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Have you ever thought your plane would crash?

C

c073186

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 2, 2007
821
3
The thread about the Lufthansa flight that had a rough landing got me thinking to all the times I have flown. At times I have been pretty worried about it when the plane is rocking all over and what not. So I was just wondering for everyone else, have you ever been on a plane and thought that you weren't going to make it for whatever reason? Or had close calls?
 
I generally do not worry. If it happens it happens. It still MUCH safer than car travel and thats something i have to do daily.
 
When I flew here to move, when we left Atlanta, the plane's rear end made a huge thud, and a scraping noise, as we tilted up. I'd presume the fuselage bumped the ground.

When we landed here in Phoenix, the plane screeched like nothing I'd heard before.
 
Having flown commercial airliners, I usually know what's easy to get through (which is pretty much everything), so I'm not usually too concerned about crashes.
 
I've averaged about 120 or so flights a year for several years, and have never had that concern even once. Wind shear, lightning strikes, wake turbulence, other planes on the runway, severe turbulence in all phases of flight, wind, rain, and snow. No worries. Modern aircraft (particularly commercial) are designed to perform at a greater extreme of conditions than an airline would ever consider letting a passenger experience (they want you to fly again!), and as such, are redundantly safe to the point of absurdity.

Pilots, on the other hand, can suffer incredible lapses of proper procedure at the most inopportune times, though they can be reliably expected to keep up with the airplane.
 
I was worried when we were landing at STL in bad storms when the plane touched down and went right back up again. The pilot took his sweet time getting on the PA and letting us know what was going on (they were going to try again in a few minutes once the weather cleared) so until the announcement, we had no idea what was happening and thought perhaps something was wrong.

But I've never really been that scared. You have a better chance of dying in a car accident on the way to the airport than you do on the flight itself. I normally just put my iPod on, relax, and am oblivious to everything that's going on until the end of the flight
 
I fly four or five times a year, and I enjoy it for the most part, but there's always that little voice in the back of my head who pops up right when we're about to land that says "You're doomed." :eek:
 
Of course there's some anxiety, but it's a necessary part of modern life, it's still much safer than driving, and I have a flight out in two days. :p
 
Nope, if you start thinking like that you're in trouble. I have the utmost confidence in pilots. I've been in some rough landings and bumpy rides, it's all part of the fun. I like it when you hit turbulence; you can tell you're moving. When it's all smooth and nice it feels like the plane is stationary, it's dull.

But I wouldn't mind being in a near miss like the Lufthansa flight as the chances of you being in anything more serious are pretty remote.
 
i loveeee, love hitting turbulences, i dont knwo why, i just always figured, it will be a good story to tell afterwards or i ll die and suffer less than a minute hopefully... :D
 
I flew 20 years in the Navy and never felt the plane would crash although there were some dicey situations but felt in control. I retired over 10 years ago. About 3 years ago, in a small 2 prop city hopper (United), we were coming into Monterey and had a a shear and down draft about 1000 feet. I could swear I saw the plane break in two and the cockpit separating heading down with the pilots and day light through a hole instead of the cockpit with just the remaining fuselage tilting down about to follow the pilots in a final plunge to the ocean. Just for a split 2nd I was prepared to die. However, that was an illusion and the plane did not break into two and we diverted to Fresno.

If it had happened 2 minutes later we would all be dead (500 feet minus 1000 equals 500 feet into the dirt).
 
I've never seriously thought a plane I was on was going to crash, outside of being a very young child. I've been in a few somewhat scary situations like flying in to SeaTac and hitting the edge of the runway on a very foggy day. Also used to often fly out of Bellingham Airport in small twin prop planes on United and Horizon on veryyy windy days which made for a more than "Mildly turbulent" ride. Used to fly into Denver in the winter and it was so bad coming in that the wings were flapping like a bird's wings :p

On a related note, my aunt was flying out of Hawai'i on a 747 and the engine caught fire on take off :eek:
 
On one occasion yes. I'd caught the shuttle service up to Edinburgh to visit the company's office up there (this was back before I went freelance). We came down in a gale, quite reminiscent of that Lufthansa incident to be honest. The approach to Edinburgh airport is over the Firth of Forth, and not only was the plane going from side to side, tipping and appearing to veer off course all the time, you could see just how close the water was getting every time it suddenly dropped. The engines were really screaming, and people were vomiting into bags all around me as well, just to heighten the whole experience.

Really not a pleasant flight. However, on the return trip that evening I saw the Northern Lights for the first time, so it wasn't all bad :)
 
I'm flying in about 10 days and all I keep hearing this week are terrifying plane stories :eek: I know its safer than driving but it still freaks me out.
 
I dont, I fly a lot (back and forth to visit my mom and dad). I'm flying back up to NY next week to visit my dad.

All I know is if a plane im on happens to fall I'll probably be the one to stand up and yell "OH COME ON! WHAT THE HELL?!"
 
yg17 said:
I was worried when we were landing at STL in bad storms when the plane touched down and went right back up again. The pilot took his sweet time getting on the PA and letting us know what was going on (they were going to try again in a few minutes once the weather cleared) so until the announcement, we had no idea what was happening and thought perhaps something was wrong.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, consider it a good thing when the pilots do this. A lot of accidents occur when pilots try to push a bad situation - taking it around and trying later when the situation improves is never a bad decision. How long did they wait until they got on the PA? 'Going missed' is a very, very busy time in the cockpit, so they're not going to be in a position to make a PA until they're well established on the missed approach procedure. So if it were 5-10 minutes, I can understand.
 
On a flight from Atlanta to Munich

We were getting pretty close to Munich but I guess we needed to lose some altitude fast, so we did this nosedive for like 10 seconds. As far as I know it was controlled, but you could hear an audible gasp from everyone on the plane. It was at 7 am after an all night flight, maybe the pilot just thought he would provide a free wake up call
 
akonradi said:
Having flown commercial airliners, I usually know what's easy to get through (which is pretty much everything), so I'm not usually too concerned about crashes.
Click to expand...

Like your avatar!

I agree, even when I feel shaking, I know its nothing but a bit of turbulence.
 
dmr727 said:
Believe it or not, consider it a good thing when the pilots do this. A lot of accidents occur when pilots try to push a bad situation - taking it around and trying later when the situation improves is never a bad decision. How long did they wait until they got on the PA? 'Going missed' is a very, very busy time in the cockpit, so they're not going to be in a position to make a PA until they're well established on the missed approach procedure. So if it were 5-10 minutes, I can understand.
Click to expand...

Yep, it was about 5 minutes or so. I'm glad he did it if it was indeed safer. But until we knew what was going on, it was a bit scary
 
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