Anybody watch the Airplane disasters specials on MSNBC tonight? Pretty fascinating and scary stuff. This is why I HATE flying, there are just so many things to go wrong mechanically and humanly. I dont care if the odds are 1 in a Million, I always have to imagine im that ONE!

In one case, a couple of 737's were brought down by nothing more than the wake of other aircraft miles ahead of them. That was one of the most mysterious cases.

The infamous United Airlines flight 232 disaster was caused by a tiny defect smaller than the size of a pea on the fan disk of the number 2 engine.

In a positive note, check out this picture of a TACA (latin airline) 737 on a levee outside New Orleans in 1988! This was the ONLY TIME in HISTORY that a commercial airliner had COMPLETELY lost power to BOTH of its engines and was able to land completely safely. They fixed the engines and flew the old girl right off the levee!!

http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/taca-msy/1.jpg

This is a great site where you can see videos and photos and transcripts of several Air crashes throughout history... http://www.airdisaster.com/movies/

Theres another TACA Airlines one on there where the 767 overshot the runway at Guatemala's La Aurora international airport. My dad remembers seeing the plane locked behind some gates for several months or years after the crash.

im terrifcly afird of flying ....just last night i watched a story about a airbus a330 that coasted 75 miles without its engines to some island in the azores...

then dropped my family off at the airport to go to washington dc at 5am this morning ....this subject always comes up before they fly ...i quit flying in april of 2003 , and even then i had to be sedated to be placed on the plane from alaska to florida ....im still pretty bad , i get real nervous just driving into the airport to drop someone off , cuz i keep thinking "im gonna get tricked and end up on a plane this time "....


of all the planes i flew on the ones that always freaked me out the most were tristars and the md11s , you know the planes with the engine in the tail in addition to the ones on the wings , when i was a kid i heard about the one crash where the fan came apart and sevred all three hyrolic systems , they had to steer it off the engine thrust

i love how people say "well flying is safer then driving" ...which is nice but then tell me the figure of people that surive plane crashes vs those that survive car crashes ....see in a car crash you wont fall 36,000 feet and have time to think about it ....

i gate being 20 feet off the ground , much less 36k

My thoughts exactly, most people will survive a car crash, but wont survive a plane crash.

The incident you talk about with the severed Hydraulic lines was the Mcdonnell Douglas DC10 which was the United Flight 232 I mentioned above. They could only make right turns and had to steer it off thrust attempting to make the runway. 184 people survived, but 112 died. It was a miracle anyone survived that accident as the fuselage was torn to pieces upon impact.

I probably wouldnt mind flying sedated actually, if I dont know Im dying I probably wouldnt much care. MY FEAR of flying is that you have so MUCH TIME to PONDER your death as your going down. You see the earth coming toward you and there isnt one damn thing you can do about it. You are completely in someone else's hands.

I am one of the few people who went from liking planes and not being afraid of them, to getting more afraid each time I fly. Everything I do my palms sweat and every noise I hear sends shivers down my spine. Every creak and rattle, buzz and humm drives me insane.

You guys would hate to fly with me then. I hope for really bad turbulance. I love the feeling of dropping realy fast. And I always lean over to my wife and tell her where going down. and say to her whats that smell. I smell something burning. She hates to fly with me sitting next to her. I do not enjoy flying coach though. Only first class, since I am a big guy.

You guys would hate to fly with me then. I hope for really bad turbulance. I love the feeling of dropping realy fast. And I always lean over to my wife and tell her where going down. and say to her whats that smell. I smell something burning. She hates to fly with me sitting next to her. I do not enjoy flying coach though. Only first class, since I am a big guy.

Evil! Pure evil!! :thumbsup:

I love flying, im one of the rare ones that likes the takeoff. Only risky thing ive ever experienced was approach into Anchorage intl in an MD-80, boy that was fun; had to be doing 30-40 degree banks in our holding pattern just for some small planes to land. Moderate to heavy turbulence a few times... major sudden drops arent comforting.


Helicopters are 50 times worse though, especially if you're in a gaspowered 2 seater with a 20kt crosswind like I was... :suspense:

Helicopters are 50 times worse though, especially if you're in a gaspowered 2 seater with a 20kt crosswind like I was... :suspense:


I agree helicopters made me and my wife a little nervous. We took a ride through the Smokey Mountains in one. I did enjoy it and would do it again. It was just a weird felling flying so close to the peaks and ridges of the mountains, and hitting the wind drifts over each mountain.

OMG... You guys have to hear this Air Traffic Control tape from Korea Airlines Flight 801...

For some morbid reason this made me laugh... these ATC guys sound SOO MATTER OF FACT its hard to take them seriously... "oh well it must have crashed then"

http://www.airdisaster.com/download2/kal801.shtml

actually , ironiclly the only thing i felt safe flying in was the blackhawk helecopter i flew in once a week to work ...didnt mind it one bit after the first ride when the piolt decided to show me how they "auto gyro" in a emergency landing ...THAT was scary ...after that i knew i was in good hands hauling ass across the tundra looking at the wildlife from the gunners seat

I agree helicopters made me and my wife a little nervous. We took a ride through the Smokey Mountains in one. I did enjoy it and would do it again. It was just a weird felling flying so close to the peaks and ridges of the mountains, and hitting the wind drifts over each mountain.

My cousin is a major airline pilot, anyway, he said that those helecopter guys have to have strong stomachs because they are always up and down, and at varying speeds etc. very different from large planes.

I had some family through my step dad that crashed in Montana around 1990 in the winter time. Anyway, it was a remote area and they all died, but they never found the bodies until that following spring.

Some Arkansas pilots were just killed in Saskatchewan a few days ago!

A sad event as they put on a good show and the footage was incredible!

Out of 20,000 spectators, amazingly no one else was hurt.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/07/10/biplane-050710.html

Ill tell you what... I aint ever ridin on a frieken Airbus anything... those planes are downed more than anyother over electronic glitches. They are like the Mercedes of the sky... well crafted and solid, but so overengineered that the pilots often find themselves either unable to override the aircraft, or stuff just fails altogether.

Also I thought it was common practice that if an aircraft was involved in any sort of accident damaging any major component of the plane or piercing the fuselage, that that plane was done for good and scrapped. Apparently that was not 100 percent correct, as most foreign airlines seem to fix anything but severely damaged aircraft and return them to service.

Also I thought it was common practice that if an aircraft was involved in any sort of accident damaging any major component of the plane or piercing the fuselage, that that plane was done for good and scrapped. Apparently that was not 100 percent correct, as most foreign airlines seem to fix anything but severely damaged aircraft and return them to service.

I thought they were scrapped too... That's slightly worrying, I wouldn't want to travel on something like that, I know it's probably safe but it's still worrying, like when you crash your car, its never the same even if you have the damage fixed? I don't know maybe i'm overreacting there.

Flying doesn't really bother me, I can cope with it all, except for the landing, I HATE landing.

I used to not care for flying until I had a job that had a nationwide customer base and teams in Detroit, Philly, and Dallas. Airlines became a useful tool for me - flying 3-4 times a month. But, that was all pre-911. With all the security delays, luggage BS, and airline problems, I'm glad I don't have to travel for work currently.

Three funny (in retrospect) incidents while flying:

- Flying from Indy to Detroit in something like a 9 passenger turbo prop in the late afternoon during the spring. Looking through the open cutain to the cockpit, I could see a big thunderstorm ahead on radar. I kept thinking that we were going to veer off to the left or right any minute. The pilot reached back, closed the curtain, and we started the roller coaster ride through the storm.

- Flew into Palm Springs on New Years Day to visit my parents in the late '70s on Hughes Air West - another turbo prop from LAX. I don't know what the pilot was thinking, but we nearly touched down in the desert, hopped over the road, and found the runway.

- On a Northwest flight from LaGuardia to Detroit, we aborted the takeoff shortly after throttle-up on a DC-9. We taxied around while the pilot revved the engines a number of times. We figured we were headed back to the gate, but the pilot got back in line for takeoff and announced that the "Problem seems to have taken care of itself." There wasn't a sound from anyone during takeoff.

- On a Northwest flight from LaGuardia to Detroit, we aborted the takeoff shortly after throttle-up on a DC-9. We taxied around while the pilot revved the engines a number of times. We figured we were headed back to the gate, but the pilot got back in line for takeoff and announced that the "Problem seems to have taken care of itself." There wasn't a sound from anyone during takeoff.


LMAO!!! THATS GOLDEN!!

Man that sounds like what we computer techs tell the associates when we really have no earthly clue what the hell just happened :D

LMAO!!! THATS GOLDEN!!

+1

I'm reading this thread in the Northwest lounge in Detroit having just come in on the LaGuardia to Detroit flight on an Airbus and getting ready to board my 5th flight to Shanghai this year via Tokyo. You guys really know how to make a guy feel good about flying :) Actually I've already gone platinum on Northwest twice this year and do enjoy flying.

you left your V ? i hope you found a V sitter ...

if not ill gladly watch ...er drive it for ya ....you know keep the seat warm ....i was real good at that in highschool .....stupid football coach

I'm reading this thread in the Northwest lounge in Detroit having just come in on the LaGuardia to Detroit flight on an Airbus and getting ready to board my 5th flight to Shanghai this year via Tokyo. You guys really know how to make a guy feel good about flying :) Actually I've already gone platinum on Northwest twice this year and do enjoy flying.

aww man that sux... what a coincedence! Sorry about that :hide: Would it help if I said enjoy your flight? :D

My shortwave radio picks up local Sea-Tac airport as well as the HF signals of trans-pacific flights, pretty interesting. I've never been afraid of flying but it is morbidly fascinating to watch giant planes turned to scrap. They really are fragile things.

I used to fire up Flight Simulator 5 during a flight and mirror the exact route.

These days, I avoid flying unless I'm going overseas. Everyone looks at me like I'm Osama's brother!

I used to fire up Flight Simulator 5 during a flight and mirror the exact route.

These days, I avoid flying unless I'm going overseas. Everyone looks at me like I'm Osama's brother!

I take it growing a beard is not a safe option for you? :histeric: