North: Aberdeen, Scotland.
South: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
East: Budapest, Hungary
West: Western side of San Francisco, CA somewhere.
Only little ones, I’m not leaving the state.
Try being on a submerged submarine somewhere between Hawaii and Japan, and being awakened from a sound sleep by “All hands prepare to abandon ship.”
My flight from home to South Africa was longer than a direct flight from home to the Antarctic peninsula would have been (though in reality, neither was a direct flight and I took a ship from Punta Arenas to Antarctica).
Nonsense.
If the plane “went down” means it exploded, broke apart, or dove nose-first into the sea, you’d be just as dead as if it did the same thing into the suburb 1/2 mile from the runway after takeoff from your hometown. Location is pretty well irrelevant in that case.
Conversely a forced but otherwise controlled landing at sea by a jet is highly survivable. And rescue / recovery forces are hours, not weeks, away. If there happens to be a typhoon right there or coming fast you may well be screwed. But that’s not the way to bet.
I have to say I’d rather land a jet halfway between Australia and the US almost any month of the year than halfway between the US & Europe almost every month of the year.
Now that sucks. One hopes that was a drill. Or at least you guys got the situation under control before you had to go swimming. 
As far as the furthest compass points I’ve been to, I’ve been meaning to start my own thread on it so I have the information handy. Nearly all, but not all, of my points either are legitimately famous, or famous enough to railfans that they of course have their own wikipedia page, or are enough of a landmark that they should have their own wikipedia page.
Overall:
North: The Honeybourne rail stop north of the Cotswolds in England. From there I walked south to walk all of the Cotswolds.
Northeast: The grounds of Hatfield House north of London. The pop punk Slam Dunk Fest there gave me an excuse to visit England again and I don’t feel the least ashamed because it was the only time in the past 10 years I was able to see the Get Up Kids that fit into my schedule.
East: The Tower of London. I’ve never been across the Prime Meridian or International Date Line, so the easternmost place I’ve been to is thankfully not up for questioning.
Southeast: probably Baracas/Madrid airport but it could be the Prado.
South: The Farthest South buoy in Key West. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to the various places around it that are technically further south.
Southwest: Somewhere in Ventura, California on Highway 101. While the confluence of these names seem like they should have a symbolic significance regarding California’s car culture, I don’t think the actual confluence of these places is famous.
West and Northwest: Google Maps Tunnel Beach, Oregon, not the other various beaches around the world that are stuck between mountains and may only be accessed via a tunnel. This is the one that doesn’t have its own Wikipedia page, but should.
For North America:
North: this is some weird location near Boardman, Oregon, on I-84, not somewhere in Quebec or Ontario as I’d have thought.
Northeast: The Granby Zoo in Granby, Quebec. Were it not for the “step out onto soil” part, it would be technically be the Tim Horton’s just to the north of the zoo, but we went through the drive though so did not hit the ground.
East: Logan Airport in Boston. Never been to Maine.
Southeast probably somewhere weird in Key Largo.
In Europe:
South, Southwest, west: Even if the Prado is not the Southeasternmost point, it wins for the following three as far as Europe goes. I’m surprised it is to the west of Bath, England.
Updating for secondary compass points:
NE: Saint Petersburg, somewhere inside the Hermitage
SE: Ephesus, Turkey (or some road in Kuşadası, depending on the route the bus took)
SW: Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii
NW: Carcross, Yukon, Canada
A drill. On what was supposed to be a peaceful afternoon watch with no drills…
I did not fly for the Navy. But my bro did off of CVNs. One of their sayings was
1 minute’s flying equals 1 day’s swimming.
Puts in perspective just how screwed you are floating about out in the middle of an ocean.
I played baseball on the ground’s of “Cecil’s house” when I spent a week at my best friend’s house literally next door, in Old Hatfield. Would that be the same place? And, I’ve also been to Granby zoo.
When I lived in West Texas, I traveled as far east as Czechoslovakia. But living in Bangkok, I traveled east to New York City. Not sure which would be the greater distance.
Also in West Texas, I went as far south as Nicaragua, which I think might be farther than my journey from Bangkok to Java and Bali in Indonesia.
North. Hmm. From West Texas, I went up to Kansas once. But then in Europe I was in Bremen, Germany, which is much farther north, but that trip was a generally eastern tangent. From Bangkok, northeastern China was my limit.
Going west, from West Texas I went to California, but Bangkok to Nepal beats that.
Hometown is in Mercer County, NJ, although I live in Miami now. Using NJ as the base:
Home = Trenton, NJ (40.22 N, 74.74 W)
Furthest = Singapore (9,557 miles)
North = Anchorage, Alaska (61.18 deg N)
South = Buenos Aires, Argentina (34.58 deg S)
“East” = Singapore (103.75 deg E)
“West” = Hong Kong (114.08 deg E)
I can’t see getting any farther from home than Singapore, unless I go to Perth, Australia some day. It’s possible. I used antipodes map to get my literal farthest point from home, then zoomed out until I hit land. Looks like Perth is the lucky contender (well, Margaret River, probably, but Perth is the closest big city)
Farthest north will remain what it is until we get a chance to visit Iceland, which will probably end up being farthest north for the remainder of my life.
We’ve got an Antarctic cruise planned for late 2022, so that will supplant Buenos Aires for furthest south.
I’m not likely to get any farther “East” unless I visit Phnom Penh (which I would like to do some day). I can’t see any place closer to 180deg away from Trenton that I might visit.
Farthest West will change to Jakarta (hopefully) with a trip we’ve got planned for next year. I won’t do much but change planes there, so I suppose that doesn’t count. Looks like it would be either Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to take that crown if we ever get to Viet Nam.
What a fun exercise! Especially fun since, until I left college, I’d never been farther west than Williamsport, PA; farther north than Plattsburgh, NY, farther east than Bermuda, or farther south than Washington, D.C. That sure changed. 
[quote=“Siam_Sam, post:111, topic:940790, full:true”]
When I lived in West Texas, I traveled as far east as Czechoslovakia. But living in Bangkok, I traveled east to New York City. Not sure which would be the greater distance.[/quote]
A slight correction on my eastward travel. We did fly from Bangkok to New York City but later made our way by train to Connecticut. So Bangkok to Connecticut for me.
But the wife went from Bangkok to Boston one summer. She was attending a program at the U of Michigan at Ann Arbor when she flew to Boston to meet up with some friends of ours.
Current location: Eastern North Carolina
Furthest away: St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Most Southern: San Juan, Puerto Rico (although it’s a close call with St. Thomas to be honest)
Most Northern: New York City
Most Eastern: St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (although I have a trip to Bermuda planned for later in 2021 which will surpass this by many miles)
Most Western: Pigeon Forge, TN (yeah, don’t go west very often)
Farthest distance: Melbourne to the Cliffs of Moher in western Ireland. 17,414km.
That is also the most northerly destination.
Most southern, Port Arthur in Tasmania: Melb to PA 772km
Eastern destination: Byron Bay, easternmost point of mainland Australia.
Western destination: Cliffs of Moher again.
Seems I travel north and west most of the time.
Don’t think with 2021 technology. Think mid-1990s.
I’ve lived in various places in New York. The only two countries I’ve traveled in are the United States and Canada.
The farthest I’ve been from home and the farthest west I’ve been is San Antonio, Texas. The farthest south is Key West, Florida. The farthest north is the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec (I traveled along the northern coast line and it appears the northernmost point is around a small village named Les Côtes-du-Portage). The farthest east is Sydney, Nova Scotia. These are all points I have reached by driving.
If I take the town I was born in (Plattsburgh, NY) as my starting point:
2012 miles to San Antonio
1734 miles to Key West
544 miles to Les Côtes-du-Portage
951 miles to Sydney
Home: Chicago
Farthest: Pompei. 4,943.20 mi.
From an old thread Your geographical extremes - #48 by rowrrbazzle
N: Edinburgh
S: Miami
E: Pompeii
W: Pacific coast of Washington, west of Seattle
My wife and I were born about 9,400 miles apart — New York and the southern tip of Malaysia — and we’ve spent a lot of time near each others’ birthplaces.
I’m over fifty years old, but my furthest south and furthest north visits occurred within a year of each other, in my early twenties: Bathurst Inlet, Canada (on the Arctic Ocean) at 66.5 deg north, and Bariloche, Argentina at 41.1 deg south.
Edited to add: Actually, I’ve since been to Kaikoura, New Zealand, at over 42 deg south.
(I won’t do East and west, since it’s based on arbitrary human geopolitical historical choices).