> That notification you got about the "20 minutes worth of fuel left" meant before they were forced to divert to the alternate.

I believe you but this is yet another reason why it was inappropriate for the pilot to mention this to passengers. Nearly everyone around me was visibly distressed as we "idled" to Pittsburgh.

> The flight may have been scary to the passengers, and people may not have wanted to get back on, but I'm sure it was quite routine to the people up front.

Maybe for the pilot/copilot but the flight attendants' facial expressions when I got off the plane did not suggest this was routine to me.

Flight attendant likely does not know the minimum fuel requirements for IFR flight either, and was likely thinking the same thing the passengers were.

The flight attendants know that the pilot is not going to intentionally let the plane run out of fuel and will land before that happens, even if means declaring an emergency and diverting to any available airfield.

i'm sure they'd like to think that, but exactly that has happened in the past. Avianca Flight 52.

At some point you kind of need to assume the pilots aren’t suicidal nor are they complete idiots, and it would be ridiculous for them to simply circle around aimlessly until they run out of fuel. Being motivated for survival, they are going to fly to the nearest appropriate airport well in advance of an actual emergency situation.

Further consider that other than this story—where the aircraft ran out of fuel due to a wildly unlucky confluence of technical and human failures—you have never heard of a passenger jet running out of fuel midair. Through decades of storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and every other natural disaster imaginable, we have found a way to get planes onto the ground with fuel to spare.

That accident sparked a huge change in radio verbiage though, it was a total miscommunication..

It was totally avoidable had the crew been able to convey the message to ATC that they had zero fuel left.

> The last US fatal accident was 14 years ago ... which just goes to show how incredibly safe this all is.

This isn’t quite true, there was that poor woman sucked out of the Southwest flight in 2018. But your broader point is 100% correct.

Please tell me someone intentionally opened the door. I had not previously thought getting blown out of a plane was a likely possibility.

An engine failed mid-flight, the casing failed to contain the fan blades as they are designed to do, and one went through a passenger window.

Again, Swiss cheese model. This is some Final Destination shit, not something anyone not an aircraft designer should spend time worrying about.

The engine shredded itself midflight and blew a hole in the fuselage next to her seat. The other passengers held her and prevented her from being completely sucked out but she still died from her injuries.

Also someone on the ground crew on New Year’s Eve pulled into the engine, though they apparently disregarded multiple warnings about clearance distance from the engine even after nearly getting knocked over by exhaust. I’m not sure how that sort of thing (disregarding multiple warnings & a near miss) can be prevented:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/25/alabama-airp...

Wasn’t that one ruled a suicide?

That was a different one, in Texas more recently. I have to wonder if the person was influenced in their choice of method by the relatively recent news of another dying the same way. In the end that of things, the method, probably doesn’t matter much.

988

Dialing that, at least in the US, will get help to anyone who needs it

n/m

> but unless you're qualifying what you said to mean something more specific

You're correct. I've edited.