Pilots’ Most Terrifying Moments
Flying can be a harrowing experience. Many things can and do go wrong that passengers don’t necessarily know about. Pilots are trained to stay calm and have nerves of steel, even under the scariest of situations.
These Redditors who have taken flight recall some of their most terrifying moments while up in the sky.
1. Shattered Nerves
I was coming back to LaGuardia from Florida late at night. Most of the people on the plane were asleep when the loudspeaker came on, and the pilot literally yelled, "EVERYONE BE SEATED AND BUCKLE UP". That was it. All chaos broke loose. Everyone was wide awake, and the flight attendants were rattled. Within 30 seconds, the plane nose-dived, which was the worst feeling ever.
This continued until we were mere feet above buildings in Atlantic City. At that point, everyone was crying and on their phones, and the attendants were freaking out.
We finally landed on the runway at LaGuardia, and while we were pulling into the gate, the pilot finally came over the loudspeaker again, apologizing for the disturbing flight.
He told us the windshield SHATTERED at 25,000 feet, and they had to nosedive to avoid the cabin losing pressure.
2. Get The Flock Out
Flocks of birds like to appear out of the grass when planes are rolling down a runway for takeoff. It happens a lot more than passengers would like to know, but usually, it's a non-event.
Every once in a while, though, that flock would appear right in front of us near rotation speed, and we just hope they're gone by the time we move through that space.
3. I Got Into A Flap
I had just received my private pilot license (PPL) and was flying around the area with my dad in a C172. We had landed at a local airport to stop and use the restroom, get something to drink, etc. In my naive excitement, I made a dire mistake. I never retracted the flaps after landing. I didn't notice this before taking off again. The first sign of an issue was that the plane wanted to lift off much earlier than it should have.
I should have taken this as a cue that something was wrong, but I did not. We started the climb out when I finally noticed the flaps were in full position. I immediately reached down and lifted the lever to retract them fully. That was my next mistake. The plane was rapidly losing lift, and I began to sink back down ominously close to the trees.
I flipped the lever back down to about halfway to stop the flaps from retracting further. This stopped my sink, and I was able to gain some speed and resume climbing. When I was in the clear, I finished retracting the flaps.
My dad was completely unaware that I almost flew us into some trees because I made a stupid rookie mistake.
4. All Cracked Up
Something smashed into the windshield, and there were many visible cracks. We had no idea what we had hit. Thankfully, it didn't go through every layer, and we remained protected from the 600-mile-per-hour winds.
However, with the sound it made and the damage it did to the windshield, I bet it was pretty close to breaking through.
We had absolutely no clue what had smashed into us; it was way too big to be a bird. My copilot guessed that we had run straight into a meteor, and honestly, I believed him since I couldn't think of any better ideas.
When it was investigated upon landing, it turned out we had hit the tag that the OP had forgotten to secure to the post.
