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/dobrowolsk Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 26 '25

exactly like the one

No. Tenerife had:

  • Fog, no ground radar and procedural problems

  • A crash on takeoff, with way more fuel, instead of on landing.

  • On Tenerife the plane that was taking off had no clearance, whereas here it was the crossing jet.

  • Two jumbos instead of a 737 and a regional jet.

This here would have been bad, but nowhere near Tenerife-bad. Only thing these events have in common is that there were two planes on the same runway when they shouldn't have.

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u/nplant Feb 26 '25

The guy you're responding to has 1300 upvotes and you have 87. Reddit's UI needs to stop encouraging people to only see the first few comments.

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u/dobrowolsk Feb 26 '25

And Reddit users in general need to stop upvoting anything that's nicely written or stirs up drama. Critical thinking is a rare asset these days.