All are on YouTube, but all contain scenes that may cause discomfort, and viewer discretion is strongly advised. Those asterisked are the ones where the re-enactment of the crash caused me the most discomfort. Cutting Corners was for me the most horrible crash, but because of the story behind it I placed it in "infuriating" rather than "scary". Conclusions I've drawn are the following: 1) sit by the wing, as it's the strongest part of the plane, or slightly behind it; 2) do not fly on a 737 or an MD-80; 3) Canada seems to have pretty good pilots; 4) do not under any circumstances trust manufacturing company McDonnell Douglas. Their MD-80s are the ones American Airlines recently were seen to be flying - and have since grounded - despite needing repairs. I won't say anything about airlines because very few airlines worldwide have had no incidents, and even the best can suffer calamity. I will say that one of these airlines without incidents, knock on wood, is Southwest.
Most infuriating episodes (although all are infuriating to some extent):
1. Missing Over New York (1990): Avianca Flight 52 is delayed for hours hovering near JFK due to massive fog and too many planes instructed to land at the airport. It is never told to divert to Boston. It is essentially ignored by air control because the crew doesn't use the word "emergency" and runs out of fuel, then crashes. 73 out of 158 die.
2. Behind Closed Doors (1972, 1974): American Airlines Flight 96's cargo door bursts open over Windsor, Ontario and the pilot skillfully lands the plane. The NTSB strongly recommends that McDonnell Douglas fix their faulty cargo door but there is no air worthiness mandate issued because McDonnell Douglas begs the FAA that it can fix it without making the error public, to save profits on its brand-new prized plane. The fix is not made and two years later, Turkish Airlines Flight 981's cargo door bursts open en route to London and this time it's worse, killing all 346 on board. McDonnell Douglas, riddled with lawsuits, is now owned by Boeing.
3. Cutting Corners* (2000): Alaska Airlines Flight 261's pilots notice a jamming horizontal stabilizer that despite their many misguided efforts to troubleshoot it with absolutely no help from ground maintenance soon falls off, dooming all 88 to a terrifying nosedive, and then a few moments of flying upside-down before dying upon contact with the Pacific Ocean just short of L.A. 2-1/2 years before a mechanic had inspected the plane and recommended fixing a jackscrew of the horizontal stabilizer, saying the plane was unfit to fly. His supervisor overruled to save money and cleared the plane for flight, the mechanic told the FAA, and was subsequently suspended by the airline. The crash occurred two months before a planned inspection - the jackhammer had not been replaced. Also a McDonnell Douglas plane, which built the jackscrew without making it failsafe.
Most unbelievable episodes (as in how the fuck did this happen):
1. Kid in the Cockpit* (1994): The captain of Aeroflot Flight 593 lets his children sit in his seat in the cockpit and encourages them to "fly" the plane by setting the course through autopilot so their hands can follow the steering gear. His son, however, accidentally shoves the plane off autopilot and then unknowingly holds it in neutral when autopilot tries to correct the plane's course. The distracted pilots don't notice the coming spin until too late and by then the G-forces are pinning the 15-year-old into the captain's seat. Despite his and the co-pilot's efforts, all 75 die.
2. Fatal Distraction (1972): Eastern Airlines Flight 401's landing gear light doesn't turn on the dysfunctional crew preoccupies itself with seeing whether the gear is broken or the light bulb just burned out, not noticing that the captain's elbow bumped the plane off autopilot and that the plane is now slowly descending into the Everglades. 101 people die. It turns out that it was just a burned out light bulb after all. Later ghosts of the crew are seen on other Eastern Airlines planes that have "cannibalized" the salvageable parts of 401, leading to a decommissioning of all 401's parts and the eventual bankruptcy of Eastern Airlines.
3. Ghost Plane (2005): Helios Airways Flight 522 from Cyprus stops talking to air traffic controllers in Greece as it circles in a holding pattern over Athens. Fearing a terrorist attack - the countries are tense politically - Greece sends fighter jets up to the Boeing 737. The fighter jet pilots see everyone inside slumped over their seats wearing oxygen masks, including the pilots. A flight steward wearing a different type of mask is seen stumbling into the cockpit and trying to regain control - the fighter jets ask him if he can land it and he motions no, they are going to crash. Sure enough the plane runs out of fuel and crashes, killing all. Rampant rumors spread that Greece shot down the Cyprus plane, and a lack of information from authorities doesn't help. The authorities blame the co-pilot's incompetence but the case remains extremely unsolved.
4. Invisible Killer (1985): A mini-thunderstorm pops up on the runway out of nowhere as Delta Airlines Flight 191 tries to land, whipping it off course without warning and straight into a highway, where the engines demolish one man and his car. The plane violently comes apart in a field, killing 128 of 152. Leads to the ability by planes to detect microburst windshear.
5. Death and Denial* (1999): First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti, unqualified and nearing retirement age, takes control of EgyptAir Flight 990, and turns off autopilot as well as apparently the engines, repeatedly and only saying, "I rely on God." The captain battles incredible G-forces to make it back to the cockpit but can't save the plane especially since the First Officer isn't cooperating with his upward pull, killing everyone on board near Massachusetts. Egypt fervently denies that this was a suicide/homicide although all signs point to it.
6. Fanning the Flames (1987): A cargo fire strikes South African Airways Flight 295 while over the Indian Ocean, making landing out of the question. Toxic fumes kill most of the passengers before the plane even crashes despite the pilots' resorting to opening the cabin doors mid-flight to let the fumes out, and all die. Then-apartheid South Africa says it was something in the cargo inventory; then that it was a freak accident. Over time it becomes clear that a faction of the warring government has hidden presumably chemical weapons on board and they caused the ignition, but there is no proof and likely never will be.
Scariest episodes (although all are scary):
1. Hidden Danger* (1991, 1994, 1996): United Airlines Flight 585, a Boeing 737, suddenly and violently rolls over during approach and then nosedives straight into the ground, killing all 25. No one knows what happened. Three years later, USAir Flight 427, another 737, experiences the same thing, killing many more. Panic is triggered about all 737s in service. Two years later, Eastwind Airlines Flight 517's pilot manages to stop the plane from rolling over completely, holding it at a 90-degree angle, twice. He and his co-pilot prepare to crash in a non-populated area but he manages to land and no one is killed. Turns out thermal shock can cause the 737 rudder to not only jam but then reverse, so that whatever the pilot does, the plane will do the opposite.
2. Panic Over the Pacific* (1985): After China Airlines Flight 006 loses one of four engines the crew mistakenly tries to restart the engine too high up, causing the plane to slowly bank to the right. The jetlagged, sleep-deprived captain disconnects the autopilot and the plane enters a horrific 180-degree nosedive, losing ten kilometers in 2 minutes. Because they're in a cloud and the crew is disoriented, they can't pull out of the dive until they come out of the clouds 11,000 m over the Pacific, which they do with no fatalities and a heroic 747 that didn't come completely apart.
3. Vertigo* (2004): Another jetlagged and disoriented pilot doesn't correct a right bank of a red-eye Flash Airlines Flight 604 shortly after take-off. With no horizon the pilot doesn't know which way is up. They crash into the Red Sea, killing everyone. Another case of Egypt vehemently denying any fault of the pilot, blaming instead mechanical failure.
4. Dead Weight (2003): Air Midwest Express Flight 5481 takes off too back-heavy and soon starts plummeting. The pilot, one of the only female pilots worldwide, has no way of saving the plane but saves lives on the ground by veering into the corner of a hangar instead of the populated hangar itself. Turns out the calculations of the weight of each passenger and baggage is woefully under the real weight of overweight people and overstuffed bags.
5. Fire on Board (1998): A wire sparks a blaze in the cockpit of Swissair Flight 111 that due to flammable insulation blankets spreads across all the plane's vital systems and destroys all hope of landing the plane safely. It is yet another McDonnell Douglas plane. The pilots, desperately fighting fire and smoke and likely dead before the crash, cannot save the plane, which nosedives suddenly off the coast of Nova Scotia and disintegrates. All black boxes are found missing the last crucial six minutes and the investigation takes 4 years. Though this is no fault unique to Swissair, which previously enjoyed a very good reputation, and Swissair takes out everything that might cause a fire on its entire fleet, it goes bankrupt.
6. Mixed Signals (1996): Failure of the pilot's air speed indicator equipment causes the crew of Birgenair Flight 301, already a replacement for a broken plane, to get hopelessly confused over how fast their plane is going during takeoff. The autopilot reacted to the captain's false readings and the pilots don't disconnect it in time to get the plane going fast enough, and it crashes into the Caribbean Sea near the airport, killing all 189.
Saddest episodes (although almost all episodes are sad):
1. Out of Control (1985): Japan Airlines Flight 123's rear pressure bulkhead bursts as it climbs into the clouds, completely demolishing the vertical tail of the plane and crippling all hydraulics. The pilots manage to keep the plane aloft far longer than any of the pilots in ensuing simulations could, but without that vertical stabilizer any flight is doomed. It hits a mountain ridge and crashes into Mt. Otsuka. Although many survive the crash, Japan's rescue teams assume all are dead and bunk down for the cold night instead of pressing on to the crash site - during the night, nearly all the survivors die. 4 are ultimately found alive in the morning out of 524 passengers, most of whom were going on a spiritual pilgrimage. It is the largest ever death toll of a single-aircraft disaster. Turns out the plane previously had to have the bulkhead repaired and Boeing only repaired it with one line of rivets instead of the required two. Though Japan Airlines is not at fault, it takes the airline decades to recover.
2. Deadly Crossroads* (2002): Over Germany, passenger jet Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 carrying 45 children on a school trip and cargo plane DHL Flight 611 are dangerously close to each other. Their computer collision-aversion systems warn them and tell them how to avoid disaster, but air traffic controller Peter Nielsen, overworked and unhelped by air control elsewhere, misreads and gives them the opposite instructions - then goes to the bathroom. DHL follows their computer but Bashkirian Airlines does not. The collision snaps the passenger jet in two, and the DHL crashes shortly thereafter. A total of 71 people are killed, bodies strewn all over. Peter Nielsen, already guilt-stricken to the point of depression and having quit his job, is then murdered by a man who lost his wife and two children on board. The man, a local government official, receives two years in prison and is still regarded as a hero.
3. Fire Fight (1983): Air Canada Flight 797 has a crazy fire in-flight in the toilet, the cause of which will never be determined. A heroic emergency landing on the pilots' part is overshadowed by half the passengers, upon landing, not being able to find the exits in time. The pilot is the last to be dragged out of the plane before the plane bursts into flames, killing everyone still inside. Led to the development of floor lights to guide people to the exits.
4. A Wounded Bird (1995): Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529 essentially loses an entire propeller during mid-flight due to metal fatigue. The pilots magically manage to keep it aloft for nine minutes, sending out a cry for Atlanta rescuers to meet them. They crash in a backyard and everyone is alive, but because the air controller didn't pass on the message, there's no rescuers there to meet them and the plane quickly starts to burn. Only because the man whose backyard it landed in called 911 do local rescuers arrive. Burns and a heart attack kill nine passengers, seven in the E.R., and the heroic pilot. A passenger with an ax and then a firefighter save the First Officer, who made the last recorded words of the cockpit: "Amy, I love you."
5. Lost (1995): American Airlines Flight 965 gets incredibly confused trying to fly to Cali, Colombia at night. Flight management system mix-ups and language mishaps lead to such disorientation that the pilots don't know they're about to clip a mountain. 160 die and only 4 passengers, including a college student on her 21st birthday who loses her parents and a man who loses his wife and son, but not his daughter, and a pet dog survive, also lost in the rainforest for several days.
Uplifting episodes (there are so few of these):
1. Falling From The Sky (1982): British Airways Flight 9 flies over Indonesia and starts filling with smoke. Passengers see the wings encased in St. Elmo's fire and the pilots see only psychedelic bright flashes through the windshield. All four engines flame and then flame out, leading to a rapid descent and panic. The calm captain famously tells his 200-some passengers, "All four engines have failed. We are doing our damnedest to get them back. I trust you are not in too much distress." On the umpteenth try the engines suddenly restart and the plane makes a successful though difficult landing in Jakarta. Turns out they flew over an undetected volcano and the ash clogged the engines. They don't fly over volcanoes anymore.
2. Gimli Glider (1983): Air Canada Flight 143 runs clean out of fuel mid-flight because the plane is one of the first to use metric systems to measure fuel and ground maintenance doesn't convert into metric and gives them way too little before take-off. Winnipeg air control has no idea how to help them as they are too far from the airport and figures they're dead, but the pilot has beyond masterful control and experience in the Air Force flying gliders, and the co-pilot knows of an obscure airbase in nearby Gimli. Turns out the airbase is now a motorpark filled with families, but the emergency landing kills no one and the plane doesn't even catch fire, though it does end up sitting on its nose. The Gimli Glider, as it is now called, was repaired and is still in service twenty-five years later.
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imissmydad. Their posts weird me out. Theirs are all more recent losses than mine, for the most part, and maybe that's why I don't get their sentiments. A lot of complaints about people trying to express sympathy and how alienated it makes them feel - questions about walking down aisles - some tell white lies to get around having to tell people their fathers are dead. Write terrible poetry to their, our, all dearly departed Fathers (always capitalized) who are gone forever and will be forever missed.
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winterfish
