_Dara_ · 17-06-2018 04:46PM

andekwarhola wrote: »

Turbulence and rough landings are normal to be fair.

Any time I fly I think I'm going to die though. I fcuking hate it.

And when you're with the kids it's worse as you have to man up, look out the window with them and act jolly.

When I was a kid, our next door neighbours died in a famous air disaster but thankfully no other stories.

So curious. WHICH ONE?

somefeen · 17-06-2018 05:26PM

When I lived in Scotland we regularly had the RAF doing low passes on training flights.
I was working out on the Loch one day and heard a ferocious noise. By time I looked up he was almost gone but there was a jet flying very low and fast, he was so low the turbulence left a wake in the water like a boat.
I don't think they realised we were there because he was definitely lower than 500 ft and passed right over us.
Think my colleague made a complaint but don't know what came of it.

In another place I swear they were using us as target practice, for about 15 minutes two or three of them would take turns climbing up and diving towards us before pulling up at about 6 - 700 feet.
This wasn't long after the Shoreham crash so we were all a bit nervous. We calmed our nerves by shouting Allah Akbar, one of the lads took a video and uploaded it to YouTube with us shouting in the background.
It ended up on one of those war compilation videos apparently.

ceadaoin. · 17-06-2018 05:49PM

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Flying used to be really dangerous and there was a rule that two members of the royal family in line to the throne, couldn't fly on the same plane.

As far as I recall a family in one of the recent plane disasters did this, the parents would travel separately and split the kids up. I think that's worse tbh, to arrive safely while the rest of your family don't

Edit: yes, it was air France flight 447

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/5481061/Air-France-crash-Familys-fear-of-flying-together-led-mother-and-son-to-board-doomed-Flight-447.html

Dick Rimmington · 17-06-2018 06:35PM

I dont think either of these were near crashes but i did have two very uncomfortable experiences.

The most recent one was in 2007 with air asia, flying from Malaysia to Thailand, we got caught in a thunderstorm causing very bad turbulence. i figured i was just being nervous/silly until we hit an air pocket and i realised it wasnt just me, there were screams and tears from passengers and i seriously thought we may not actually survive this flight. i know turbulence is quite common so it might've been routine for the flight crew but i am sure i left scratch marks in the armrests of my seat.
I dont have much memory of the first incident in 98 other than the fact that again we were flying through a storm (i even remember the name:Lothar!) and couldnt land for ages so we were circling above dublin. one of the few things i remember from that flight is all the emergency vehicles approaching our plane when we finally did land. id still love to know what was going on.

Flying never bothered me one bit until 98 but ive been scared sh*tless of flying since the air asia incident.

irishgrover · 17-06-2018 06:48PM

The"closest" I've been is I worked in the travel business and personally sold 2 tickets to a guy and both he and companion died when the plane crashed during landing (bad weather)....

Paddy Cow · 17-06-2018 07:57PM

At an airshow in Galway a few years ago, a door fell off a helicopter and hit my then boss. Thankfully she wasn't seriously injured.

OldMrBrennan83 · 17-06-2018 07:59PM

This post has been deleted.

Hammer89 · 17-06-2018 09:13PM

What's everyone's closest experience to being trampled by a rhino?

The One Doctor · 17-06-2018 09:15PM

Paddy Cow wrote: »

At an airshow in Galway a few years ago, a door fell off a helicopter and hit my then boss. Thankfully she wasn't seriously injured.

Bosses should only be killed on a Thursday. Otherwise there would be no three day weekend.

Twenty Grand · 17-06-2018 09:19PM

Got awful turbulence and wind flying into Vienna. The plane was rattling and shaking coming in to land. People were white knuckled and one or two getting sick.

I had the window seat and could see the runway coming closer and closer, and slightly sideways. At the last second the pilot hit the power, tilted the nose up and aborted the landing.

Hit me like a rollercoaster, like my stomach was trying to get out my arse. Landed successfully on the second try.

zoe 3619 · 17-06-2018 09:32PM

Hammer89 wrote: »

What's everyone's closest experience to being trampled by a rhino?

Was bitten by a rhino whilst at an airshow in leitrim.They should never be allowed to fly planes.

smurfjed · 18-06-2018 08:16AM

Getting flipped over by the wake of a 777, ended up heading towards the ground and in a 69 degree bank. Needless to say we didn't hit the ground.

Captain_Crash · 18-06-2018 09:04AM

Excellent thread OP. The scariest incident I've ever had was an emergency descent over Holland on the way to BAH. I was desperately hungover at the time and it didn't sit well with me.

The most somber one is several years ago being in JFK getting on a flight home to DUB (via SNN... old school) and the flight boarding at the gate next to us was Egyptair 990. The one real memory I have from it was that we were boarding at the same time and seeing a mother screaming at her 3 kids and ushering them over to her (I'm presuming she was saying stop acting the b*llix and get over here were boarding). The next morning in SNN it was on the news that it had crashed, and my Mum was in total shock.. that's when it registered with me that it was the same MS990.

In another incident that's personal to me, my uncle was flying this.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o6PitZEmMI

Mollyb60 · 18-06-2018 09:23AM

I hate flying. I've a sensitive stomach so feel every little drop and roll. Thankfully I've had nothing majorly scary happen to me. My first flight ever back in the 90's was to Blackpool. I vividly remember severe wind on the landing and the plane was skidding from side to side when we landed. That's about the extent of my bad experiences on planes.

A childhood friend was on the Air France that went down in the Atlantic in 2009. I think of her every single time I get on a plane now.

chupacabra · 18-06-2018 09:37AM

Bird strike back in 2009 on a flight out of Phoenix AZ. It was a very very bad bird strike that caused a hole in the cockpit window. We were given a free drink for the inconvenience :rolleyes:

Engine failure just before take off on a flight out of JFK in 2011, was deeply depressed and drunk at the time so I didnt really give a ****.

Finally on a flight out of Newark in 2012 it felt like the plane was struggling for lift. It pitched very sharply upwards and did a dramatic turn just above the airport. Not sure if this was normal but ive never experienced anything like that before or since.

smurfjed · 18-06-2018 11:45AM

41000 feet above the Indian Ocean, we see a TRAFFIC ADVISORY meaning that another aircraft was close to us (these are extremely common), this changed to a RESOLUTION ADVISORY that basically means that we had 25 seconds before a possible impact between the two aircraft unless we immediately did something.

razorblunt · 18-06-2018 12:44PM

Captain_Crash wrote: »

Excellent thread OP. The scariest incident I've ever had was an emergency descent over Holland on the way to BAH. I was desperately hungover at the time and it didn't sit well with me.

The most somber one is several years ago being in JFK getting on a flight home to DUB (via SNN... old school) and the flight boarding at the gate next to us was Egyptair 990. The one real memory I have from it was that we were boarding at the same time and seeing a mother screaming at her 3 kids and ushering them over to her (I'm presuming she was saying stop acting the b*llix and get over here were boarding). The next morning in SNN it was on the news that it had crashed, and my Mum was in total shock.. that's when it registered with me that it was the same MS990.

In another incident that's personal to me, my uncle was flying this.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o6PitZEmMI

That post.
THAT username.

_Dara_ · 18-06-2018 12:47PM

Mollyb60 wrote: »

I hate flying. I've a sensitive stomach so feel every little drop and roll. Thankfully I've had nothing majorly scary happen to me. My first flight ever back in the 90's was to Blackpool. I vividly remember severe wind on the landing and the plane was skidding from side to side when we landed. That's about the extent of my bad experiences on planes.

A childhood friend was on the Air France that went down in the Atlantic in 2009. I think of her every single time I get on a plane now.

Oh yeah, the Northern Irish girl who died? Feck.

Those poor girls. Off having the oblig trip to South America. All done and dusted and only twelve hours from home. Imagine having that moment of realisation that you are going to be one of the very few to die in a plane crash?

Mollyb60 · 18-06-2018 12:49PM

_Dara_ wrote: »

Oh yeah, the Northern Irish girl who died? Feck. Those poor girls. Off having the oblig trip to South America. All done and dusted and only twelve hours from home. Imagine having that moment of realisation that you are going to be one of the very few to die in a plane crash?

No actually it was the girl from Tipperary. My hopes is that they were all asleep and didn't realise what was happening. Makes my stomach turn every time I think of it. I never liked flying before but this made me so much worse.

What is your closest encounter with an airplane crash?

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