34 Pilots Share The Scariest Moments They Survived While Passengers Stayed Blissfully Unaware

Mine is from many many years ago when I was a student pilot. I was 14 I think at the time. I had about 15ish hours done and getting close to soloing for the first time but still had a few hours and more landings to practice. I was doing some basics and getting ready to come back with my instructor to practice some touch and go's for a bit. Coming back through we had to pass through DTW's bravo airspace (means need permission to go through it). A few min before I was about to call for permission, my instructor got really quiet. I looked over at him and he looked really bad. I thought he was going to puke so looking for a bag. But then I notice he isn't breathing. I figure out where I am at and call up DTW approach. Declare a medical emergency and that my instructor was not breathing. I also told them I am a student and never landed on my own before, and never in a large airport. Detroit approach was amazing at helping me. They gave me an option for DTW or Willow but Willow would have added a good 5-10 min since i was coming in from the SE. Opted for DTW and they were great at giving me vectors while also getting the big jets out of the way. I remember hearing them tell several planes to go around and several more into a hold. Anyway, did my approach and made the most butter smooth landing I have ever made in my life (even till this day). Ambulance was right there on the taxi waiting for me. Turns out my instructor who was only 25 had a heart attack. He ended up being ok. All in all from first call to him in the ambulance was less than 10 min thanks to ATC and DTW tower.

I once woke up 40 minutes before landing to my co-pilot sleeping.

This entire story occurred in less than 10 seconds and should’ve ended with headlines on CNN. Military pilot and not commercial but it still could’ve ended in a disaster.

Flying a CH47D Chinook helicopter in Iraq mid July 2008 when the temp was over 130 degrees. Packed full with 36 passengers at an altitude of only 100 feet and speed of 140 knots, (lower and faster than you’d ever fly in the US.). We hit a thermal (pocket of warm air) that pushed us up, so I nosed the cyclic (looks like a joy stick between your legs) forward to maintain altitude. I was a brand new pilot flying with a combat vet who wanted me to maintain altitude of 100 feet almost exactly, so no higher than 120 or lower than 80 feet) Nosing the aircraft down kept us from going higher, but we immediately hit a downdraft and the aircraft started to fall like a rock. I pulled back on the cyclic as hard as I could to get the nose up but it hit my body armor and wouldn’t go back any further. I watched the altimeter drop all the way to 19 feet and miraculously we started falling and began to climb at the last possible second.

During the debrief the other pilot (now one of my closest friends) who had well over 1,000 combat hours told me he’s never been so close to crashing before. I wasn’t shook up until I heard that....even typing this today gives me chills.

Once, departing Burning Man in a private plane with a couple of passengers, my engine conked out. I didn't even follow the engine-out checklist. I glanced at the fuel pressure gauge, didn't like what I saw, hit the switch for the auxiliary fuel pump, and it came back to life. The whole incident was over so fast the passengers never even noticed.

I wouldn't call it a "we're all doomed" moment, though. Worst-case scenario, I would have had to set it back down on the playa, which is pretty flat terrain as far as the eye can see.

I wasn't the pilot in the story, I was the clueless passenger.

My cousin was a pilot -- small craft like cropdusters, and helicopters. He was probably a pretty competent pilot; spent a lot of time flying bad forest fires, running power lines, flying geologists on erupting volcanoes, removing shot-up soldiers from across enemy lines while being shot at, etc...

One time he took me up in his cropduster. It was a little single seater -- I was sitting on the empty chemical tub behind his seat.

We were flying over a little town, not sure how high, but not very high, perhaps a couple thousand feet.

I was leaning way over trying to get a look out the window, when he started to look way left and way right, like he was trying to see the tail end of the plane. He was methodically checking various controls, and also appeared to be methodically messing with the little mechanical trim controls.

Finally, he looked back along the inside of the cabin, just under the window, and when he got to where I was leaning out the window, he asked me to move away from the window a bit.

After we landed, he pointed out the little rudder (if I recall correctly) control wire that I'd been leaning on pretty hard. He said that he'd been fairly sure that there was a control failure of some kind, and that he thought we'd possibly be landing fairly hard in a not optimal place to land.

Dude was unshakable.

Long time ago, back in 1989 I was a First Officer on the 747-100. We pushed back from the terminal in Anchorage and taxied out for a departure to Narita, Tokyo. We were full of people and very close to max take off weight. At the end of the runway (it was my takeoff) I stood on the brakes, stood the thrust levers up and the engineer set full take off power. Released the brakes and off we trundled. And we rolled, and rolled and rolled down the runway. It was not sparkling acceleration by any means. As the end of the runway loomed into sight and take off speed still some distance away... with the lights going... red white red white red red red... the Captain said, and I quote, “best you rotate!” We were a good 20kts below Vr. Not being a total numpty, I slowly and smoothly rotated and the beast flew away off the end of the runway like a lady. We slowly climbed away, cleaned up, turned and headed out West. Not a word was said for a long while. Finally through 20000 feet the engineer launched himself at the (my) performance figures. Nothing was wrong, and we were at full power anyway. It turned out that extra cargo had been loaded in error, and we were well overweight. Apart from me wetting the seat and a raised heart rate, the passengers were none the wiser.

Oxygen leak in the cabin. Didn't know what was happening but there was a leak. And not enough fuel to fly at a lower altitude. Me in the copilot shut the cockpit door and redirected all remaining oxygen to us. The passenger "fell asleep", woke up about an hour later when we landed. Said he must of dozed off and didn't realize how tired he was.

Helicopter pilot here. I was flying a relatively short tour with 3 passengers in an R44 over some vineyards near the airport I was flying out of, passengers were all pretty cool and relaxed through the flight so naturally I was as well. Person up front with me was very interested in what I was doing and how everything worked. He had a million questions and I was happy to answer them all. Anyways, tour is almost over and I'm on about 1/2 mile final when the clutch light turns on, for those not familiar the clutch light on Robinson helicopters is pretty normal and comes on whenever the clutch is adjusting. Especially in colder climates it is completely normal to come on for a few seconds and go away, no big deal. However, if it stays on for more than 10 seconds we're potentially in big trouble.

So the clutch light comes on while I'm mid-sentence and I subconsciously start counting. Somewhere around 7 I stopped talking, flipped the pilot iso, practically in denial that this is about to happen. I get to 10, pull the clutch circuit breaker. At the same time I felt just the slightest tail shudder so I pushed for some extra airspeed and mentally prepare to do an auto (power off landing). Luckily we made it to the ground fine and I never lost power. After I set it down the person up front looked at me and says "what was that all about??" So I just said "I thought you guys would enjoy a little excitement at the end" they thought it was awesome so I sent them on their merry way none the wiser. After they walked away I opened it up to see only 1 of the 4 clutch belts still in place. Scariest day that those folks will never know they had haha.

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"
He takes over the stick and he looks ashen. He then starts to breath irratically and says I need to help him control the plane. He radios tower and up till now I'm thinking it's a prank.
Mayday mayday.
He talks me through the whole thing, I'm trying to talk to the tower, repeat info, read guages remember lessons, listen to him and hope he don't pass out. Take off is one thing, but landing?
We land like a kangaroo with a rocket, I'm supprise the wheels didn't fold. Must of been 4 big bounces, but it's a big runway.
Scrub speed, finally get the plane to stop and instructor passes out. He had an heart attack. He survived but only for a few months before I heard he passed away in his sleep. But he got us down. I never continued the lessons.

I'm a CFI at this point and I'm flying with a student. We see a spider in the cockpit. I'm ok with spiders but I don't want it distracting the student so I mash it.

Student missed the spider but saw my movement and asked what it was. I responded "It was a spider, I squished it" as I'm glancing into the backseat area. I manage to casually add "...why, are you scared of spiders?" without the student noticing the break in the sentence. Turns out the student is scared of spiders.

For the rest of that flight I squished spiders behind my students back as they came forward from the nest I had just spotted in the back of the plane. He never knew.

I was a c-141 navigator for my first AF assignment. We were flying a group of families moving back to the US from Japan. As we were in the approach at Travis Air Force base we had a massive multi bird strike. It sounded like the world was ending inside the cockpit it was so loud. Shattered glass that was coated in blood and feathers, bent radome, you name it. Flight controls were fine but we declared an IFE and the co pilot could see well enough out his window to land and I and the FE were over his shoulder to help spot however We could and we landed without incident. The passengers deplaned and even complimented us on the great flight. I will never forget the right side of the passenger bus driving away and the look of horror on those people’s faces when they saw what the front of that airplane looked like.

This was about seven years ago now. I took my brother and two cousins up for a short sightseeing flight one morning in a Cessna 172. I knew there was some weather coming in so I wanted to get it over with quickly. About twenty minutes in I notice the clouds getting worse and then some lightning off in the distance, definitely time to head back. Heading back I radioed my intentions, uncontrolled airport but with an FBO, and someone radioed back with the current winds. It didn't compute what they said, and in retrospect I should've asked for clarification. Get back to the airport and as I'm on final I realize just how bad the wind is. Having a hard time keeping on centerline and eventually go around on the first try. By now I'm starting to sweating bullets and planning on rerouting if the next attempt doesn't go well. I make sure to turn the intercom off so my cousins in the back can't hear how panicked I'm becoming, though I did keep my cool through the whole thing. On second attempt I've got the rudder pegged to the left and manage to get the wheels on the ground safely. I taxi to park, shutdown, jump out, and start shaking with adrenaline and let out a huge sigh of relief. Cousins had no idea what just happened, it was just an exciting flight to them. My brother kind of knew what was going on, and I let him in on what I was thinking later. Apparently I had an audience of guys from the FBO watching me as well, probably yelling at me too go somewhere else. I'm honestly surprised sometimes I managed that landing with no incidence, especially since that was basically my first crosswind landing.

(Not quite with passengers but TIFU nonetheless)
During my first solo flight ever, I was really excited and wanted to video record the special occasion. So there I was, taxiing down the taxiway with one hand holding the my phone. One thing about old propeller planes is that they’re just like old cars, and don’t always drive straight. I suppose I was a little too concentrated on making sure my camera was properly angled and focused...next thing I knew my plane ended up rolling off the asphalt...into the grassy ditch

I PANICKED...how tf am I supposed to get this plane out of here

Over the radio, there was a silence, as the controller likely saw what happened from the tower. After a few seconds, probably still speechless at this point, she casually checked on me to make sure I was doing okay

To save my embarrassment, I tried to power up and drive out of the grass back to the asphalt. Much to my surprise, it worked. I did my short flying as planned and returned to the hanger where my instructor was waiting. I have no idea how many people saw what happened, but from the look on his face, I’m pretty sure he knew too. And yes, that video of me driving a plane into a ditch still exists somewhere

...I suppose this is the airplane equivalent of “don’t text and drive”.

Not a pilot but a flight attendant. We landed, everything went smoothly, as we’re deplaning the pilot steps out of the flight deck and goes “wow, I’m glad we made it, we lost 2 hydraulics on the way down”.

Helicopter pilot here, no “passengers” per se, but two pilots and an aircrewman in the back. We were at a civilian airport working their runway at night time on night vision goggles.

On takeoff, there was a lot of chatter on our our second radio, so we turned it all the way down. It was just our base and maintenance frequency, and none of it pertained to us. We were just concerned with our primary radio - ground, tower, working area frequencies.

Later in the flight, as we approached the civilian airport, we changed our second radio from our base frequency to the civilian traffic frequency. It was night, so the only traffic is usually other military training flights, so we weren’t too worried about other aircraft. Alas, we made all the standard calls.

After about 3 laps in the pattern we stopped making calls, because we knew we were the only traffic. About 15 minutes later, as we turned onto final, we came right over top of another helicopter. I pulled in power and climbed away.

We realized that we had left our radio volume down, and didn’t hear the other aircraft coming in. We had taken a few laps off from making radio calls, and we were out of phase in the pattern and didn’t see the other aircraft. Scared me shitless coming right over top of another helicopter’s main rotors.

Uncoordinated turn and all the fuel went to one side of the plane. Choked both engines... sputtered and cut out. 3000ft high, so brought back the coordination and pointed down a bit. The started back up. Yikes.

Edit: Well this got some attention. Some clarifying points: #1, not an airline pilot. I’m an aerial photo pilot. (Had one passenger, the camera operator and he didn’t notice but to be fair he was pretty into his podcast.) #2, it was intentional to be uncoordinated. We use skidding turns to turn 180 degrees faster so we can get “one line” and collect more pictures. #3, it was a light twin, we were low(ish) on fuel and that’s what enabled the airplane to be starved of fuel. Under normal circumstances this would not have happened.

Ok! Clear skies! Adios!

I was in the process of getting my PPL (private pilot licence) and I was flying circuits solo. Before I took off, the CFO of the flight school asked me if "I was sure it was a good idea to fly, it's pretty windy". I was flying a cessna 152 on a day with wind pushing 15 kts and turbulence around 20. I honestly don't know what I or anyone at the flightschool was thinking letting me (16 years old) take off.

Anyways, a few bumpy circuits go by with no problem. I actually got some great practice landing in turbulence. So the last circuit of the day, I'm on final with full flaps doing the ABSOLUTE minimum speed for approach in a 152, not taking into consideration that the air is super turbulent. For those who don't know, when it's bumpy you should be going a little faster on approach than usual. Anyways I'm quite close to the ground, maybe 300-400 feet and I can HEAR the wind blowing over the sound of the engine.

Suddenly, no wind.

I had just lost 15-20kts of almost direct headwind on final approach with absolutely no airspeed to spare.

I remember my shirt sleeves looked like they were inflating and the plane's stall warning started screaming at me. The controls became totally useless, like a limp computer joystick. Thankfully I had my hand on the throttle like my instructor taught me and for whatever instinctual reason (good instructor probably), I gently pushed the throttle all the way and slightly lowered the nose.

All of this took place in the span of about 5 seconds. I remember what I did, but not thinking about doing it. It was like when you drive somewhere and you suddenly realize you've arrived without remembering driving.

Very scary.

Anyways I landed the plane just fine and went home and took a nap. My parents said I was pale as a ghost when I got home.

Flying is fun until it isn't.

EDIT
A lot of people are wondering why I "gently" pushed the throttle in. The reason is because the carburetor can't provide enough fuel to maintain the proper fuel/air mixture. When the pilot rapidly pushes the throttle in, the carb is supposed to provide a quick "squirt" of fuel to account for the rapid increase in air. If the pilot *slams the throttle to the firewall*, the huge amount of air coming into the carb is simply too much for it to maintain the proper air/fuel mixture, even with the extra "squirt". In the best case this can cause the engine to "lag" for a few seconds while the mixture catches up, and in the worst case might actually cause the engine to stall completely.

So imagine an inexperienced pilot who panics and really jams the throttle all the way. That may have a disastrous effect because not only are they at low altitude with little airspeed, but they just choked their engine and simply can't get more power.

In 1994, while lining up for final approach to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on a sunny and humid 100° F day, our Boeing 747 hit a large downburst and suddenly dropped 1000 feet in altitude without warning. All of the passengers were seatbelted in and were completing their US Customs declaration cards. The flight attendants were walking the aisles making sure that the passengers and aircraft were ready for landing. The sudden drop caused the flight attendants to hit the ceiling. Fortunately, none of them were injured, but the aircraft definitely experienced negative g-forces for a few seconds.

I'm an airline pilot now, but my first job was flying banners. I have another good banner tow story, but I've told it before. I didn't have passengers, but I had viewers, and from their perspective, nobody noticed. One day as usual I was given the job of heading to a fairly distant location, unpacking and setting up my banner, and picking it up and flying it. Setup went like it usually does, and I took off to pick the banner up.

In banner towing, the way it works is you've got a grappling hook at the end of a cable that's attached to the tail of the aircraft. You take off without the banner attached, and come back around, swooping down steeply toward a loop of rope you have set up on the ground held up between two posts, running down to the banner. At the last second, you yank the plane back skyward, and the hook is supposed to swing between the posts and hook the rope.

On my pickup, I felt the satisfying pull of the banner as I levelled off, but something was wrong. It was pulling hard to the left side. A quick look to my left showed that I had missed with the hook, and instead caught the banner rope loop with my left main wheel. Even worse, instead of sliding up the gear leg to the fuselage, the rope had caught down near the wheel. I had been provided a steak knife for the purpose of cutting the rope, but there was no way I was going to be able to reach that rope.

The plane was yawing hard, but it was under control, and I flew slow circles around the airport while I thought about my options. I could always try to land the plane with the banner attached, but from what I'd heard, that usually results in the plane tipping over onto its nose, ruining the engine and propeller at the very least, and probably causing a lot more damage, not to mention the risk to my own life. I couldn't cut the rope because I didn't have the reach. Then I remembered what I did have- a small tool kit and a roll of duct tape in the pocket behind my seat. I thought about what I could use those to do, and it occurred to me that the empty second seat behind me also had a metal tube control stick. Well, it would be worth a shot.

I controlled the plane with my knees while I reached behind my seat to get the tool kit. Only a single bolt and nut secure the control stick to the tube below, but I had to access it blind, reaching below and behind me while also controlling the plane. After a couple of guesses as to which size socket to put on the ratchet, I had a good grab, and managed to get the nut off and extract the screw. A brisk pull up dislodged the control stick, it was working!

The stick was a couple feet long and I figured it would be enough to reach out the window and down to the rope. Still flying with my knees, I stuck the steak knife handle into the bottom end of the control stick, and wrapped a bunch of duct tape around the joint until I felt it would be secure. It was time to give it a try.

I lined back up for my pickup site and reaching as far out the left window as I could, while fighting the slip stream, I could just contact the rope. When I reached my target, I started sawing wildly at the rope, but it sliced through with surprising ease. I felt the plane lurch as the banner dropped back down to earth. I landed the plane and took a few minutes to breathe, thinking about what had just happened, and then what to do next. It occurred to me that I could tie a knot in the rope and just pick it up again. And that's what I did. Suffice it to say I was a bit more careful this time, and everything went as planned. From the ground, the only thing anyone would have noticed is that a banner plane picked up a banner and just stayed in the area for a while, dropped the banner, then picked it up again and headed off.

About 15 years ago I was a passenger on a flight that started having bad turbulence. The flight attendants were serving drinks so they locked up their carts as the pilot told them to sit down. A minute into it I realized we were also descending very rapidly. I caught a glimpse of the two flight attendants holding hands and I thought wow, even they are scared and it really unsettled me. A minute later and we were still bumping around and descending fast, everyone starts gasping and a few people yell, drinks are flying everywhere. I don’t know why I had just assumed that if we were all about to die that the pilot would make an announcement, and then I realized that they probably wouldn’t say anything to keep everyone calm. I look at the flight attendants again and they are both sobbing, holding onto each other. I was pretty sure that if they knew we were about to die.

Obviously we all survived, and I have no clue what was going on or if we were ever in real danger but now I search the flight attendant’s faces whenever there’s any tiny bit of turbulence.