Flying is the safest transportation that ever existed! In fact, based on this incredible safety record, if you did fly every day of your life, probability indicates that it would take you nineteen thousand years before you would succumb to a fatal accident. Nineteen thousand years!
You are actually more likely to die from a bee sting than from a commercial flight, however, that doesn`t mean you do not get scared when something unusual happens mid-flight! Pilots themselves get scared sometimes as they shared in the stories below:
1.“I spent three hours dodging lightning”
I was flying from Boston to Columbus, Ohio, and in between us was a huge line of thunderstorms. In events like that, Air Traffic Control (ATC) will, in short, let you draw your own flight path to dodge the intense weather cells. The plane has weather radar in the nose and gives us a visual map of red “spots” to avoid. The flight was three hours long, and the Captain and I were spending every second of that time flying up, down, left, and right, dodging lightning and turbulence. Sweat was pouring down my face as I was using my best judgment on which direction to fly. We must have done a good job because the flight attendant called up to the flight deck to say all the passengers were sound asleep!—Reddit user purcerh
2.“My co-pilot almost committed suicide mid-flight”
My dad is a pilot. For years, he worked with a first officer known as the crazy guy in the company. He was creepy and often talking nonsense to himself. One day, the guy seemed increasingly agitated whilst flying with Dad. My dad felt scared that the pilot would attempt to dive the plane into the ground. When the guy snapped out of it, he whispered, “Not today…think happy thoughts…not today…” Rest assured, the pilot no longer has his license.—Reddit user wolfiegirl88
3.“I flew through volcanic ash”
Military pilot here. I was on a flight leaving Sigonella, Italy. Mount Etna had been erupting for the past four hours, but ATC cleared the southern sector to be free of volcanic ash. We flew directly into an ash cloud at 2000 feet remaining in the volcanic ash cloud for over 20 minutes. We had no luck climbing and punching out of the ash cloud, so we ended up doing an emergency descent to 1000 feet to get out of clouds. We started experiencing engine malfunctions and had to secure two out of our four engines. Unfortunately in Europe, ATC is not responsible for obstacle clearance, and we received a vector that would have flown us straight into a mountain. We caught the error and navigated back to the field to conduct a 2-engine emergency landing without incident. I literally expected every engine to cut out. I didn’t expect to make it out of that volcanic ash cloud alive. Look up what volcanic ash does to jet engines.—Reddit user besmircherz.
4.“My engine caught on fire”
Over the years I’ve had many incidents that might seem scary to some, but in reality are events that we train for and prepare for so the outcome is mundane and successful. I do remember when I was a brand new Captain on a Beech 1900 (19 seat turboprop with two pilots and no flight attendant) and was taking off at night. A passenger came up and tapped me on the shoulder (we kept the cockpit door open most of the time) and calmly said, “Sir, are you aware your left engine is on fire?” I had no indications as such so I sent my copilot back to calm down an obvious nervous flyer. My copilot came back about five seconds later with the words, “Dude! Flames!” Right about that time, all the bells and whistles went off and we got busy with the fire/shutdown checklist. Landed uneventfully, swapped planes, and went on our way.—Reddit user FlyingSig.
5.“We almost collided right after takeoff”
ATC gave my plane clearance to take off on runway 35 (north) at airport GFK while simultaneously allowing for a similar aircraft to depart from runway 26 (west). These runways cross one another. We almost collided at 500 AGL (above ground level). The other aircraft was so close I could make out the expression on the pilot’s face.—Reddit user Laaksonen
Sources: Reader`s Digest, Anxieties
