Has anyone here ever been involved in a plane crash? Or any kind

>>1200483
no, and neither has anyone else

plane crashes are extraordinarily rare and if one happens you probably don't need to worry about surviving it

getting in a car is much more likely to get you injured or killed than getting in a plane

>>1200483
Closet I ever came was being in a plane that had an engine fail spectacularly during take-off. Luckily it was just after he throttled up, and he brought it to a stop before the end of the runway.

>>1200483
Active ATPL fag reporting in.
I had some incidents with small aircrafts including a complete loss of power and a complete engine failure on a single engine plane. Landed both more or less safely.
On large commercial aircrafts the worst case was a angsty co pilot almost fucking up a landing below minimums and a few rejected takeoff/landings due to weather. Anything else was some non threatening stuff where we decided to turn back just because the company policy is to play it super safe.

There's nothing to be afraid of when you fly with a reputable carrier including the western super budget ones (Norwegian, EasyJet, Ryanair, Spirit etc).
All of them have new planes, qualified pilots and top tier maintenance.
Those planes won't fall out of the sky and will take you to your destination unless something goes seriously wrong.

>>1200483
Both grandfathers were pilots, and father too. Flight instructors in WW2. One grandpa flew "the Hump" in India/Burma Theatre in those crap early Douglass planes with like a 50% crash rate. Both went on to major airlines post-war and glider enthusiasts. Very highly skilled..so it was dinner table talk to talk about all NTSB findings over the years, or whatever flyertalk news. Dad was on the ground during the Lockerbie investigation and with family members of victims. Flaws are discovered and fixed, from lithium that ignites (airbus, oops), to all those horrible planes that WW2 pilots died in.
In other words, grew up traveling, so probably been in a good dozen engine failure situations in my memory none of which are recent even to this decade. Usually, they shut off the malfunctioning engine and divert to the closest airport that has that airline, sometimes the cabin gets warm, or a little smoke, and because it's trickier for the plane to be repaired with lines of credit and other concerns to quickly get you back in the air. Also, they want her to land versus get into any kind of strange weather on the remaining engines. I used to take off in St. Thomas USVI on Pan Am before they chipped away the top third of the mountain at the very end of the runway, and there was always 100% of the time a "test" takeoff that would be aborted with screaming brakes and a do-over was successful the second time around. People applauded with relief. I was on a National flight (bought by Pan Am), that had clear air turbulence drop of 10k during meal service, glass everywhere smashed on the overheads and fallen back in people's laps and hair. I remember the squeal of the wind in the drop. It was some Gs. We all survived, of course. I was really young. I've surely never felt more than a 5k drop since. Saw 9-11 while in Washington, and drove daily past the gaping burned out Pentagon, and still feel tension when they prohibit lavatories use close to landing.

>>1200521
cont.
I've had a dozen hard landings (not sure if shear or pilot skill) where you can break your molars when your teeth slam together, and feel a little twinge in your back and neck. You get that on the economy airlines where pilots are more green. I had two times they weren't sure if the landing gear had lowered so we did flybys to let the tower look at the belly and give us the all clear. No foam, just faulty sensors. I was on a plane that landed at the wrong airport once like WTF, and another the pilot had food poisoning. This is why I don't think I'd ever get on Spirit by choice. Just stay away from airlines that don't pay their pilots enough, lower tier, and stick the ones who want 20 years or more experience.

Nope, nothing serious at all. I don't know anyone who was involved in anything serious.

We've had a birdstrike once, on the way from Schiphol to Budapest. I sat right next to the engine that minced and fried all the birds, that sound was unbearable. We took off without any problems, other than the loud bang in the middle of the runway, and a constant vibration and additional noise that came from one engine out of the two. Everyone in my row pressed the assistance button immediately, while we were still above the runway, just off the ground.
Flight attendant comes by, as if nothing happened. We have to shout at the top of our lungs, cause the engine is so freaking loud. "Oh, it's just the air conditioning. But let me tell the captain." We didn't hear any of the announcements from the flight attendants, they were using their normal voices. The captain's announcements were louder, and he didn't say any of the A/C bs, he was just like... Yes, the engine is loud, but every value seems normal. He said we would climb to the maximum height, and that the sound of the engine would be more bearable once we don't have to climb anymore. It was vibrating so bad, that I just curled up in my seat at that point. Cabin crew serving tea and coffee as per usual. We reached the top, the sound was still bad... Next thing that happens is that the engine is shut off next to me (relief to my ears, also no vibration), and I see the plane turned towards the ground, we ended up doing a 180 turn while going almost straight towards the ground. The captain came on when the maneuver was nearly finished, he was like "we didn't see any issues with the engine, but our ground engineers are curious, so we let then take a look". It was such a nice and quiet landing, just floating back, they only used the engine next to me at the very end, even then there was not much thrust.

So nothing happened.

I did forget all my bank cards and identification on that plane, we took another one.... cont.

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>>1200535
Hey, it was birds that took down Sully!

They regularly poison, cage, relocate vermin like rabbits, possum, ducks off runways. It's a real issue :(
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/04/01/airports-plane-bird-strikes/2043411/

>>1200483
I was coming westbound on a Taipei-Anchorage-JFK route on a really old 747 about 8 years ago. The aircraft was probably about 20 years old at that point and aside from needing(?) the fueling stop in Alaska the fabric was gross and the cabin plastic was all sun bleached.

We went straight through a massive thunderstorm over Lake Ontario. At the leading edge there was some turbulence but quickly the captain started screaming in Chinese over the intercom for the fllght attendants to strap in. There were no translations provided, the flight attendants didn't talk the crew and my Taiwanese traveling companion get extremely worried.

We hit the heart of the storm and bodies went flying. Anyone not strapped in hit the ceiling, drinks went everywhere and there was a ton of screaming. We hit giant downdrafts and there was -1 or -2g for a few 10 second bursts.

We landed shortly after and I took pictures of the ceiling of the plane covered in water and cola.

>>1200535
And they only checked the plane like 2 days later, so for that time I was in a 'shall I block my cards or shall I wait' dilemma, but I got everything back when I went back on a temporary id, etc.

They didn't let us leave the plane while they found another one, so I saw 3 engineers inspect the engine by lying in there. Captain was like "yeah, the engineers said they could tell we had a birdstrike without looking, it has a distinct smell" lol But they kept looking obviously, they said it was around 5 smaller birds. Idk if it looked brown because we roasted them or if the feathers were brown, but the engine looked quite brown when I got off.

The flight attendant guy with the 'just the air conditioning' bs... I know it's to keep people calm, but it just made me roll my eyes. I know when and how air conditioning noises change. The guys in the cockpit luckily treated us as adults, that was very reassuring.

I still mourn my hearing a bit, I lost a bit of it that day.

But yeah, it was all cool, we could have finished our scheduled route I guess, it's just it was easier for them to get people to check the engine at the home airport.

>>1200540
Yeah, I personally vouch for training bigger birds to keep the smaller ones away.
Schiphol seems pretty good in that regard, so I guess I was really unlucky. I mean they had a special bird and engineering crew check the engine the moment we arrived.
Poor birds... I mean no way to avoid the bigger ones that fligh higher, too, but I wonder what else could be done around the ground. Is there no smell eg. that all birds hate but is neutral for humans?

Drones... They are also training birds to take care of drones in the Netherlands, but I hope people just stop flying their drones close to planes.

>>1200535
>"Oh, it's just the air conditioning. But let me tell the captain."
Flight attendants don't say things like this because they're stupid. It's because if they affirmed anything and said "Omg yes look at that bad engine, major problem!" that makes people on the plane liable to panic and not follow orders. It's more beneficial for the attendants to downplay a situation than risk saying something that would alarm the sheep.
Sorry if that insults your intelligences in any way, but it's the truth of the matter.

>>1200516

I need to hear this more often pilot anon, thank you. I don't like flying that much anymore. Gives me anxiety.

And I was flying from Charlotte to JFK about two months ago and my plane overshot the runway. Scared the fucking shit out of me but we turned around and made it back safe.

>>1200483
Knew an older woman that was traveling in Germany with her husband.

Was in the airport in Frankfurt going back home with a layover- suddenly they were bumped off the flight and they had to take another one. Then this happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
They were literally one spontaneously random decision away from certain death.
Absolute fucking luck on their part.

I also met two guys in Austria who were taking a plane from Brussels 2 hours before the bombing happened there last year.

Not a crash but coming into San Francisco my plane got battered by some pretty high gusts. We actually were going to miss the runway but the pilot just throttled it and we circled again before landing

>>1200647
I see what you mean, but it made the flight attendant lose face real quick... The captain was speaking about the engines the whole time, yet he made it sound reassuring. The tone they use matters a lot, too.

>>1200483
Never had anything serious, only thing I would say is if you're very nervous there are certain destinations that maybe aren't smart to go to for your first trip.

Like the approach in Lisbon is a bit uncomfortable where you fly very low over the city for a long time.

>>1201007
Nooo, I'm going to Lisbon for the first time next week. Okay, I've flown a couple of hundred times already, so I should be fine.

>>1200483
Just high winds and being unable to land because of storms a few times. One of my coworkers worked in Antarctica in the mid 1980s, not long after the Falklands War. On the Air Force flight there, an Argentinian AA site locked up the plane but an officer on the ground caught it and stopped them before they could launch. Apparently they thought the C-130 was a British plane full of paratroopers trying to jump out over Argentina.

I fly a lot, nothing ever happened. Sometimes the plane shakes.

Love how calm the pilots and ATC are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhZwsYtNDE

Had to return about 10 minutes after we took off because the pilots forgot to fill the tank. Of course I only realized that this was the reason after we landed.

>>1200483
I also suffer from this completely irrational fear. No matter how safe I know it is (more so than driving), I still can't get over it. That is, until my buddy gave me a xanax for a flight I had to take for work..

Now, I talk to my doctor every time I fly and get a prescription for just a few pills for my flight. I used to be nervous days before my flight, but now even just knowing I have the crutch helps so much that I'm not even nervous waiting at the gate. Just pop the xanax 30 minutes before takeoff, and I couldn't care less.

I really think that it has made me so comfortable flying that I can eventually stop taking it. Although I probably won't, because it helps me sleep on long flights.

It's worth a shot. If you take the right amount, it doesn't really make you high, just makes you not really feel anything. I'll take 0.5mg on shorter flights, 1mg for anything 6+ hours.

>>1200542
Post pics please? I would have died right there of an anxiety attack. Tho, that's why I take a good those of Xanax before flying.

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>Benching 80kg in the cabin gym
>I can usually do more, but no one was around to spot me, so I wanted to play it safe
>While I'm lifting the bar, and bringing it down, I feel turbulence
>OHFUCK.bmp
>seatbelt sign comes on
>what_the_fuck_i'm_on_the_bench
>Painfully lift the bar, and try and put it in place
>"I COULD REALLY USE A SPOT RIGHT NOW" I shout
>air hostess runs in, squeals "SIR Please return to your seat"
>She realises the predicament I'm in
>She runs out, calls someone, 20 seconds later the pilot walks in
>He is buff as fuck
>The turbulence is getting extreme
>One of the air hostesses grabs him, while he is lifting the bar with me and putting it in place
>After it's safely on the rack, I get up, secure the bar down, and thank the pilot and air hostess.
>The pilot says "No worries, get back to your seat now", nods and walks back, presumably to the cockpit
>Air hostess escorts me to my seat
>I crash on the seat, arms sore as fuck
Fuck me, never again.

After that, everytime I want to hit the cabin gym, and there's no one there, I just walk back, find the buffest guy, and ask if he wants to do a set with me

>>1202525
I've never even heard of planes with gyms before.

>>1202544
Someone is trying to force a new meme.

>>1202560
Wondering if it's some Emirates emoloyer?

>>1202544
>>1202560
All the international flights I've been on have had one...

>>1202566
this

>>1202566
>>1202568
At least try to force a funnier meme. Like a swimming pool.

>>1202560
>>1202575
guys, this is First Class - of course you never heard about it

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>>1200483

I'm a huge fan of that show "air emergency". And once when I was flying through Texas we encounter severe turbulence, and I thought that our plane would make it onto the show. man, I thought I was going to die of a few moments. I've flown many times and encounter turbulence before, but nothing like this. Phones,papers, and cups end up in the floor. And I'm a pretty tough individual, but I actual grabbed a hold of the dude sitting next to me. however, It felt kind of awkward once everything returned to normal.

I went through really bad turbulence once and the oxygen masks dropped down from the ceiling. All in all it was not that bad though.

>>1202575
"The Big Bus" had a one-lane bowling alley. Not sure if I am only thinking I am remembering a pool because you mentioned it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68dTwJNvE1E

I used to have to take this shitty puddle jumper when I worked in the Marshall Islands. Every time I flew from Roi Namur to Kwajalein, we'd cram in this 12 seater plane and take off.

There were probably a dozen times where shit was bad enough that even the pilots were sketching out, and high-fiving one another when we finally landed. It's a bit surreal when you don't have anything blocking your view of the cockpit, and you can see the pilot and co-pilot be visibly worried about whether we were going to have to crash land on some shitty atoll, or worse, ditch in the ocean and hope that the sharks didn't eat us.

>>1200483
Flown over 250 times.

Never.

>>1200483
>watching air disasters today
>plane crashed because the pilot flipped an instrument switch the wrong way because it was different than his training simulator
>instrument malfunctioned and gave faulty data to both pilot/co-pilot instead of them getting data from separate instruments
>if he hadn't flipped that switch the wrong way 50 people wouldn't have been killed
Just have a little less faith in pilots now, still not too afraid of flying

>>1202724
Yes, Texas, especially, West Texas, is a bitch. Extremely windy.

I took a very small (but a major commercial) airline from Dallas to Midland. Landing in Midland is always pretty sketchy and turbulant but on one particular flight we straight up just dropped out of the sky for like 5 seconds. My drink went everywhere and I almost suffocated from anxiety, and Im not someone who is scared of flying or reacts overdramatically to turbulence.

Doesnt sound bad but out of all my years of multiple annual flights and international travel, I had yet to experience anything like that (knock on wood) except when flying into Midland in West Texas. Doesnt surprise me though, the place is stupid windy. My car even gets close to getting blown on to the shoulder of the highway sometimes when Im just going for a drive.

>>1200483
I intensely hate flying, it's uncivilized and the passengers are half the problem.

That said, i've flown twice on commercial jets. I was at the very back of an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Edmonton. After take off as we're climbing a food cart got away from the girl and rolled down all the way to the back & crashed next to me. Already a nervous flyer it startled the shit out of me. Then later I watched a very drunk guy trying to open the door near me and several of us had to yell to get the FA's attention as he was fumbling with the emergency release lever. Thoughts of that United B747 incident near Hawaii a few months earlier running thru my freaked out brain. But that's about it.

I think I'm pretty unlucky because I've had two pretty bad experiences:

1) went on exchange to glorious Nippon when I was 15, my first international flight. Halfway through the flight have absolutely insane turbulence. 747 thrown around so suddenly people went flying, carts knocked over etc. Went on for almost 30 min, people puking and praying and all that. No announcements from the captain because lolJAL, air hostesses only talking in Japanese. Had to make an emergency landing in Singapore because a bunch of people got injured. Pretty much traumatized me, had terrible flight phobia up until my 20's.

2) flying to New Zealand and landing at a shitty tiny coastal airport, really strong cross wind, looked out the window and could see the runway when we were landing, plane touches down for like a second then suddenly hitches back up and the plane roars and shakes like it's gonna explode, and starts to climb again to make another attempt. same thing, one more time and the plane finally lands. not so dangerous but pretty scary at the time.

bonus: smacked my nose on the seat in front of me during wild turbulence on a flight over the Andes. whole face and shirt covered in blood, didn't bring spare clothes, and then TAM lost my bags. top kek, fuck brazil.

>>1202864

COPA 201, right?

Worked as an air traffic controller for over 30 years, and taken hundreds of flights.

Had a few bad turbulence experiences, thunderstorms, a lightening strike, and some minor equipment stuff that caused some missed approaches. Over ran the runway twice and a few of very hard landings.

I have never felt like it was about to all be over. Does it happen, yes but the chances are so low you can not worry about it. Besides when you are on a plane you have no control and there is nothing you can do.