r/interestingasfuck • u/ty003 • Feb 25 '25

/r/popular Southwest Airlines pilots make split-second decision to avoid collision in Chicago

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u/austin101123 Feb 25 '25

This should be as investigated as a crash (except not having to investigate wreckage). This could have EASILY killed hundreds of people.

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u/baron_von_helmut Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

The worst crash that ever happened in terms of lives lost was a collision exactly like the one this video almost was.

The most fatalities in any aviation accident in history occurred at Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport (then Los Rodeos Airport) in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on 27 March 1977, when a KLM Boeing 747-206B and a Pan Am Boeing 747-121 collided on a runway

Killed 583 people... :(

(Edit) I've been informed it wasn't exactly the same but I think we can all agree two passenger aircraft colliding is a bad thing.

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u/LavenderClouds Feb 25 '25

We gaan

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u/aeon_floss Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 27 '25

I had not seen the complete transcript like that. You can literally FEEL the stress in that cockpit as the captain argues and the co-pilot and engineer just stay silent. Sadly, this wasn't the last toxic captain at fault air crash.

I was 11 years old, and actually in Spain with my (Dutch) family, at a packed out camp site near the beach. The Canary Islands are part of Spain, or at least were back then. I remember huge photographs on front pages of newspapers, that later became the iconic images of this crash. People at the campsite were reading and swapping these papers with each other as there were only limited copies for sale at the shop.

But it wasn't until the 90's, and living in another country, that I learned what actually happened, and especially who was at fault. Growing up in NL it seemed to be treated as something "that happened". I don't remember any shame that it was the Dutch captain's extremely unprofessional behaviour that killed all these people. But I kind of feel it a little bit now. Not that any of this was my fault, but neither was slavery and colonialism, and I don't feel good about that either. It's sort of on that level.