Buzz
Greetings, passengers. This is your captain speaking. We're preparing for takeoff and expect a smooth, three-hour flight ahead. The weather is clear, so it should be a relaxed, comfortable ride.
Well, that’s assuming he doesn’t forget to de-ice the wings, gets confused and mistakes the ocean for the horizon, or misses the runway during landing. Or...
Here are ten possible ways your pilot could inadvertently send us to an untimely end. Please prepare for a turbulent experience.
10. By Never Even Reaching the (Correct) Runway
It takes a truly unique pilot to put passengers in danger even before the plane leaves the ground. On December 3, 1990, at Detroit’s Wayne County Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 – under the command of Captain William Lovelace and First Officer James Schifferns – was preparing to depart from Pittsburgh with 40 passengers. The weather that day featured thick, low-lying fog, but it was nothing the DC-9 couldn’t easily rise above.
As Flight 1482 left the gate, it headed for Runway 03C… but somehow ended up turning onto a different taxiway. To fix the error, air traffic control instructed them to make a right turn to double back. However, not content with just one mistake, Lovelace and Schifferns managed to veer directly onto the active runway.
They quickly realized their error and reached out to air traffic control, who (unsurprisingly) ordered them to vacate the runway immediately. Five seconds later, Northwest Flight 299, a Boeing 727 departing for Memphis, came charging toward them.
The 727’s wing struck the right side of Flight 1482, slicing through the fuselage just below the windows, and severing the DC-9’s right engine. The pilot of Flight 299 – who, to his credit, handled the situation brilliantly – initiated a rejected takeoff and safely halted the aircraft. All 146 passengers and 8 crew members aboard were unharmed.
The DC-9 erupted in flames and was completely destroyed. Seven passengers and one flight attendant perished, with another 10 suffering serious injuries. In addition to Lovelace’s responsibility, the investigation that followed criticized the airport’s control tower for failing to issue progressive taxi instructions in the low-visibility conditions.
9. By Forgetting to De-Ice the Wings in a Snowstorm
Ensuring that ice hasn’t built up on an airplane’s wings is so critical and routine that, even in the more reckless days of the 1980s, cockpits featured prominently labeled Ice Protection Systems. Sadly, Captain Larry M. Wheaton missed this essential pre-flight checklist item, despite having over 8,000 flight hours and the fact that it was snowing.
On the afternoon of January 13, 1982, Washington DC’s National Airport had just reopened after a heavy snowfall—snow that was now building up on the wings of Wheaton’s Air Florida Flight 90, which was headed for Fort Lauderdale with 74 passengers on board.
Wheaton, being the seasoned pilot he was, realized his mistake shortly after leaving the gate. But instead of going back for proper de-icing, he and First Officer Roger Pettit came up with a novel solution: they decided to use the exhaust from the plane ahead in the queue to melt the ice off the wings. How inventive.
But the ill-advised decisions didn’t end there. Wheaton chose to proceed with takeoff despite the fact that his makeshift de-icing method had predictably failed—AND after detecting a power issue while taxiing.
Flight 90 took off and began climbing… reaching an altitude of about 350 feet. Then, it lost lift. The Boeing 737 fell from the sky, crashing into an overpass before plunging into the Potomac River. Seventy passengers and four crew members lost their lives, including both pilots. Four motorists on the ground also perished. Only five survivors were rescued by helicopter from the icy river, though as many as 19 might have survived the initial impact.
8. By Turning the Plane into a High-Speed Bus
On August 20, 2008, Captain Antonio Garcia Luna and First Officer Francisco Javier Mulet started off by doing everything right, but then they proceeded to do everything wrong. Unfortunately, the second part was unforgivable.
SpanAir Flight 5022 was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, carrying 166 passengers and six crew members from Barcelona to Madrid. It was originally supposed to depart an hour earlier, but the pilots wisely decided to abandon the departure due to an unusually high reading from the ram air temperature (RAT) probe. The plane was moved to a parking area, where maintenance workers deactivated the RAT probe’s heater, a decision that was fine since no ice was expected on a clear August day in Spain.
Then, both Luna and Mulet forgot to extend the flaps and slats necessary for takeoff. Without these critical “high-lift” devices, the wings couldn’t generate enough lift to keep the aircraft airborne. The situation was made worse by the malfunctioning warning system, which failed to alert the crew about their critical mistake.
Flight 5022 briefly lifted off, sharply veered to the right, and crashed beside the runway. The wings detached and the fuselage broke into two pieces, with the larger section engulfed in flames. This tragic accident claimed the lives of 154 people, leaving only 18 survivors.
7. By Not Being Present in the Cockpit
On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 departed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, headed for Paris. The Airbus A330 carried 216 passengers and 12 crew members, including three flight-trained officers—more than the usual two. The flight spanned 13 hours, and according to Air France's policy, pilots can only work for ten hours before taking a break. The extra First Officer ensured that two qualified individuals were always at the helm.
Captain Marc DuBois took his mid-flight break while the plane was cruising over the Atlantic Ocean. Just 15 minutes later, First Officer David Robert called him back to the cockpit. During his absence, the aircraft had encountered turbulent air and was accumulating ice on the wings.
The aircraft had begun stalling, and the two pilots—neither of whom held the rank of captain—responded incorrectly. Just before DuBois reentered the cockpit, co-First Officer Pierre-Cédric Bonin shouted: “[Expletive] I don’t have control of the airplane anymore now!”
DuBois’ initial words upon his return were far from reassuring. Upon seeing the various alarms blaring, he asked, “Er… what are you (doing)?” The aircraft's nose was above the horizon, yet it was descending sharply.
Not long after, Robert repeated “climb” four times. Bonin responded, “But I’ve been at maximum nose-up for quite some time!” Realizing that Bonin’s actions were causing the stall, Captain DuBois shouted, “No, don’t climb! No! No! No!” Flight 447 tragically crashed into the ocean, killing everyone on board. If a Captain-level pilot had been in the cockpit, this tragedy could likely have been prevented.
6. By the Co-Pilot Pushing One Incorrect Button
It seems unfathomable that 264 lives could be lost due to a single mistake, yet that’s exactly what happened with First Officer Chuang Meng-jung, aged 26. On April 26, 1994, he and Captain Wang Lo-chi were nearing the conclusion of China Airlines Flight 140 from Taipei, Taiwan, to Nagoya, Japan. The flight had been uneventful, and the Airbus A300 was descending into Nagoya safely and on schedule.
However, just three miles from the runway, everything went wrong. At an altitude of 1,000 feet, First Officer Meng-jung accidentally activated the takeoff/go-around setting, which at that height directed the autopilot to boost the throttles for a second landing attempt.
The crew responded by manually reducing the throttles and pushing the yoke forward. However, the autopilot, following the unintentional go-around command, counteracted their efforts by boosting its own systems, which resulted in the horizontal stabilizer moving to a full nose-up position.
Unaware of the autopilot's go-around command, the crew then made their own decision to initiate a go-around. This miscommunication led to a compounded response, causing the plane’s nose to pitch up too steeply. The resulting aerodynamic stall caused Flight 140 to plummet to the ground. Only seven of the 271 people aboard survived.
5. By Colliding Midair with Another Incompetent Pilot
What are the odds, right? Well, up until the mid-1950s, they were surprisingly high. One such collision led to necessary changes in aviation regulations.
On June 30, 1956, a TWA Super Constellation and a United DC-7, carrying a combined 128 passengers, collided over the Grand Canyon in Arizona at an altitude of 21,000 feet. The TWA plane’s tail was severed, while most of the United flight’s left wing was destroyed.
The TWA Super Constellation descended in a near-vertical dive, crashing onto a plateau that was 300 feet above the Colorado River. Meanwhile, the United DC-7 managed to fly another mile or so before it collided with a butte, plummeting into a rugged gulch. Tragically, all passengers aboard perished.
It may seem easy for two aircraft to avoid one another in the air, especially during the less congested skies of the mid-20th century. However, midair collisions had become disturbingly common. A 1956 article from 'Aviation Week' reported that between 1948 and 1955, there were 127 midair accidents in the U.S., 30 of which involved commercial airliners.
In the wake of the TWA-United tragedy, investigators concluded that the pilots simply failed to see one another (but how could that happen?). However, the antiquated air traffic control system in America played a significant role. The fallout from this disaster led directly to the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board in 1957.
4. By Getting Distracted By a Burnt-Out Lightbulb
It may be a bit unkind to refer to the crew of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 as dim-witted, but this may well be the most absurd reason a commercial airliner ever crashed.
On December 29, 1972, Flight 401, a Lockheed TriStar carrying 163 passengers and 13 crew members, was on its approach to Miami after departing from NYC’s John F. Kennedy Airport. When the landing gear was lowered, First Officer Albert Stockstill noticed that the green light, which confirms that the nose gear was locked in place, didn’t illuminate.
The flight had three trained aviators on board: First Officer Stockstill, Flight Engineer Donald Repo, and Captain Robert Loft, a seasoned 32-year veteran. Loft communicated the landing gear issue to the Miami flight tower, receiving approval to enter a holding pattern at 2,000 feet. He then instructed Repo to check the avionics bay for the gear’s status and asked Stockstill to engage the autopilot while they worked on the light assembly.
However, the autopilot was set incorrectly. Instead of maintaining a stable altitude, it gradually descended without anyone noticing until the plane crashed into the Everglades.
Loft’s last words, recorded just 10 seconds before the crash, were: 'Hey, what’s happening here?' Oh, nothing, Captain. You’re just sending everyone to their deaths because none of the three pilots bothered to look out the window.
101 people lost their lives. It was later determined that the landing gear indicator issue was simply due to a burnt-out lightbulb. Even if that hadn't been the case, the gear could have been manually lowered.
3. By Botching the Final Moments of the Landing
Many fatal crashes happen right as planes are landing, usually due to overshooting or undershooting the runway. However, one particularly strange landing accident occurred last year for an entirely unexpected reason.
On May 22, 2020, Pakistani International Airlines Flight 8303 was making its descent into Karachi from Lahore, carrying 91 passengers and 8 crew members. The Airbus A320's descent was unusually steep, alarming air traffic controllers as the aircraft neared the runway.
Then that alarm turned into horror. Captain Sajjad Gul and First Officer Usman Azam were on the verge of landing the plane without its landing gear, despite numerous procedures and warning systems in place to prevent exactly this scenario.
"It is unbelievable to me that an airline crew on a jet like an Airbus, with all the warning systems, would attempt to land the plane without the gear extended," said John Cox, an aviation safety consultant. The plane’s engines scraped along the runway at over 200 mph – 40 mph faster than an Airbus is designed to land, whether it has wheels or not.
Incredibly, the pilots managed to pull the plane up and briefly ascend away from the airport… but only for a short time. The plane lost power – likely due to the engines grinding against the pavement at high speeds – and crashed into a nearby neighborhood, tragically killing one person on the ground. Only two passengers survived.
2. By Botching the Middle of the Landing
Nearly half of all fatal crashes occur during the final descent and landing, making it by far the most perilous stage of a flight. As a plane descends, the pilot's most critical task is ensuring the aircraft’s angle and alignment are perfectly aimed toward the runway. On September 27, 1977, the captain of Japan Airlines Flight 715 was trying to do just that as the plane neared Malaysia’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport.
Due to the poor weather conditions, Flight 715 was following a VOR approach, which offers lateral guidance until the plane reaches its MDA, or Minimum Descent Altitude. Once that altitude is reached, pilots are instructed to maintain it until the runway comes into view. The idea is to descend below the cloud cover without putting the aircraft in danger.
The MDA for Flight 715 was set at 750 feet. With the landing gear down and flaps extended, the DC-8 descended to 750 feet. However, it continued descending. At 300 feet, the plane struck a hill located four miles from the airport. It broke apart and caught fire. Miraculously, only 34 of the 79 people on board perished.
The reason behind the crash was straightforward: the pilot descended below the minimum descent altitude without having the runway visible. Rather than aborting the approach and circling back, the pilot continued the descent, bringing the plane to a height comparable to a mid-sized office building in Manhattan. Investigators also placed blame on the First Officer for failing to intervene and prevent this clear procedural breach.
1. By Failing at the Start of the Landing Process
While landing procedures can be intricate, modern cockpit technology greatly simplifies their execution, automating both the approach and touchdown phases as much as possible. These advancements have played a significant role in ensuring air travel remains one of the safest modes of transportation.
That is, unless the pilot mishandles the instruments.
On February 9, 2009, Captain Marvin Renslow and the alarmingly young First Officer, 24-year-old Rebecca Shaw, were starting their descent into Buffalo, New York, aboard Colgan Air Flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey. The Bombardier Dash-8, which was carrying 49 passengers, was fully packed for the relatively small aircraft.
Upstate New York experiences harsh winter temperatures, and the airline's protocol required manual landings in conditions that could lead to ice buildup on the wings. Nonetheless, Renslow kept the aircraft on autopilot as it slowed for landing. It slowed. And slowed some more... until the shaker stick, an alarm designed to alert the pilot, triggered, warning of an imminent stall.
Instead of manually controlling the aircraft, Renslow responded by pulling back abruptly on the control column and boosting thrust to 75% power—both incorrect actions. The right stall recovery procedure involves lowering the nose and applying full power. Flight 3407 pitched up, then down, veered left, and violently rolled to the right. It then crashed into a house, igniting a fire and claiming the lives of everyone onboard, as well as one person on the ground.
Significantly, the flight's tragic outcome became a pivotal moment in advocating for more rest between flights for pilots, as fatigue was identified as one of the contributing factors to Renslow's fatal errors.
