14 Heart-Stopping Pilot Confessions Moments Before Disaster Strikes in the Sky
“This NTSB data shows a general fall in air accidents in the US from 2005 to 2024 despite a significant increase in the overall number of flights over this period,” the BBC notes. “Data from International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a UN body which monitors global air incidents, shows that the number of worldwide accidents per million plane departures has also seen a clear downward trend between 2005 and 2023.”
Furthermore, you have to keep in mind that the ICAO also defines aircraft accidents very broadly, including situations where the plane needs repairs or goes missing, not just when someone is injured or loses their life. What’s more, globally, there has been a decrease in air accidents, despite spikes in some years when major disasters occur.
May 3rd, 1968, Dawson, Texas. An Airways Lockheed L188A Electra of Braniff International Airways took off for its regular domestic flight, flight 352, from Houston to Dallas. There were 5 crew members and 80 passengers on board. 25 minutes after takeoff, Captain John Phillips climbed the aircraft to over 6,000m. When he noticed a severe thunderstorm ahead. The pilots immediately requested clearance to descend to 4,500m. and alter their course.
The controllers advised them to head east, as other planes on the same route had already done, but Phillips made a different call: “352, does it look better on our scope, here it looks like just a little bit to the west would do us real fine.” For a brief moment, it seemed like the right choice, but soon the storm unleashed its fury, and the Lockheed found itself in turbulence.
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