30 of the Scariest Flights Pilots Have Experienced

‘He almost crashed his Cessna because he hit some geese’
30 of the Scariest Flights Pilots Have Experienced

I can’t blame anyone for being afraid of flying. After all, it seems like every other day a plane has gone missing or something has blown up on a Boeing. 

And as much as you probably don’t want to hear it, some pilots find the job just as scary. One such Redditor described a takeoff where air traffic control gave him clearance to go airborne from a northbound runway, which is routine — except for the fact that the controller also gave a westbound flight clearance at the exact same time. The Redditor said that the two planes were so close to a collision that he could make out the expression on the other pilot’s face. It’s safe to assume that neither of them were smiling.

Other Redditors have shared the scariest flights they’ve been charged with piloting, and at least one captain didn’t quite make it to the final destination.

EncanisUnbound 6y ago My best friend's dad was a pilot for Western and Delta for a lot of years. He's always said that the most terrifying thing he experienced was flying into Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. Due to the terrain and high rises at one end of the runway you had a pretty sharp right turn on final approach and it took you close enough to the high rises that you could see TVs in the apartments. 29 ...
JohnathansFilm 6y ago Private pilot here. Cessna 172 Doing a touch and go but landed with the wind at my back instead of my nose. When I added throttle and pitched up the wind gusted and killed my lift, I didn't ascend hardly at all. Put on some flaps and managed to get above the fence I almost hit. 31 ...
6y ago Was learning to fly when I worked for the gov. So on my first flight with me taking off, we've been climbing for about 5 minutes and We're going through some gentle turns when instructor says. were going to head back I don't feel well Не takes over the stick and he looks ashen. Не then starts to breath irratically and says I need to help him control the plane. Не radios tower and up till now I'm thinking it's a prank. Mayday mayday. Не talks me through the whole thing, I'm trying to talk to the
darkrider555 3y ago An unmarked light jet blasting past me while flying over literal bumfuck nowhere wilderness of Maine. I was scouting for decent hunting grounds for a friend, and looking for a good clearing to put my bushplane down. Guy must've been doing at least 300 knots and buzzing just over the hills. Completely unmarked, no tail numbers, no insignias, no marked paint, just completely white, paneled-over windows, hauling absolute ass and far lower than they should've been. Haven't seen anything like it since, and they were heading northwest, which would've put them even further into the wilderness. Only
MarvinHeemyerlives 3y ago - Was on an L1011 flying back to Atlanta, we circled Atlanta for ever it seemed, then the со pilot walks down my aisle, opens a hatch in the floor beside me and starts cranking the shit out of a handle. Не looked up at me and said, The landing gear wouldn't go down. I said, Good to know. 30 ...
Iceman_1325 3y ago During a night cross country with a friend of mine who is also a pilot in a 172, we were flying across an area by some mountains that's entirely lava rock. Like there's nothing there and nobody really goes there. Anyways we were flying when suddenly there was a bright light off of our left wingtip. It was matching speed with us for like 5 seconds then it zipped off towards the mountains and disappeared behind them. We both looked at eachother and were like wtf was that? Still have no idea what it was but yeah
farraigemeansthesea 3y ago My dad's story, not my own. Не used to be an airline captain for a major UK operator. Back in the 90s his flight to Kabul was hijacked and the terrorists, demanding a ransom, would not let anyone off the plane once it landed. They stayed on the tarmac for 3 days straight, in 45C heat, during which period no contact with ground services was allowed by the terrorists. A couple of passengers died from the heat exhaustion and dehydration, their bodies remaining in the cabin. Once the situation was brought under control, and my dad returned
parc170 E 8y ago e Got struck by lightning the other day, that wasn't fun. Scared the shit out of the both of us. Radar wasn't painting anything either :/ + 807 ...
Hot_Dog_Dudeson 3y ago . I flew over a huge drone the size of a table at 14,000' over Liverpool area a few years ago. I was in and out of IMC and didn't see it until it would have been too late to do anything, we must have missed it by 10 feet. I never got anything on TCAS and when we informed Atc they said they had nothing on radar. I filled an Airprox and never got any answers 8 ...
The_Sa1ty 3y ago A black dot right in front of me that was not moving. At the time I was working on my commercial license in a 172 on about an 8 mile final. I was checking my instruments while on approach and when I looked up I saw a black dot that didn't show any relative movement and in a split second I realized that I'm going to hit it so I pushed the yoke forward as fast as I could. About 1-2 seconds later a bird went right above me. 43 ...
Chunks1992 e 3y ago . Flying a DA40 in mountainous terrain in not so great weather. Got into a sinker trying to cross a ridge past the point of no return. Gave it full bore on the throttle and prop and still was sinking about 200 feet per minute down regardless if I pitched for Vx or Vy. Cleared the ridge by about 200' but being in a situation where you're giving it all you got and still descending into a mountain ridge is on my list of things I don't wanna do again. 27 ...
Spicethrower 3y ago e My grandfather was a pilot back in the fifties. When you could carry guns onboard planes apparently. Anyway, he.told me once how a passenger suffered a nervous breakdown. Depressurized the plane by shooting out a window because he saw something on the wing. + 49 ...
lavenderglobe91 3y ago Bush pilot here. Loaded an aircraft with a 200kg dead wild boar once. Climbed to cruising altitude and the thing starts squealing and unraveling from it's straps, it's head was poking out of the bag, looked right at me and went ape shit. Never been so scared in my life. No autopilot while flying in cloud and only had a screw driver for self defence. Air traffic control couldn't hear me beyond the squealing, so they wouldn't let me into there airspace, so I just found some random strip and landed there. The villagers still think I
Possible_Salad_7695 3y ago Captain died mid flight. Came over PA attention this is your recently promoted captain speaking, we need to stop off at the nearest airport to pick up a new first officer as I'm technically flying this plane without the required crew. Thank you for the time the temperature is currently 72 at our destination. 18 Reply ...
purcerh 11y ago Good question! I was flying from Boston to Columbus Ohio, and in between us was a HUGE line of thunderstorms. In events like that, ATC will, in short, let you draw your own flight path to dodge the intense weather cells. The plane has weather radar in the nose and gives us a visual map of red spots to avoid. The flight was 3 hours long and the Captain and I were spending every second of that time flying up, down, left, and right, dodging lightning and turbulence. Sweat was pouring down my face as I was
TXFencepost 1y ago Flight from CLT to SEA (Sept.2022) on American Airlines A321 - pressurization loss in cabin, oxygen masks deployed and steep descent from 34k ft. This occurred 4 hours into the flight over mountainous Montana. Emergency landing in Bozeman, MT where we sat for 8 hours waiting on a replacement plane. + 37 Reply ...
Axel737ng 3y ago 9 Losing one hydraulic in the middle of Pacific with the closest airport 3hrs away knowing as a fact that our aircraft was mounting defective HYD pumps waiting for replacement and hoping the other remaining system would not abandon us + 41 Reply ...
TGMcGonigle 3y ago Flight Instructor Top 1% Commenter One night we were flying a visual approach to 18R in CLT. Approaches were also being flown to 23, a runway that doesn't physically intersect with 18R but which has an extended centerline (and hence departure path) that does. We had minimum spacing on a jet in front of us, and both we and the controller were expecting him to make a high speed turnoff, but he missed it. At that point our approach clearance was cancelled and we were instructed to go around. No big deal...it happens. But as the gear
3y ago Flying a Cessna 172 with my instructor out toward blythe on the way to San Diego hangar when a sand storm blew up underneath us. I swear the sand was so close it was causing the landing gear tires to spin... This was on a three leg check flight we had landed at big bear california for fuel and a hot low pressure system moved in pretty quick. (It was moving in as we were getting there) like really really hot 120 degrees or so and the air was already really thin. A kid in his solo
LetsGoHawks 1y ago Somewhere over Nebraska. Started getting some oil spots on the windshield. My Uncle says OK, That's bad. Не finds the nearest airport, which was like, 15-20 minutes away and we start heading there. The windshield is getting black. The pressure is dropping. And at some point he says I'm pretty sure we're going to make it, but if we don't, we're going to use one of those roads, so I'm going to need everybody looking for powerlines and traffic because I can't see shit out this window. + 70 Reply ...
ProudPilot 11y ago Commercial Pilot here. Not at the airlines, but I did have a passenger. Working with a newer pilot we were flying a VOR approach into a smaller airport. We were on with center (enroute control) and were cleared into the airport with no other traffic in the area. We're flying in the clouds and once we get to about 10 miles out we started announcing on the CTAF (airport traffic radio). No answer. About 3 minutes later right after a radio call we broke out of clouds on the approach about 2 miles out. Just in time
besmircherz 11y ago Military pilot here. I was on a flight leaving Sigonella, Italy. Mount Etna had been erupting for the past 4 hours but ATC cleared the southern sector to be free of volcanic ash. We flew directly into an ash cloud at 2000 ft remaining in the volcanic ash cloud for over 20 minutes. We had no luck climbing and punching out of the ash cloud so we ended up doing an emergency descent to 1000 ft to get out of clouds. We started experiencing engine malfunctions and had to secure 2 out of our 4 engines. Unfortunately
mrbrad595 3y ago My airfield where I did my pilot training had a waterway at the approach end of the runway, and oftentimes there were sailboats heading out to sea as you were coming in to land. Usually came in a little high, since the runway was plenty long enough. One day, not long after I had completed my 1st solo, I was doing my run-up, waiting for one of the regular pilots to land his low-winged sport airplane. Не obviously, didn't see the mast of the sailboat crossing, and he hit it. The plane cart-wheeled down the runway and
robo-dragon 3y ago Not a pilot, but my dad is a former one. Не once told me about how he almost crashed his Cessna because he hit some geese. Не was actually preparing for a landing approach when he hit geese flying in a patch of fog. Windshield was completely shattered and he and his passenger were covered in blood and feathers. They landed safely, but my dad was pretty scarred from that! Не didn't quit flying because of that, but bird strikes remained a constant fear of his. Geese are large birds and they did significant damage to that
Theskidiever Зу ago Edited Зу ago A skydiver about 20 yards off my wing. Was flying a 172 into an uncontrolled field that I've flown into 100 times before, not knowing that after a 5 year ban in skydiving there, they were allowing it on a case by case request. While flying in, calling my position, I hear skydiver in the air. My first thought was I hope they aren't this direction and then there he was. I had this image of him going through my prop. After that thought oh god please don't let me kill this guy then
CriticalMach 11y ago Finally, my time to shine! Airline pilot here, going on 4 years now. I was flying into a small Midwestern airport in the middle of summer. On approach to the airport, we received an alert by the onboard equipment to climb immediately to avoid hitting another plane. Fair enough, climb as instructed, see the offending aircraft below us, and decide to continue the approach. On a 3 mile straight in final to the runway, we spot a wall of torrential rain rapidly approaching the field. Looks far enough away that we think that we can beat it
11y ago ATC (air traffic control) gave my plane clearance to take off on runway 35 (north) at airport GFK while simultaneously allowing for a similar aircraft to depart from runway 26 (west). These runways cross one another, we almost collided at 500 AGL (above ground level). The other aircraft was so close I could make out the expression on the pilot's face. + 1.9K ...
AxleTheDog 11y ago I had a single engine rating, and some time in piston twins. Grandfather used to be a pilot and owned a Piper Aerostar twin, but he had gotten to the age he hired pilots to fly when needed. One of his pilot buddies had told him he was good to go in an Aerostar, and grandad asked me to meet his friend at the airport and let him take the plane around for 30 min or so as a refresher to the systems. Met the guy at the plane, and he was about as old as Ganddad - I
NAbbott_737 3y ago Edited 3y ago My dad told me a story from a few years ago that happened while flying a 737 somewhere in Nevada I think on the way back to Toronto. It was later in the evening, so you couldn't see too much, but all of a sudden to the left of the plane my dad saw a really bright ball of light I guess you could say, moving really fast across the sky. My dad and his co-pilot had no clue what it was, and they could hear other pilots nearby calling it in over the
FutureBarrySeal 3y ago ST 2nd cross country solo... winds had picked up so much half way through. The turbulence was the worst I've ever dealt with. I was scared as fuck and wanted to land, but decided to press on. I was being moved around pretty violently and was just praying the whole time that I make it back... botched the landing and bounced 3 times (first time in probably 30+ hours to bounce) taxi'd to fuel and just thanked the lord for letting me officially be done with solos. I lost my confidence for a good while.... Took quite

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