# Most terrifying plane crash (or near crash) on screen or in print **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529 "2012-01-14T20:49:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/1 "2012-01-14T20:49:31Z")
Probably not a good thread for the fear of flying crowd. 😃 So I’m watching Cast Away for about the twentieth time on FX and it got me wondering what are some other good depictions (descriptions) of a plane crash. Die Hard 2 (1990) Alive (1993) Fight Club (1999) Cast Away (2000) Lost (TV 2004–2010) For print, I offer up [this near crash](http://books.google.com/books?id=3S37vpzASg0C&lpg=PA120&dq=replay%20jagged%20hole%20in%20the%20wing&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q=replay%20jagged%20hole%20in%20the%20wing&f=false) from Ken Grimwood’s Replay. (Replay BTW, is believed to have inspired the movie, Groundhog Day, only the protagonist, instead of reliving a single day, relives entire decades of his life. And while we’re on near-crashes, there’s always [this one](http://books.google.com/books?id=N5vwCX6gyi8C&lpg=PA5&dq=Airframe%20taste%20good&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false) from Michael Crichton’s Airframe. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/2 "2012-01-14T20:54:12Z")
cast away was the first thing i thought of when i read the thread title. terrifying, and it comes out of nowhere too. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/3 "2012-01-14T21:17:23Z")
Easy for me. [Watch all 2 minutes of this scene from Knowing. It’s a one-take shot starting after a brief intro.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXwB7_dOtA4#t=2m) Underrated movie, too. Yeesh, that scene still bothers me when I watch it. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/4 "2012-01-14T21:18:28Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > cast away was the first thing i thought of when i read the thread title. terrifying, and it comes out of nowhere too. I like it teases the audience by making it his second flight that crashes because going in, everyone pretty knows that it’s about a plane crash. I always wondered why, since he on the uninhabited island of [Monuriki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monuriki), he didn’t just [paddle over to Fiji](http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=-17.794458,177.28569&spn=0.539381,0.697632&t=h&z=11&vpsrc=6). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/5 "2012-01-14T21:24:28Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Easy for me. > > [Watch all 2 minutes of this scene from Knowing. It’s a one-take shot starting after a brief intro.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXwB7_dOtA4#t=2m) > > Underrated movie, too. Cool scene. Never saw the film as it received poor reviews. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/6 "2012-01-14T21:31:27Z")
Not a plane actually, but the spaceship crash in the movie “Pitch Black” was one of the most terrifying crash scenes I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/7 "2012-01-14T21:55:58Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Underrated movie, too. > > Yeesh, that scene still bothers me when I watch it. Yes, it’s an very intense scene, but the movie was very stupid IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/8 "2012-01-15T01:22:13Z")
Not Hollywood. [Just the real thing](http://www.google.com/search?q=b52+crash+fairchild+afb). ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/9 "2012-01-15T01:49:16Z")
_Alive_ seemed the most realistic to me. I remember it more vividly than _Cast Away_, yet I saw that movie more recently. Maybe it’s because I read the book as an impressionable seventh grader, and had been thinking of it off and on since that time and seeing the movie. Mostly though it seemed to be so long. Like you were crashing with them, in real time. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/10 "2012-01-15T02:00:25Z")
> [@Foggy](#): > > Yes, it’s an very intense scene, but the movie was very stupid IMHO. The movie was retarded and annoying, but that plane crash scene was amazing even when I watched the movie on my PC. It must have been very intense on the big screen. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/11 "2012-01-15T02:04:00Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Not Hollywood. [Just the real thing](http://www.google.com/search?q=b52+crash+fairchild+afb). I think I know where “Knowing” got it’s crash idea from now. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/FUEhNKBi4DY/hqdefault.jpg "B-52 Crash at Fairchild Air Force Base") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUEhNKBi4DY) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/12 "2012-01-15T02:07:16Z")
There’s a great scene in _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_ where Tuco is about to be hanged. He’s standing with his head in the noose and someone reads off the charges against him in a dull monotone. No dramatic camera angles and music, no looks of grim duty on any of their faces; it’s made more terrifying because it’s so commonplace and mundane. It’s like they do this every day of the week and no one will even remember this one. At the beginning of _The Right Stuff_ is the narration about test pilots coming to the high desert to chase the demon who lives at mach 1. “Whiskey-Kilo-two-eight, do you wish to declare an emergency?” “Negative, Whiskey-Kilo-two…” Boom. Then the Friend of Widows and Orphans walking up to a house, a small funeral, and hanging his picture behind the bar at Pancho’s. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/13 "2012-01-15T02:09:37Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Not Hollywood. [Just the real thing](http://www.google.com/search?q=b52+crash+fairchild+afb). Check out the [Wiki entry on that B-52 crash](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash), its cause was the pilot being a reckless selfish arrogant hotdogging asshole who essentially manslaughtered his entire crew. I would vote the Alive scene over the Cast Away one, simply because it was full of terrified passengers. Speaking of, I’ve never watched it and don’t know when/if I ever will, but what about **United 93**? Or does it tactfully end before it? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/14 "2012-01-15T02:14:46Z")
Not the scariest, but easily the most affecting was the one in _ **Fearless** _ ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/15 "2012-01-15T05:15:08Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There’s a great scene in _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_ where Tuco is about to be hanged. He’s standing with his head in the noose and someone reads off the charges against him in a dull monotone. No dramatic camera angles and music, no looks of grim duty on any of their faces; it’s made more terrifying because it’s so commonplace and mundane. It’s like they do this every day of the week and no one will even remember this one. > > At the beginning of _The Right Stuff_ is the narration about test pilots coming to the high desert to chase the demon who lives at mach 1. “Whiskey-Kilo-two-eight, do you wish to declare an emergency?” “Negative, Whiskey-Kilo-two…” > > Boom. > > Then the Friend of Widows and Orphans walking up to a house, a small funeral, and hanging his picture behind the bar at Pancho’s. Is it just me, or is this post really hard to follow? What does **The Good, The Bad and The Ugly** have to do with plane crashes? The Friend of Widows and Orphans? Huh? I also thought of **Cast Away** as soon as I read the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/16 "2012-01-15T05:41:24Z")
Eyebrows of Doom, if you’ve ever seen “The Right Stuff” the friends of widows and orphans is basically this “angel of death guy,” a pastor who goes out to tell the wife that her husband has died in a test plane crash. It happens so often at the air base that it becomes a mundane task for him. I think Robot Arm was using “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” as a parallel example. Kind of saying that the routine plane crashes were horrifying in that people had become inured to them. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/17 "2012-01-15T05:54:29Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Check out the [Wiki entry on that B-52 crash](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash), its cause was the pilot being a reckless selfish arrogant hotdogging asshole who essentially manslaughtered his entire crew. Another thing that makes that crash even scarier is that there were nuclear weapons not far away from where it crashed. (Although supposedly there was no risk of detonation even if the B-52 had crashed even closer to them.) As for on-screen crashes, I thought the recreation of Howard Hughes’ 1946 XF-11 plane crash in **The Aviator** was pretty nail-biting. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/18 "2012-01-15T06:01:57Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Is it just me, or is this post really hard to follow? What does **The Good, The Bad and The Ugly** have to do with plane crashes? The Friend of Widows and Orphans? Huh? **Shawn** has it. All the other examples in this thread are of big, dramatic moments; lots of screaming and panic and Big Scary Things happening. It’s scary in a different way to treat these things as if they’re normal and to be expected. In the book, Tom Wolfe talks about how the news will spread among the pilot’s wives, and that one of them will be visited by a kindly man, a friend of widows and orphans. In the movie, it’s an actual character; the base chaplain at Edwards played by Royal Dano. He is death, waiting for anyone who fucks up. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/19 "2012-01-15T06:07:39Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > Not the scariest, but easily the most affecting was the one in _ **Fearless** _ I like how you put that. It makes sense. But I found the crash in\* Fearless\* to be the most terrifying depiction of a plane crash in fiction because it seemed so realistic. No over-dramatization–much less “exciting” than your typical movie plane crash. And THAT, to me, is why it was incredibly terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/20 "2012-01-15T06:29:36Z")
The one I “like,” which I cannot watch, is the one in Blackhawk Down. Amazing movie to begin with, and you know when the helicopter crashes things are just _starting_ to suck. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529.md?page=2)