History NightmareFuel / Mayday

*** Though this was technically a little bit more of a [[SugarWiki/MomentofAwesome Moment of Awesome]] as the crisis was averted in the nick of time, ''but still....''

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria_Airways_Flight_2120 Nigeria Airways Flight 2120]], though far from the deadliest since "only" 261 people were unlucky enough to be trapped in there, is possibly the most horrifying accident in history. An onboard fire, fierce enough to be visible from ''outside the plane'', weakens the cabin structure of the DC-8 causing rows of '''burning passengers''' to drop through the floor of the aircraft still strapped to their seats. Not enough? The plane drops its load of flaming people while flying over a city. And investigator Ron Coleman was so horrified recalling the condition of the resulting corpses that he refused to describe them and simply ended his train of thought there with [[YouDoNotWantToKnow "very bad injuries; let's just leave it at that"]]. How bad must they have been to cause a seasoned investigator to suffer a HeroicBSOD simply remembering them?

* You think having a passenger crash your plane is bad enough? Imagine ''the pilot'' [[TakingYouWithMe deciding to crash the plane]], as shown by the episodes on [=EgyptAir=] 990, LAM Mozambique Airlines 470, Germanwings 9525, and [=SilkAir=] 185. Even worse is the petty reason in the former: The first officer had been caught sexually harassing hotel employees and was told he would no longer be allowed to fly on international flights after returning home, so in a disturbingly calculated form of rage, [[TakingYouWithMe he decides to crash the plane and kill everyone else alongside him to get back at his employers.]] It's basically a "You can't fire me, I quit!" situation, except instead of quitting, he crashes his plane and murders 216 people.

** There was another incident showcased briefly in this episode, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Japan_Airlines_mid-air_incident 2001 Japan Airlines Midair Incident]]. This was a near miss one year earlier ''in nearly the exact same circumstances'', this time the pilots saw each other and took evasive action narrowly avoiding the collision by a mere ''135 meters!'' [[FromBadToWorse The worst part?]] Had the collision actually occurred, the total number of fatalities would've been '''677'''. Yes, '''''worse''''' than the ''Tenerife airport disaster!'' Though this was technically a little bit more of a [[SugarWiki/MomentofAwesome Moment of Awesome]] as the crisis was averted in the nick of time, ''but still....''

* "Target is Destroyed", the fate of Korean Air Flight 007. A Korean Airlines 747 is flying off-course, and strays into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin, and a fighter jet is sent to chase after it. The pilot fires warning shots at the plane, but the crew, focusing on trying to correct their course, don't notice. The plane leaves the area, but re-enters not long-after. Using the justification that he believed the plane was a spy aircraft taking evasive manoeuvres to avoid him, the fighter pilot immediately shoots it down, condemning 269 people to death without any remorse. Disabled, the plane spirals towards the waters just off the coast of Moneron Island and crashes, killing everyone inside instantly. The Soviets fish out the black box from the debris, and keep what happened under complete wraps until the dissipation of the USSR, while the fighter pilot remained confident for the rest of his life that he had done nothing wrong.

** There was another incident showcased briefly in this episode, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Japan_Airlines_mid-air_incident 2001 Japan Airlines Midair Incident]]. This was a near miss one year earlier ''in nearly the exact same circumstances'', this time the pilots saw each other and took evasive action narrowly avoiding the collision by a mere ''135 meters!'' [[FromBadToWorse The worst part?]] Had the collision actually occurred, the total number of fatalities would've been '''677'''. Yes, '''''worse''''' than the ''Tenerife airport disaster!''

[[caption-width-right:350:The deadliest aviation disaster ''ever'', and they weren't even 100 feet off the ground.]]

* Pictured above is "Crash of the Century" and "Disaster at Tenerife", which cover [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster the Tenerife airport disaster of 1977]]. Thanks to a combination of rerouted planes crowding the taxiways, thick fog that makes it hard to see anything (like, say, ''another 747 coming straight at you''), sheer impatience in the cockpits, and [[PoorCommunicationKills communication error]] (there was no ground radar unlike at major airports actually designed for big passenger jets), KLM Flight 4805 attempts to take off while Pan Am Flight 1736 is still on the runway, prompting the latter's pilot to panic ([[OhCrap "God damn, that son of a bitch is coming straight at us!"]]) and try to get his plane off the runway while the former's pilot makes a desparate attempt to prematurely lift off of the runway. End result: Two flaming wrecks, 583 fatalities out of 644 passengers and crew from both planes including ''everyone'' who was aboard the KLM jet, and the biggest disaster in aviation history. What truly sells it is as the pilots realizes what is about to happen, all professionalism goes out the window and replaced by pure desperation as both are fighting in vain to try and avert the thing that is now inevitable.

* Pictured above is "Crash of the Century" and "Disaster at Tenerife", which cover [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster the Tenerife airport disaster of 1977]]. Thanks to a combination of rerouted planes crowding the taxiways, thick fog that makes it hard to see anything (like, say, ''another 747 coming straight at you''), sheer impatience in the cockpits, and [[PoorCommunicationKills communication error]] (there was no ground radar unlike at major airports actually designed for big passenger jets), KLM Flight 4805 attempts to take off while Pan Am Flight 1736 is still on the runway, prompting the latter's pilot to panic ([[OhCrap "God damn, that son of a bitch is coming straight at us!"]]) and try to get his plane off the runway while the former's pilot makes a desparate attempt to prematurely lift off of the runway. End result: Two flaming wrecks, 583 fatalities out of 644 passengers and crew from both planes including ''everyone'' who was aboard the KLM jet, and the biggest disaster in aviation history.

** Special mention goes to the captain, who was locked out of the flight deck by his co-pilot. In a mixture of disbelief, despair and sheer unbridled horror, he alternates between furiously and uselessly slamming the crash axe into the door and [[InelegantBlubbering sobbing profusely]] as he desperately demanded that his colleague opened the door, only to be met with horrific silence.

* Qantas Flight 72 - imagine flying a plane when, without warning, it goes into a dive. You try to pull the plane out of the dive but, because of the malfunction that sent the plane into the dive, the plane's automation thinks what you are trying to do to save the plane is going to cause a crash so it overrides your command to pull up.

** It doesn't help that (at least in the dramatization) as the plane nears the Alps, the captain and the passengers ([[InnocenceLost including a toddler]]) know that they're about to die, and there's nothing that they can do. Even the father of one of the passengers on Flight 9525 outright states that thinking about the final moments of the flight is pure NightmareFuel at its finest.

* "Target is Destroyed", the fate of Korean Air Flight 007. A Korean Airlines 747 is flying off-course, and strays into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin, and a fighter jet is sent to chase after it. The pilot fires warning shots at the plane, but the crew, focusing on trying to correct their course, don't notice. The plane leaves the area, but re-enters not long-after. Using the [[InsaneTrollLogic shaky justification]] that he believed the plane to be taking evasive manoeuvres to avoid him, the fighter pilot immediately shoots it down, condemning 269 people to death without any remorse. Disabled, the plane spirals towards the waters just off the coast of Moneron Island and crashes, killing everyone inside instantly. The Soviets fish out the black box from the debris, and keep what happened under complete wraps until the dissipation of the USSR, while the fighter pilot remained confident for the rest of his life that he had done nothing wrong.

* "Target is Destroyed", the fate of Korean Air Flight 007. A Korean Airlines 747 is flying off-course, and strays into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin, and a fighter jet is sent to chase after it. The pilot fires warning shots at the plane, but the crew, focusing on trying to correct their course, don't notice. The plane leaves the area, but re-enters not long-after. Using the [[ExtremeTrollLogic shaky justification]] that he believed the plane to be taking evasive manoeuvres to avoid him, the fighter pilot immediately shoots it down, condemning 269 people to death without any remorse. Disabled, the plane spirals towards the waters just off the coast of Moneron Island and crashes, killing everyone inside instantly. The Soviets fish out the black box from the debris, and keep what happened under complete wraps until the dissipation of the USSR, while the fighter pilot remained confident for the rest of his life that he had done nothing wrong.

** JAL 123 was a similar situation, where a badly-done repair of a bulkhead caused a blowout that severed all hydraulic systems.
*** This one has a second Nightmare Fuel component as well. Believing that all the passengers were dead, Japanese officials chose not to rush to the scene. When they finally arrived, they not only found (four) survivors, they also found that other passengers had survived the crash and might have been saved if rescue operations had been prompt. One of the remaining survivors described hearing screams and moans from the other victims until they slowly succumbed.

* "Target is Destroyed", the fate of Korean Air Flight 007. A Korean aircraft strays into Soviet airspace. A Soviet fighter jet issues warning shots the crew does not notice, but the plane leaves the airspace. However, it enters the airspace at another point shortly thereafter, and the fighter pilot shoots them down without remorse, claiming for the rest of his life he did nothing wrong. Disabled, the plane spirals towards the waters just off the coast of Moneron Island and crashes, killing everyone inside instantly. The Soviets fish out the black box from the debris, and keep what happened under complete wraps until the dissipation of the USSR.

* Aloha Airlines Flight 243, covered in "Hanging By a Thread". Imagine the very skin of the airplane, the only thing separating you from the high-speed winds outside and the threat of falling out, suddenly disappearing, leaving you completely at the mercy of the elements, and your seatbelt the only reason you're not plummeting towards the ocean.

->''By this time, it's pandemonium inside the cabin. Passengers are being engulfed by flames, and bodies are starting to fall from the aircraft fuselage. [...] Bodies were falling from the aircraft eleven miles from the airport.''

** Nobody knows what exactly it was like on the plane since everyone on board died, but the dramatisation gives a pretty good idea. The plane increasingly turns into a giant smokehouse, and we see the same flight attendant who rushed into the cockpit to tell the cockpit crew about the smoke futilely spray a fire extinguisher onto what is likely by this point a magnesium or even ''fuel'' fire and later have to stop passengers from trying to open a door in a desperate, futile attempt to get breathable air[[note]]the latter is likely based on the wreckage surveyors finding some doors unlocked[[/note]]. The sizzling corpses who fell out and the people who suffocated ''were the lucky ones'', as their horrific experience ended early; anyone who managed to survive until the actual crash had to suffer for the full time, waiting for an evacuation that, thanks to where the fire was, simply wasn't happening, all because the moron handling the Nigerian Airways wet-lease nixed maintenance on two tyres.

** There's no evidence the cockpit was affected by the fire, but that's small comfort for the pilots, who had to deal with the plane's warning system bombarding them with complete nonsense because the fire was short-circuiting everything, be told by a flight attendant that there was smoke in the cockpit, have the first officer's controls crap out and force the captain to take over, and then have to wonder if this plane full of fire, smoke, and choking, panicked passengers would be controllable for long enough to get it on the ground and get whoever had survived out of this tube of hellfire.

->''By this time, it's pandemonium inside the cabin. Passengers are being [[ManOnFire engulfed by flames]], and bodies are starting to [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou fall from the aircraft fuselage]]. [...] Bodies were falling from the aircraft eleven miles from the airport.''

** There's no evidence the cockpit was affected by the fire, but that's small comfort for the pilots, who had to deal with the plane's warning system bombarding them with complete nonsense because the fire was short-circuiting everything, be told by a flight attendant that there was smoke in the cockpit, have the first officer's controls crap out and force the captain to take over, and then have to wonder if this plane full of fire, smoke, and choking, panicked passengers would be controllable for long enough to get it on the ground and get whoever hadn't choked or burned to death or fallen out of the fuselage the hell off.

** There's no evidence the cockpit was affected by the fire, but that's small comfort for the pilots, who had to deal with the plane's warning system bombarding them with complete nonsense because the fire was short-circuiting everything, be told by a flight attendant that there was smoke in the cockpit, have the first officer's controls crap out and force the captain to take over, and then have to wonder if this plane full of fire, smoke, and choking, panicked passengers would be controllable for long enough for a ground evacuation.

** Nobody knows what exactly it was like on the plane since everyone on board died, but the dramatisation gives a pretty good idea. The plane increasingly turns into a giant smokehouse, and we see the same flight attendant who rushed into the cockpit to tell the cockpit crew about the smoke futilely spray a fire extinguisher onto what is likely by this point a magnesium or even ''fuel'' fire and later have to stop passengers from trying to open a door in a desperate, futile attempt to get breathable air. The sizzling corpses who fell out and the people who suffocated ''were the lucky ones'', as their horrific experience ended early; anyone who managed to survive until the actual crash had to suffer for the full time, waiting for an evacuation that, thanks to where the fire was, simply wasn't happening, all because the moron handling the Nigerian Airways wet-lease nixed maintenance on two tyres.

** There's no evidence the cockpit was affected by the fire, but that's small comfort for the pilots, who had to deal with the plane's warning system bombarding them with complete nonsense because the fire was short-circuiting everything, be told by a flight attendant that there was smoke in the cockpit, have the first officer's controls crap out and force the captain to take over, and then have to wonder if this plane full of fire, smoke, and choking, panicked passengers would be controllable for long enough.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria_Airways_Flight_2120 Nigeria Airways Flight 2120]], though far from the deadliest since "only" 261 people were unlucky enough to be trapped in there, is possibly the most horrifying accident in history. An onboard fire weakens the cabin structure of the DC-8 causing rows of '''burning passengers''' to drop through the floor of the aircraft still strapped to their seats. Not enough? The plane drops its load of flaming people while flying over a city. And investigator Ron Coleman was so horrified recalling the condition of the resulting corpses that he refused to describe them and simply ended his train of thought there with [[YouDoNotWantToKnow "very bad injuries; let's just leave it at that"]]. How bad must they have been to cause a seasoned investigator to suffer a HeroicBSOD simply remembering them?

* The aftermath of "Queen's Catastrophe" when American Airlines Flight 587 comes down in the middle of a neighbourhood. Residents Michael Morley and Lois Shorr hurry home at the news to find their houses flattened and no idea if their family members made it out in time.

** There's no evidence the cockpit was affected by the fire, but that's small comfort for the pilots, who had to deal with the plane's warning system bombarding them with complete nonsense because the fire was short-circuiting everything, be told by a flight attendant that there was smoke in the cockpit, and then have to wonder if they were going to keep control for long enough.
--->'''William Allan''': Okay, sir, we're having trouble turning. We're having flight control problems. We will ''try'' to turn left. ''We. Are. Having. Flight. Control. Problems.''\\