How Come They Get Steak?

October 25, 2009

in Airplane Stories

I’m a fan of The Far Side. Gary Larson often used airline travel as a subject. One of my favorites is a cartoon showing people on an airliner. One man has a newspaper with a headline that says something about mid-air collisions. Most of the passengers are looking out of a window with their hair standing on end. One passenger has turned away from his window and is yelling at the flight attendant: “How come they get steak?”

One day, I was arriving into DFW. We were maneuvering to get into the landing pattern maybe 10 minutes from landing, and at 5ish thousand feet. I was sitting in my seat, just kind of gazing out of the window, when suddenly a United 737 passed directly underneath us! This other plane was between 100 to 200 feet below us. It was hard to judge the exact distance, but I could see the rivets on its fuselage. I should have been scared, but all I could think was: “How come they get steak?(!)”

Demotage

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

david October 26, 2009 at 3:21 pm

demotage i am starting to believe your stories are kinda fake, i am sorry but if a plane was within a thousand feet from coliding with another plane so close to an airport than it would be on the news and there would be investigations

they would never allow an airplane to get anywhere near that close and with the technologies they use a warning would be going off in the cockpit and the situation would have been averted

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Hugh October 27, 2009 at 1:21 am

With all the stories you post, I find it hard to believe that you just got around to this one. I'm sorry for you that your life is so empty that you must resort to making false posts on a website. I'll try to overlook it and comment positively, to give you the positive reassurance that you so desperately crave.

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Demotage October 27, 2009 at 5:27 am

David,

According to FAA statistics, there are approximately 250-400 'near hits' of less than 500 ft vertical distance every year. Most of these happen near airports. Do you remember reading about all of them in the newspaper?

Hugh – whatever.

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Moses October 27, 2009 at 6:38 am

Demotage,

So is the FAA statistics where your stories are inspired from?

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Susan October 27, 2009 at 6:41 am

I believe you. I havent read all your posts, this is my first time on flightsfromhell.com. I was a flight attendant for over 12 years, and we had several near collisions in that time. Most were take off or landing near misses. However, one time as we were flying at cruising altitude, and I was up in the cockpit delivering the pilots meals, the warning lights went off. We heard "lift up, lift up", and the captain looked down and saw air force planes flying very close to us. They were on all sides of us…up, down and both sides. The air force pilots were wrongly flying in commercial lanes. Its was pretty scarey. There was fallow up with the FAA afterwards. Our captain was very upset by their mistake. These things do happen. Most of the time it is a small airplane flying under radar who gets in the way. Just try to remember the flight crews want to make it home for dinner as much as you do, but there are accidents and risks in all areas of life.

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Eric October 30, 2009 at 5:21 am

This happened to me once too. I'll never forget it. This was in 97, and I still remember it very vividly. I was flying into Italy and we were approaching for landing. The landing gear even came out. All of a sudden, the engines fired up again full force and we pulled up hard. I looked out the window, and right under us passed another plane. It sort of glided from left to right, rather than at a right angle, if that makes sense. I too remember seeing details on it that I shouldn't have been able to see, like people sitting at their seats.

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