Pilots Share Their Most Terrifying Untold Stories

From HarborMaster1:HarborMaster1:

Half the passengers knew nothing; the other half likely crapped. My father, a captain for Eastern Airlines, told a story about almost hitting takeoff speed while another commercial jet taxied across his runway. He went too fast to abort, so he pulled up early and cleared the other plane by mere feet (I do not recall the exact distance). His passengers were unaware, but the other plane's passengers saw everything. I do not know what happened to the other pilot, but my dad got an apology call from him that evening.

From tostilocos:

Private pilot here (I fly a small Cessna 172). I have had a few incidents:

Shortly after getting licensed, I flew my wife's parents to Catalina. Four adults and enough fuel for the round trip (no gas on the island), we were heavy, but within the plane's limits (I did all my weight and balance calculations the night before and consulted my instructor since I had only been licensed a few months prior). The flight to the island went smoothly. We ate lunch, walked around, and headed back in the early afternoon.

Before takeoff, I got the WX report and saw it was warmer than earlier in the day (planes take off worse in warm weather). I redid the calculations; we stayed within limits for our weight, temperature, and runway length. My instructor taught me warm takeoffs, so I was ready for a takeoff roll longer than normal.

We lined up at the runway end. I held the brakes and brought the engine up, then rolled out. Speed built, but I felt the plane not getting lighter. We hit normal rotation speed (around 75 knots), and I rotated gently. The nose lifted, the back wheels lifted slightly, then the plane settled back onto the runway. At this point, my sphincter tightened, and I seriously thought about stopping the takeoff. Catalina's runway ends at a cliff—overshoot means plunging into the ocean. I checked the airspeed; it climbed steadily, so I knew we would be fine. Sure enough, we hit about 85 knots, I rotated again, and this time we were off.

We had a nice flight home, landed without trouble. After landing, my family said the whole trip was smooth and pleasant. I waited a bit before telling my Dad that I almost locked the brakes and killed the engine on takeoff to avoid running off the cliff.

The second incident was less severe. I took a friend up a few weeks after getting licensed. We did some sightseeing then returned to home airport, where crosswinds had increased a lot. You train for crosswinds.a lotYou don't get to experience these moments as much as you want with your instructor. I knew they were within my limits, but they were still stronger than anything I had landed in before. I crabbed the thing sideways near the ground (in a crosswind, point the nose into the wind and use aileron to compensate, then throw the plane straight before touchdown). I made adjustments the entire way; it took a lot of work and was nerve-wracking. I touched down a bit rough and had to correct further, but I got her in safely. My buddy said, 'Man, that was a smooth landing!' Meanwhile, I tried to stop my hand from shaking as I brought the throttle down.

Fromjfrye1:

"I am a pilot with about 300 hours. I own a 1967 Cessna 172(single engine, four seats), and I absolutely love my airplane. I flew my mom to visit my dad in another state for my first flight after my check ride.

Everything is going great so far. The flight was smooth, no winds, and no clouds in the sky. My mom sleeps in the back seat. We descend toward our destination when the plane starts shaking violently. I scan my instruments and see an immediate RPM drop. The plane shakes so much I fear the engine will come loose. Luckily, an airport is less than five miles away. I land, shut the engine, sit quietly, and calm my nerves. Then I hear my mom say, 'Oh, we're here...'

She slept through the whole event. She woke up right after I shut down the engine. I explained what happened. She felt grateful she slept through it. My engine, a Continental O300, was near its time between overhauls (TBO). A piston began to break apart. We got back in the air after a $20,000 engine overhaul.

FromAviatorDave:

"My biggest 'oh crap' moment was when my windshield shattered at 26,000 feet. Passengers knew about this because you could see right into the cockpit from the cabin.

Pilots rarely have actual 'oh crap' moments. Usually, a mechanical malfunction surprises them. I think it links strongly to your flight time. More experience means you say it less often. There is an aviation saying: 'You start with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you run out of luck.'

There is a saying in aviation about learning to fly: 'You start out with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you run out of luck.'

Fromzscn:

"Pilot of an Airbus 320 here. I was flying into a high elevation port in Asia at 23,000 feet on descent when I had a totalloss of electrical power.All screens went dark, including standby instruments and emergency lighting. Airbus designed this aircraft with three electrical generators plus power from batteries and the emergency generator. This design ensures it is never The pilots ran out of fuel; electrical power failed even with engine failure. The auxiliary power unit ran, a scenario pilots do not train for.

Screens partially recovered. Twelve warnings followed, each from a different onboard system. We landed safely. Passengers noticed nothing except the cabin lights briefly went out.

Imagine driving at 100 km/hr on the highway. Suddenly, all windows cover you. You lose the speedometer and all electrics. The brakes and accelerator offer no response. Yet, you still feel the car moving.

From CriticalMach:

An airline pilot here, four years flying. I flew toward a small Midwestern airport in summer. On approach, onboard equipment alerted us to climb immediately to avoid another plane. I climbed as told, saw the plane below, and continued the approach.

Three miles to the runway, we saw heavy rain approaching the field. It looked far enough away. The rain hit us about 100 feet off the runway. We went completely white out; nothing was visible outside the windshield. We started a go-around. We dropped to 20 feet before the plane finally climbed. After exiting the rain, about 500 feet up, we could see again.another We received an alert for a helicopter directly in front of us. This time, we were told to descend.

Overall, the most hecticand terrifying series of events in my entire time in aviation.

I pilot, though I am not certified. I am a certified A&P mechanic. The scariest moment happened a year ago. I flew from Key West to Columbus to see family. We approached CMH smoothly. Suddenly, I heard the engines fire wall. The nose pitched up about 15 to 20 degrees. It was an extreme enough maneuverThis maneuver made everyone in the cabin snap alert and look around to see why. I knew the problem was outside, so I looked outside for clues on the wings.

Looking out, I saw a small Piper aircraft pass about 200 feet off our wing tip. It passed about 150 feet below us in the opposite direction. How did I know it was so close? I saw the pilot wearing white and a blue shirt.

As the Piper passed, the nose pitched back down, and the engines throttled down. I waited to be one of the last to deplane. The pilots performed their usual thanks for flying. I quickly asked, "near midair?" The pilot gave a serious look and nodded, but did not answer. Then, he smiled and thanked the people behind me.

They knew something was happening. I was the only one who saw it looking out the window at the right time. Everyone else looked inside.

From besmircherz:"Military pilot here. I flew from Sigonella, Italy. Mount Etna erupted for four hours, but ATC cleared the southern sector as clear of ash. We flew straight into an ash cloud at 2000 feet. We stayed in the ash cloud for over 20 minutes. We could not climb or exit the ash cloud. We made an emergency descent to 1000 feet to escape the cloud. Engine malfunctions began. We secured two of our four engines. ATC in Europe does not clear obstacles. They gave us a vector that would have sent us into a mountain. We caught the error and flew back to the field for a two-engine emergency landing. No incident occurred.

I expected every engine to fail. I did not expect to survive that volcanic ash cloud. Look up what volcanic ash does to jet engines.

Fromg1344304:

I fly 737s for a major airline. The scariest incident involved a circling approach to land on runway 08 in Innsbruck, Austria. We train a lot for Innsbruck. It sits in a tight valley with mountains reaching 13,000 feet. This demands three pilots, not two, due to the complexity. We have three escape maneuvers if trouble hits (we cannot out-climb the mountains). Losing an engine creates a bad day, but we train for it. The circling approach brings us near terrain on the left. We then dive over power lines on a ridge, a few hundred feet below the plane, while turning onto short final. Briefing states: 'once clear of the power cables, increase rate of descent to over 1000-feet-per-minute.' During the approach, winds were wild, and the plane moved constantly, yet we kept it stable and landed. When the aircraft stopped, my heart pounded; I sweated a lot—a bad feeling. Passengers praised the approach: 'awesome approach,' 'great landing.' They did not know all three pilots were terrified! Imagine this with snowstorms, clouds, gale winds, and obscured mountains. The valley is too tight for normal turns, so we use special procedures for tight emergency turns or go around.

I flew into Pristina, Kosovo. That airfield has basic navigation. Air Traffic Control gave us a big shortcut, meaning we flew much higher than planned. We resolved this by diving the plane fast with a steep descent, a normal move, but we needed to get down. Pristina also has high mountains right near the final approach. Hurling toward the final approach in thick cloud, low altitude (below the mountains), our navigation screens went blank. For about 20 seconds, we had no idea where we were (only near a huge mountain at high speed). Then, the air traffic controller spoke, "Are your navigation systems okay? You are two miles from where you should be." That was a moment of panic. We aborted the approach, found a safe altitude, and landed on the other runway. Passengers did not know anything.

Last flight, landing in Jersey, UK. Jersey has a very short runway; it is the shortest we land on, with one end over a cliff into the sea. 737s can land there, but we are limited by weight and wind. We use maximum brakes and reverse thrust. With a headwind, it is fine, but it is never comfortable. One day, we hit the maximum tailwind allowed, meaning a longer landing distance due to ground speed, at maximum weight—right at the limit. The captain floated the landing for half a second but touched down just inside the markers. I never thought we would stop in time; I thought we would hit the sea. We made it. Passengers in Jersey expect hard braking, so they were unaware. Our performance calculations are precise; it worked out.

From theseblueskies:

"I am a commercial airline captain on a newish Embraer 175. One of the scariest things I faced was when a cabin pressure control channel failed, and we started losing pressurization fast."

Pressurization matters because the air is thin at flight levels above 30,000 feet. Higher up, your time to think clearly drops to about 30 seconds. This is a scary thought and demands quick action, usually a steep emergency descent. Pilots become very busy during this descent and you won't hear from them.

Our pressure controller has two channels. It switches to the second channel if one fails. We flew toward descent, briefing arrival. Ears started popping badly. I saw the pressurization climbing fast. I started a steep, non-emergency descent. I flipped the switch to manual, then back to auto. This switched the channel to the working one. We continued without issue.

Passengers noticed their ears popping. It scared us for about 80 seconds.

Maintenance control wanted us to 'defer' the pressurization channel over the phone. This means they will fix it later. This is a safe way to keep flights on time with a minor or redundant break. I told them I would insist someone inspect the plane to confirm it was safe to fly.

The mechanics were.It was not.being reckless. These channels rarely fail. Having two offers backup. They can defer them with little safety worry. I asked for an inspection. They agreed without question. Some mechanics have strong pilot relationships; this is rare at my workplace.

From.Deep_Rights.:

"I am a commercial (corporate) pilot."

I flew a small charter jet as a passenger to a business event. I work in several roles at my company. I noticed rough turbulence on our descent, then rough bumps quickly. Other passengers were nervous. I unbuckled and looked up front to check. (I posted this before; people got angry. I knew the front guys, so I wasn't just a passenger. I wouldn't do this to strangers because it's annoying and likely dangerous.)

We had a completely shattered right windscreen with dark red streaks. Copilot reported a bird strike from a cloud. I nodded and sat down, telling others everything was fine. The pilot told ATC about the situation. We got priority and good air routing to avoid too much navigation. This happened below 10,000 feet, yet it was still somewhat dangerous.

Jet windscreens can shatter but stay intact. Outside air did not rush into or out of the cabin. That would cause trouble.

From.Virgadays.:

"Airline pilots generally tell passengers only what they need to know. If a malfunction passengers cannot see, hear, or smell, and it does not immediately affect the flight, do not tell anything. It can only cause panic."

Almost a decade ago, during cruise, the thrust reverser on engine two suddenly unlocked. This was a near failure we trained for in the simulator, but you do not expect it in real life. We pulled the engine back to idle fast. Full deployment on cruise power could cause structural damage, leading to yaw motion (Lauda 004 and TAM 402). Adjusting the throttle, we saw the 'thrust reverser unlocked' warning only appeared at high power. Maintenance confirmed we left engine two running at low power. This let us reach our destination without risking airframe stress. Shutting it down completely would force a diversion; the remaining engine lacked the power for necessary electricity, pressurization, and thrust to cruise.

Passengers noticed less engine noise from the aircraft's right side. They also saw a slight delay. Nothing else suggested a problem.

Piloting a small aircraft for a sightseeing flight with three passengers, I hit an engine failure. This was partly my fault, but a big lesson. Five minutes in, I saw the right fuel tank empty. I checked the tanks before departure; indicators are unreliable, so I suspected instrument failure over a leak. Releasing the controls, the plane flew straight and level, as expected with two full tanks. Still, safety first. I leaned the fuel/air mixture slightly to improve fuel economy (piston engine fuel mixture usually has extra fuel for combustion; evaporated fuel cools the engine internally).

Watching the engine temperature, I reduced the mixture. Then, the engine stopped. The aircraft went silent and started gliding. I pushed the nose slightly to keep the propeller spinning. I used the emergency checklist from memory and the engine roared back to life at full mixture. I told my passengers to shift gears; they did not know what happened. On the ground, we found one of the two magnetos supplying spark plugs had failed.

From buschdogg:

My father is a commercial pilot. He flew a 747-400 as co-captain, then a 757 as captain for decades.

A couple years ago, he got upset about this post. He was in Brazil or Buenos Aires. On takeoff, the tire blew. It ripped a huge hole through the wing. He dumped thousands of gallons of fuel and landed the plane. The news report said, 'A plane did an emergency landing today; no one was hurt.'

Mechanics and people involved claimed they could not believe he landed the plane in that state. They said he should have crashed. He got angry they did not tell the passengers. He did not want to fly for months. He was shaken. He sent the damage pictures to me and told me to leak them.

From An Imbroglio:

"I am an air traffic controller, for the record."

I had a pilot go NORDO. They stopped using my frequency; they misheard or their radio failed. This happens often. We have ways to get you back where you need to be.

This pilot went NORDO at the worst time. He was heading east, so he was at a high altitude. He lost his radio. His flight plan told him to turn south. This meant he should have been at a lower altitude, which he clearly was not.

About a dozen planes went north at his altitude. I had to move through all these people while I descended and climbed to clear their way.

Then, the pilot chose an even altitude alone, ignoring the fact he should be at an odd one.

Remember all those planes I moved? He put himself right back into them. With over 1,000 knots per hour closure rates, you have little time to react. My muscles were so tight that when I stood up, the seat moved with me.

From mediocre_robot:

"My friend was a co-pilot on a commercial flight from Toronto to Los Angeles. It was the scariest flight I took. Hearing the co-pilot's view after the flight made it scarier."

The flight went smoothly until we made the descent into Los Angeles airport (LAX) just after 10 PM. Looking out the window, I saw we were twenty meters from the runway. Then, all the lights flickered, and the plane went dark! Engines instantly roared, and we pulled back up.

The plane kept rising. We circled in total darkness as people shared worries. The flight circled for about 20 minutes. Then, the pilot spoke about technical problems. They discussed the issue with ATC to land safely. The circling went on for almost an hour. Pitch black felt like forever. Lights never came on. We got a notice about landing.thiswas one scary decent! This was the bumpiest decent I have ever been part of. They constantly lifted us from our seats. The seatbelt light mattered this time. People screamed every time. I held onto the armrests while we defied gravity, swaying left and right. Seeing the runway lights near, the plane hit the runway. The engines roared again as we slowed. The plane stopped. It waited on the runway for a tow to the docking area. Relief filled the cabin. If everyone was on toilets, every one needed a flush.

After landing, I met the co-pilot hours later. They planned to meet for a day before he flew out of town. He explained they lost electrical power. They lost several communication methods. Flight information was unavailable to the pilots. The pilots had to land the plane manually with almost no help. It was night, visibility was poor, and flight data was limited. This made for a bad landing. He admitted it was the scariest flight he has flown.

FromMrWooHoo:

"My cousin flew for a feeder airline. He went down at night into Pittsburg during an ice storm. A bright flash and explosion hit right in front of the cockpit. He and his copilot saw or heard nothing. Blind, they boosted power and climbed out. After ten to twenty seconds, their hearing and sight returned. They saw the flight instruments spinning randomly. Calmly, they followed the checklist and restarted the plane. Ten minutes later, they landed without incident."

Ground inspection showed ahole the size of a pencila hole about a foot in front of the windscreen and a smaller mark on one prop blade. Lightning strike.

Fromd1rTb1ke:

My big brother captained Northwest. He told me about a time. They were a couple hundred feet above the runway. Wind shear turned the jet ninety degrees sideways. He reacted fast. He wrestled the plane steady. He landed. Passengers gave him long hugs of thanks. His view: a pilot wants to see family.