This Plane Lost Its Tail but Everybody Survived

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the pilot of your plane speaking. Please fasten your seat belts and stay calm. Don’t worry, everything’s fine. We’re just... FALLING AAAAAAAAA!!!

Okay, okay, don’t panic. Yes, we’re falling, but the landing is gonna be great. And do you know why? Because this is an article about the most incredible landings with happy endings.

So, imagine this situation: you’re in a giant passenger Boeing. The plane is flying from Montreal to Edmonton at an altitude of tens of thousands of feet. The weather is good, there’s no turbulence... but then you notice a strange silence. You don’t understand what’s happening. Exactly! The sound of engines is gone. And do you know why? Because they stopped working right in the air.

The plane has run out of fuel. It’ll take you a couple of minutes to get to the nearest gas station... if you fly straight down. It’s a real accident that happened on July 23, 1983. That flight got nicknamed the Gimli Glider. During the fueling of the aircraft, the crew confused the measurements. They thought they were pouring American gallons when it was actually liters. The pilots realized the mistake when they were already in the sky when the fuel had run out.

They didn’t panic and put the aircraft into the optimal mode to increase its flight range. One of them knew that the Gimli Air Force Base was nearby. There was a small runway there. At that moment, it was filled with some garbage and carts. The pilot contacted the base and warned them about the emergency landing. The employees of the base cleared the runway in a matter of minutes. The plane began to land very smoothly.

The pilots controlled the aircraft by using its wings. They needed the last drops of fuel to brake with the help of turbines. When the plane touched down, the front landing gear broke. The landing was tough. The whole plane was shaking, and the passengers were terrified. But everything ended well. No one got hurt.

On November 1, 2011, a Polish Airlines 767 passenger plane was flying from the USA to Warsaw. 30 minutes after taking off, the pilots suddenly realized the landing gear didn’t work. They warned the passengers about it. The wheels didn’t come out because of some hydraulic error.

Pilots remained calm and continued the flight. They almost reached the final destination and made several more attempts to deploy the landing gear. Nothing worked. They realized that they would have to make a hard landing.

When any airplane lands at this speed without wheels, it releases a lot of sparks, and its body heats up because of friction with the ground. In this case, the chance of a fuel tank fire is high. That’s why the pilots had to circle around the airport for about an hour to burn fuel. Then, when the tank was almost empty, they started landing without the landing gear.

There were sparks; metal grinding against the runway; the cabin shaking. The lower part of the fuselage turned red because of the high temperature. After sliding for a while, the plane stopped. About 231 people on board were rescued thanks to the pilots’ professionalism.

Probably one of the most famous emergency landings occurred on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. Pilot Chesley Sullenberger became a hero that day. The plane he was flying collided with a flock of geese during its departure from New York. The engines were out of order.

There was only icy water under the aircraft — and almost no chance of salvation. Even now, experts say that the risk of crashing the plane was very high. But experienced Chesley Sullenberger knew what to do.

He did his best to calm down, focused on his work, calculated the exact angle at which the plane needed to touch the water, and successfully landed the aircraft. If he had made the slightest mistake, the plane would have lost its wings and drowned almost immediately. Chesley Sullenberger saved the lives of 155 people and became a celebrity.

There was one dangerous situation in the sky on June 10, 1990. Not for passengers but for the pilot. Flight 5390 British Airways took off from England and headed for Spain. It was gaining altitude, and the flight attendants started serving food to the passengers.

At that moment, the pilots heard some noise. Condensate began to fill the cabin. Then, the glass on the side of the captain flew out of the window frame. He was pulled halfway out of the cabin because of decompression. His knees got stuck in the control panel next to his seat.

The first officer grabbed him tightly by the belt. The temperatures were extremely low, and an incredibly strong wind was blowing outside. The plane began to descend, gaining speed. The autopilot shut down. The flight attendants grabbed the captain so that the co-pilot could operate the controls with both hands. The oxygen level was decreasing, so he began an emergency landing.

The captain was outside the plane for about 20 minutes. And despite the extreme conditions, he survived! The plane landed successfully. The captain was taken to the hospital, and the glass was replaced. Further investigation revealed that the window had flown out because the bolts used there had been wrong.

A plane runs out of gasoline; the engines stall; an aircraft crashes into a flock of birds... That’s all pretty scary stuff. But what if a plane broke in half? This really happened in April 2022. A DHL Boeing 757-200 cargo plane was picking up speed on the runway. It was going to fly to Guatemala.

The aircraft took off, and the pilots noticed some malfunction in the hydraulic system. They didn’t fly far away, so they asked the dispatchers to allow them to land. The plane turned around and began to descend. And at that moment, its tail just broke off!

The plane ran off the runway. Its hull was hot, but firefighters poured anti-fire foam on it just in time. Fortunately, none of the crew members got hurt. What caused such an accident is unknown. The company launched an internal investigation. You can easily find a video of this landing on the Internet.

A similar case occurred in 2018. One private plane was landing at the airport of Honduras. It skidded off the runway and fell into a ditch. The aircraft’s body couldn’t stand the strain and broke in half. Rescuers immediately arrived at the place of the accident. All the passengers on board survived.

The next hard landing occurred in the 40s. The pilot and two crew members were flying over Papua New Guinea. Visibility was poor because of fog and rain. But according to the pilot’s calculations, they were flying above a wheat field. He began to lower the plane. The clouds cleared, and he saw not a field but a swampy area.

They had no choice but to make a hard landing. It was a success... kinda. All three crew members survived, but the plane got bogged down in a swamp. It was impossible to take off, so the crew went to look for the nearest settlement. For two days, they were walking through the swamps, sharp tall grass, and hordes of mosquitoes. Exhausted, they reached dry land and met one of the locals.

They helped the crew — took them to the village and provided medical help. The plane was left to rot in the swamp, forgotten. It stayed there for about 30 years. Its whole body got covered with grass, mud, and moss, and the cabin was moldy. The locals loved to climb inside and play with it. Then, in the 70s, some tourists from Austria accidentally found the aircraft. They took a photo of the plane and published it in the local newspaper.

It attracted the attention of many photographers and travelers from all over the world. They called the plane the “Swamp Ghost.” Many tourists visited it and took parts of the plane as souvenirs. In 2016, one American traveler pulled it out of the swamp and moved it to his home.