# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/21 "2012-01-15T06:32:39Z")
Since people are throwing in real crashes, I’l throw in two of those. [The 1989 Sioux City crash](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5yztk_1989-sioux-city-crash_news) – this particular video has some of the cockpit voice recording of the seconds in the seconds before the crash. Also, the [1996 crash of the hijacked Ethiopian Airlines 767](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMTYG9DiuPA). And I would agree about _Knowing_. Lousy movie, great crash. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/22 "2012-01-15T12:42:03Z")
The plane crash was the only good scene in Superman Returns. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/23 "2012-01-15T13:17:06Z")
_White Nights_ is pretty famous for this – mainly for the immediate-aftermath shot. The filmmakers bought a real 747 for this. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/24 "2012-01-15T13:22:19Z")
Ooh, and here I am going on a 12 hour flight tonight… I’d say the one that freaked me out the most was from the movie Alive (I think that was the one). Anyway, it showed the seats breaking away and mangling the passengers. I remember that scene really hitting home how fragile we humans are. But anyway, planes are safe, right? RIGHT? ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/25 "2012-01-15T15:18:35Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Since people are throwing in real crashes, I’l throw in two of those. [The 1989 Sioux City crash](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5yztk_1989-sioux-city-crash_news) – this particular video has some of the cockpit voice recording of the seconds in the seconds before the crash. Ugh, the 1989 crash scared the crap out of my 16yro self when I first saw it on the news. And _Alive_ so spooked this flying-phobic (well, falling-phobic; I’m no fan of heights) gal that I couldn’t see the movie for years. I could handle reading the book no problem, but SEEING that crap? :eek: Interesting bit of trivia: Olympic equestrian and trainer of ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro [Michael Matz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Matz) was on the Sioux City flight United 232 when it crashed. During the flight, he noticed three unattended children, and made a mental note to look after them. After the crash, he and his then-fiance, now-wife led those children to safety–and then Matz went back into the burning plane to save an 11mo old girl. He was chosen to carry the American flag as the athletes were led into the stadium during the 1996 Olympic game closing ceremonies because of this act of heroism. He has kept in touch with all three of those kids (who, from what I’ve seen in video clips, adore him) over the years, and they were all present at the 2006 Kentucky Derby when his Barbaro won. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/26 "2012-01-16T18:53:27Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Since people are throwing in real crashes, I’l throw in two of those. [The 1989 Sioux City crash](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5yztk_1989-sioux-city-crash_news) – this particular video has some of the cockpit voice recording of the seconds in the seconds before the crash. This. There was a program on plane crashes on the Discovery Channel (I think) some years ago, and they broadcast a lot of this. That crash is particularly heartbreaking, because they ALMOST made it, in spite of crippling damage to the plane. And a surprising number of folks survived that one. Truly heroic flying by the pilots. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/27 "2012-01-16T19:05:25Z")
The [Tenerife airport disaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster) got me when I watched an episode about it on National Geographic. The one plane announced that it was starting its takeoff run and the other plane tried to transmit “Wait! We’re still in your way!” but the communications setup was such that two transmissions couldn’t go at the same time so no one heard them. Imagining what must have gone through that first pilot’s mind as he thundered out of the fog and saw the second plane _right in front of him_ and probably knew there was absolutely no way out of this is horrible. And they’d just refueled so when he tried to nose the plane up it was too heavy to clear the second plane. It also added a lot more accelerant to assure that the fire was enormous. I think the TV episode said the fire on the first plane was so bad that emergency responders didn’t even realize there was a second plane for awhile. And of course everyone on the first plane burned to death. 61 people made it off the second plane, but 583 total died. If I’m going to die in a plane crash, I’d prefer any other manner of death to being burned alive. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/28 "2012-01-16T22:52:34Z")
Interesting that nobody’s mentioned _Die Hard 2_ since the OP. I just watched the [crash itself](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkCQ_-Id8zI), and it’s pretty intense visually. But more so, this really blew me away as a plot point. They just crashed _a whole fucking plane full of innocent people_. Holy _shit_. I don’t recall having ever seen those kinds of stakes in a movie before. (And, IMO, the film suffered for this. That scene changed the tone too much for me to really enjoy watching Bruce Willis yippee-ki-yay-ing the bad guys in what should have been a silly popcorn flick.) ETA: For the record, I’m going with the OP’s premise of _fictional_ plane crashes. None of these, of course, is more horrifying than the real ones… ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/29 "2012-01-16T23:58:04Z")
In the pilot of the TV show _Call to Glory_, there’s a scene in which a group of women on the airbase, all of whom are the wives of test pilots, stand chatting on the sidewalk. Suddenly overhead, a plane explodes. The camera barely shows that, because its focus is on the women all racing back to their houses, where the phones have started ringing, so that husbands can reassure their wives that it wasn’t them. One woman never gets that call. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/30 "2012-01-17T15:45:17Z")
> [@Archergal](#): > > This. There was a program on plane crashes on the Discovery Channel (I think) some years ago, and they broadcast a lot of this. That crash is particularly heartbreaking, because they ALMOST made it, in spite of crippling damage to the plane. > > And a surprising number of folks survived that one. Truly heroic flying by the pilots. Somewhere I thought I read that no one has been able to reproduce what those amazing pilots did in a simulator anywhere. Every time, the plane ‘crashes’ with estimated total loss of life. Can anybody yea or nay for sure on this? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/31 "2012-01-17T16:04:16Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > Somewhere I thought I read that no one has been able to reproduce what those amazing pilots did in a simulator anywhere. Every time, the plane ‘crashes’ with estimated total loss of life. Can anybody yea or nay for sure on this? I remember that was said in a documentary on the crash, but that was quite a few years back. I don’t know whether or how often it has been tried since. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/32 "2012-01-17T16:35:21Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > Somewhere I thought I read that no one has been able to reproduce what those amazing pilots did in a simulator anywhere. Every time, the plane ‘crashes’ with estimated total loss of life. Can anybody yea or nay for sure on this? All I could find quickly was this from [AirDisaster.com](http://www.airdisaster.com/special/special-ua232.shtml) > [@](#): > > Subsequent simulator tests showed that other DC-10 crews were unable to repeat the effort of the crew of 232. Investigators concluded that, in its damaged condition, it was not possible to land the aircraft on a runway. As a result, the crew was given much praise for managing to put the aircraft down just off the runway centerline and saving as many lives as they did. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/33 "2012-01-17T20:33:32Z")
Second plane into the second tower on 9/11. This crash was the most terrifying on so many levels. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/34 "2012-01-17T21:28:55Z")
I’ll throw in [**Final Destination**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRYu03c-Pv8). This video has the opening disasters from the first 3 movies; the first is the plane explosion from #1, and stops at about 2:44. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/35 "2012-01-18T08:42:05Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > Ooh, and here I am going on a 12 hour flight tonight… > > I’d say the one that freaked me out the most was from the movie Alive (I think that was the one). Anyway, it showed the seats breaking away and mangling the passengers. I remember that scene really hitting home how fragile we humans are. > > But anyway, planes are safe, right? RIGHT? I watched that movie… some time before flying on that same plane’s sister ship (Uruguayan Air Force Fokker F27) over the same approximate route. We arrived to Santiago de Chile without incident, but a few months later the plane was completely destroyed by fire during refueling. I still love flying though. 🙂 > [@Wheelz](#): > > Interesting that nobody’s mentioned _Die Hard 2_ since the OP. I just watched the [crash itself](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkCQ_-Id8zI), and it’s pretty intense visually. But more so, this really blew me away as a plot point. They just crashed _a whole fucking plane full of innocent people_. Holy _shit_. I don’t recall having ever seen those kinds of stakes in a movie before. Hey!, what are a few billion vaporized Alderaanians, chopped liver? 😉 I haven’t seen Hell’s Angels (the Howard Hughes movie) but I know that at the climatic shooting down of a “Gotha” bomber the pilot couldn’t bail out. I’d feel very uneasy watching that in the context of an entertainment movie. ---
**Author:** ![Cara\_mel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Cara\_mel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cara_mel)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/36 "2012-01-18T10:01:56Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > Ooh, and here I am going on a 12 hour flight tonight… > > I’d say the one that freaked me out the most was from the movie Alive (I think that was the one). Anyway, it showed the seats breaking away and mangling the passengers. I remember that scene really hitting home how fragile we humans are. > > But anyway, planes are safe, right? RIGHT? Sparky! Sparky? ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/37 "2012-01-18T10:04:44Z")
Flight 191 at O’hare in 1978. [http://amazingdata.com/mediadata41/Image/fun\_cool\_offbeat\_weird\_5\_chicago\_200908030548498482.jpg](http://amazingdata.com/mediadata41/Image/fun_cool_offbeat_weird_5_chicago_200908030548498482.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/38 "2012-01-18T14:53:43Z")
Just wanted to say that thanks to this thread and another one on a different board, I’ve spent the last two days watching episodes of “Air Crash Investigation” on YouTube. I may never fly again. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/39 "2012-01-18T17:17:00Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > …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? Very powerful, harrowing movie which I highly recommend. Just saw it a few months ago. At the end, [spoiler]the passengers storm the cockpit and you see the desperate, hand-to-hand fighting. Then the camera shifts to shows the view through the cockpit windows, as the horizon crazily rolls and then you see the ground get closer and closer and… Fade to black.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529/40 "2012-01-18T18:05:41Z")
The [plane crash in **The Edge**](http://youtu.be/nrui4KNK3Yg#t=3m14s) deserves a spot on this list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-plane-crash-or-near-crash-on-screen-or-in-print/609529.md?page=3)