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On one extreme, there are situations like Air New Zealand flight 901 in 1979. This was a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Apparently, an effective visual white-out result in a controlled flight into terrain - the terrain in question being Mount Erebus. The result was that there was no time for any drastic action to alarm the passengers. Everyone died on impact.
In that case, there would have been no realization from the passengers.
On the other hand, consider the case of Juliane Koepcke. On a flight over the Amazon in 1971, she describes bad turbulence, the plane going into a dive, and then after the aircraft broke up (at about 10,000') she describes free-falling and being aware of the sight of the jungle far below her. She then lost consciousness.
But she did survive with comparatively minor injuries and made it out after over a week alone in the rainforest.
Anyway, if you have hundreds of people on an aircraft that suffers some sort of catastrophic mid-air disaster, often the situation will be that by sheer numbers some people are going to survive long enough to have a very clear awareness that they're going down and unlikely to survive.
It is amazing that people can survive this type of accident. Look up the details of the Pan Am flight that was bombed over Scotland. They found one flight attended alive, they found several other people later that appeared to have survived but later died of exposure. They had landed in tall grass and had crawled several meters before dying.
On the other hand, consider the case of Juliane Koepcke. On a flight over the Amazon in 1971, she describes bad turbulence, the plane going into a dive, and then after the aircraft broke up (at about 10,000') she describes free-falling and being aware of the sight of the jungle far below her. She then lost consciousness.
But she did survive with comparatively minor injuries and made it out after over a week alone in the rainforest.
Anyway, if you have hundreds of people on an aircraft that suffers some sort of catastrophic mid-air disaster, often the situation will be that by sheer numbers some people are going to survive long enough to have a very clear awareness that they're going down and unlikely to survive.
Oh My LORD...Juliane's story is incredible. How horrifying. I can not believe she survived that kind of trauma, but I guess the jungle canopy "softened" her impact?? Anyways thanks for that Unsettomati, very interesting and intense read.
On one extreme, there are situations like Air New Zealand flight 901 in 1979. This was a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Apparently, an effective visual white-out result in a controlled flight into terrain - the terrain in question being Mount Erebus. The result was that there was no time for any drastic action to alarm the passengers. Everyone died on impact.
In that case, there would have been no realization from the passengers.
On the other hand, consider the case of Juliane Koepcke. On a flight over the Amazon in 1971, she describes bad turbulence, the plane going into a dive, and then after the aircraft broke up (at about 10,000') she describes free-falling and being aware of the sight of the jungle far below her. She then lost consciousness.
But she did survive with comparatively minor injuries and made it out after over a week alone in the rainforest.
Anyway, if you have hundreds of people on an aircraft that suffers some sort of catastrophic mid-air disaster, often the situation will be that by sheer numbers some people are going to survive long enough to have a very clear awareness that they're going down and unlikely to survive.
I cannot imagine surviving a 2 mile free fall. Wow.
On one extreme, there are situations like Air New Zealand flight 901 in 1979. This was a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Apparently, an effective visual white-out result in a controlled flight into terrain - the terrain in question being Mount Erebus. The result was that there was no time for any drastic action to alarm the passengers. Everyone died on impact.
In that case, there would have been no realization from the passengers.
On the other hand, consider the case of Juliane Koepcke. On a flight over the Amazon in 1971, she describes bad turbulence, the plane going into a dive, and then after the aircraft broke up (at about 10,000') she describes free-falling and being aware of the sight of the jungle far below her. She then lost consciousness.
But she did survive with comparatively minor injuries and made it out after over a week alone in the rainforest.
Anyway, if you have hundreds of people on an aircraft that suffers some sort of catastrophic mid-air disaster, often the situation will be that by sheer numbers some people are going to survive long enough to have a very clear awareness that they're going down and unlikely to survive.
I remember reading her story when I was a kid. I think the maggots are what stayed with me most when I read it the first time.
Oh they knew. In stormy weather, aircraft stalling, falling, pilots trying to control it, abrupt pitch and bank changes, drastic airspeed changes.. It would have been nightmare on the way down.
That plane was up and down over and over prior to hitting the ocean. They knew.
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Oh My LORD...Juliane's story is incredible. How horrifying. I can not believe she survived that kind of trauma, but I guess the jungle canopy "softened" her impact?? Anyways thanks for that Unsettomati, very interesting and intense read.
