Flights That Almost Ended in Disaster Until Someone Stepped in and Saved the Day

This article was originally published on Lizanest.com

Every day, more than 100,000 flights take off around the world. Almost all of them land without a single surprise. But every so often, something goes terribly wrong.

These are the stories of the flights that should have ended in tragedy but didn’t. Some were saved by quick-thinking pilots. Others were saved by brave flight attendants, passengers who refused to give up, or plain luck. In a few cases, it came down to a matter of seconds or a handful of feet.

These are the biggest close calls in aviation history, ranked from the most extreme to the least. Buckle up.

#1: The Japan Airlines Runway Crash Where Passengers Escaped the Flames

Japan was still shaken from a huge New Year’s earthquake when Flight 516 began its landing in Tokyo with 379 people aboard. A small Coast Guard plane, rushing supplies to quake victims, had rolled onto the same runway by mistake. The jet slammed into it.

Flames swallowed the jet as it skidded down the runway. Smoke filled the cabin, and the speaker system broke, so flight attendants used megaphones. Using just three exits, they got all 379 people out in about 18 minutes. Five of the six Coast Guard crew died.

#2: The British Airways Volcano Flight That Lost All Four Engines

Most of the 263 people on British Airways Flight 9 were dozing as their jumbo jet crossed Indonesia at night. Nobody knew a nearby volcano had just erupted. Soon, glowing sparks danced across the windows and smoke drifted through the cabin. Then all four engines quit.

“We have a small problem,” Captain Eric Moody calmly told passengers. The silent jet glided for about 13 minutes as the crew fought to restart the engines. When they finally roared back, the pilots landed in Jakarta through a sandblasted windshield. Nobody was hurt.

#3: The Air Transat Fuel Leak That Turned a Jet Into a Glider

Shortly before Air Transat Flight 236 left Toronto for Lisbon, mechanics installed a part that didn’t fit. Over the Atlantic, with 306 people aboard, it wore a crack in a fuel line. Pilots blamed a computer glitch as fuel poured out, until both engines went silent.

Captain Robert Piché had once gone to prison for smuggling drugs by plane, but on this flight he became a hero. He glided the powerless jet for 19 minutes to an air base on a small Azores island. Tires burst on landing, but everyone survived.

#4: The Qantas Engine Explosion That Crippled the World’s Biggest Jet

Deep inside one engine of the world’s biggest passenger jet, a tiny oil pipe had been made too thin at the factory. Minutes after Qantas Flight 32 left Singapore for Sydney with 469 people, that engine exploded, ripping holes in the wing and cutting key wires.

Luckily, five pilots were in the cockpit that day. Led by Captain Richard de Crespigny, they worked through dozens of warnings, then landed back in Singapore with blazing hot brakes. One engine wouldn’t shut off, so firefighters sprayed it for hours. No one was injured.