Pilots say: ‘this is the scariest thing I've seen during a flight’

I have no idea why I keep torturing myself, because I still struggle with fear of flying, but at the same time I always find it so interesting to keep reading about it. My fear is (thankfully) not so intense that I don't dare to fly anymore, but I do board the plane every time with trembling legs. I realize very well that it can suddenly be over if that thing crashes. Still, I find takeoff the scariest and I feel a bit calmer once we are stable in the air. But hey, it turns out that we are not always safe then either. On Reddit, pilots massively responded to the question: ‘Pilots, what’s the scariest stuff you’ve seen while flying’ and it is... Quite scary. Read at your own risk.

1. ‘It was late in the evening, so you couldn't see much, but suddenly there was a gigantic bright ball of light on the left side of the plane. It moved very quickly through the air, and my co-pilot and I had no idea what it was. Other pilots flying nearby also asked over the radio what the hell it was. Eventually, it flew past and disappeared on the horizon. A few days later, we found out it was a rocket launch from the US Navy. I wonder how many passengers think they saw a UFO.’

2. ‘A skydiver flying about twenty meters from my wing. I was flying a 172 in an area I had flown a hundred times, not knowing they had allowed it again after a five-year ban on skydiving. I was scared to death and thought only: oh please, don’t let this guy kill me with my plane.’

3. ‘I almost had a mid-air collision twice. One was due to a new pilot who wasn’t flying where he was supposed to fly, and one was due to the air traffic controller who told me a plane was at eleven o'clock when it was at two o'clock.’

4. ‘I am not a pilot, but this happened during a commercial flight I was on, and it was never explained what was going on. The cabin filled with smoke and the smell was strong. I was by the window and the walls and the window became too hot to touch. The scariest part was that the cabin crew was visibly in panic. They were running back and forth checking all compartments for fire. They also kept asking us to check all equipment to see if anything was overheating. Passengers were having panic attacks and I started to wonder what it would be like to die in a plane crash. The pilot then announced that we were close enough to an airport where we could make an emergency landing. When we arrived, there were already fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. Again: no one told us what was going on. When I had to fly back two days later — with the same airline — someone from the cabin crew said: Oh my god, were you on that flight?! That was really very bad.’ I still wonder what was really going on.’

5. ‘My father was a pilot, and he told me how he once flew with his Cessna when he hit a flock of geese during landing. His windshield was completely shattered and he and his passenger were covered in blood and feathers. They landed safely, but he was left with quite a trauma.’

6. ‘I didn’t experience this as a pilot, but as a passenger. I was in the airplane bathroom with huge stomach pain when the pilot said over the intercom that we were experiencing turbulence and needed to fasten our seatbelts.
Everyone sat down, including the cabin crew, but given the state of my stomach pain, I really had to stay in the bathroom, even though that’s really not a good combination with turbulence. Now I have really experienced turbulence before and it’s tough, but this... This was something else. I don’t know how I managed, but just as I finished and flushed, the turbulence hit. And how. To say that I hit every corner in that bathroom is an understatement. I slammed against the ceiling, landed back on the floor, flew up again, and ended up back in the bathroom. It was truly terrible and I tried to protect my face with my hands and arms as much as I could. Eventually, I was able to wedge myself under the toilet until the turbulence was over. I left the bathroom to some laughter from the other passengers, but mostly concerned looks. You see, for all the other passengers, safely in their seats with their seatbelts on, it was manageable, until they all heard screaming from the bathroom with all the banging. They all assumed I wouldn’t leave that bathroom alive.’