Pilots Share their experiences

""Commercial airplane pilots, what's the closest disaster you've averted while on a flight that the passengers had no idea about? How often do these things happen?""

This was a question in AskReddit  open Forum, which received more than 500 comments..

Here are some best experiences from the page.

1.  ""LAX ATC botched a landing for us once. I was a passenger on a United Express jet coming in to Los Angeles in the evening. We were just about to touch down on the runway when all the lights in the cabin and AC went off, and simultaneously the engines outside roared. Suddenly we were vertical, shooting back into the air. Everyone shrieked and gasped. I was glued to my window and looked down and saw we hurdled over another plane that had been taxiing across where we were landing. We got into the air, went out over the ocean and began to turn around. The lights flickered back on and the AC returned. Then over the PA the captain explains in a really smart ass tone: "sorry about that folks. Air traffic control thought it would be a good idea to put another plane in our path. I decided to jump over him. Were gonna try that again." Then something about sitting tight and we would be down in another 15 minutes. That little express jet had some insane power.""

2.  ""Yay, story time. I'm an air traffic controller, for the record.

Had a pilot go NORDO (that's when, for whatever reason, they aren't on my frequency anymore. They didn't get the right one, misheard, or their radios crapped out). It happens fairly often, and there are a number of things we can do to get you back in the right place.
This particular guy, however, went NORDO at precisely the worst time. He was going eastbound, which means he was at an odd altitude. He lost his radio, and his flight plan then had him turn southbound. That means he was supposed to be at an even altitude, which he obviously wasn't.
There were about a dozen different planes going northbound that were at his altitude, so he ended up running one heck of a gauntlet through all these people as I was descending and climbing them to get them out of his way.
Then, apparently in an act of sheer ignorance on the pilot's part, he decided to choose an even altitude all by himself, knowing he should probably be at one.
Remember all those planes I had to move out of his way? He managed to put himself right back into them. When you have closure rates of over 1,000 knots an hour, that's not a lot of time to react to those things. At the end, my asshole was clenched so tight that when I stood up, the seat came with me.
Edit; Guys, for the love of god, I've answered it seven times now if you'll just read before posting. I freaking know it's just knots, not knots per hour. Not everyone is familiar with the lingo, so I said it that way to make it easier. Give it a rest.""

3.  ""I am a commercial airline captain on a newish embraer 175. Probably one of the scarier things I have had happen was when one of our cabin pressure control channels failed and we started to rapidly lose pressurization.
Pressurization is important because the air is so thin in the flight levels, specifically above 30,000'. The higher up you get the less "time of useful consciousness" you have, down to about 30 seconds. So it is a pretty scary thought and it is a problem requiring immediate action, usually a steep emergency descent, during which you will not hear from the pilots because we are suuuuuuper busy.
Our pressure controller has two channels and automatically switches to the second if one fails. We were flying along about to start our descent and briefing our arrival and our ears started popping, like mad. I looked over and the pressurization was climbing very fast. We started a steep, but not quite emergency descent, while I flipped the pressurization switch to manual and then back to auto. This manually switched the channel to the working one and we could continue without problem.
Pretty sure all the passengers noticed were their ears popping. It gave us about 80 seconds of a scare though.
The funniest part was that when we landed our maintenance control wanted us to "defer" the pressurization channel over the phone, meaning we will fix it later (generally a very safe way to get flights out on time with something minor or redundant broken). I told him I was going to have to insist that someone come over and actually look at the plane to say it was safe to fly.
Edit: I would like to add that the mechanics were NOT being reckless. These channels rarely fail, and having 2 is already a redundancy. They are absolutely able to defer them with very little concern for safety. I was being overly cautious in my request for an inspection and they accommodated me without question. A few mechanics out there must have very charged relationships with pilots, this is rarely the case in my workplace.""

4. ""A few years ago, my family and I were flying from Minneapolis to Winnipeg. About halfway there, the pilot got on the PA and said calmly "Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that we've had complete instrument failure and have to return to Minneapolis. There is no danger - we could easily land you safely without instruments - but regulations insist that we return to the point of origin." Bummer!
Funnily enough, that reassured me more than anything else I've ever encountered on a flight. Complete instrument failure sounds catastrophic, but the pilot was obviously thinking "Pssht, instruments, who cares. I could land this thing blindfolded on top of a Volkswagen if I had to.""

5.  ""My friend was a co-pilot on a commercial flight I was on from Toronto to Los Angeles and it was the scariest flight I have been on and getting the co-pilot's perspective after the flight made it even scarier.
The flight went very smoothly until we were making the decent into Los Angeles airport (LAX) just after 10-PM. I was looking out the window and it seemed as if we were 20 metres from touching the runway when all the lights began to flicker and the plane went into complete darkness! Immediately, you could feel and hear the engines thunder into overdrive and we pulled back up.
Plane continued rising and we began to circle the air in complete darkness as everyone begins to share concerns. The flight kept circling for about 20 minutes before the pilot came on explaining they were having some technical problems, and they are discussing with the ATC to resolve the issue and make a safe landing. The circling in the air continued for nearly an hour but it seemed like an eternity in pitch black. Lights never came on, and we were notified we were going to make an attempt to land. People say this all the time but I can assure you, THIS was one scary decent! The bumpiest decent I have ever been part of. We were constantly being lifted from our seats, the seatbelt light really had merit this time. People were screaming each time and I was actually holding onto the arm rests and we kept defying gravity and swaying left and right. When we saw the lights on the runway inch closer, the plane slammed onto the runway and we once again heard the engines roaring as we slowed down on the runway. As we came to a stop, the plane just stayed there and waited on the runway for a tow to the docking area. You could feel the relief within the cabin. If everyone was sitting on toilets, I can assure you, each one would need a flush.
After we arrived, I met with the Co-Pilot a few hours later, as we had planned to meet for a day before he had to fly out of town. He explained they lost electrical power and had lost several forms of communication and flight information was not available to the pilots. Ultimately, the pilots had to land the plane manually with nearly no assistance or outside help. Considering it was night time, poor visibility and limited flight information available, this made for a very shitty landing. He admitted as well it was the scariest flight he has been on.
Tops my list of Moments I thought I was dead"""

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