Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Mid-air collision averted


This little news item made me snigger over my morning coffee.

A Canadian airline pilot fell asleep at the wheel during a night flight yesterday, and awoke to look through the windscreen and see what he thought was an oncoming aircraft with it's landing light on to warn him of the imminent collision, so he threw the plane into a 400 foot nose-dive.

It was only the planet Venus, shining away brightly in space.  Several passengers who had ignored the set-belt sign were bounced along the luggage racks, but other than that, no harm done.

It reminded me of a lorry driver I met once, who had parked his vehicle right up against the back end of another truck, to have a break and a little nap.

As he woke up and lifted his head from the steering wheel, he found himself about 2 feet away from what he thought was a moving lorry on the road, and almost had a heart-attack as he jumped on the brake with all his strength.

Tee hee.
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11 comments:

  1. Donna17 April 2012 at 01:29

    Scary situations! I did that once too! I was pregnant (a few years ago....) and fell asleep at the wheel to awake in a ditch on a major highway a few feet away from a huge crevice. My guardian angel was with me that day! Guess a few of us shouldn't be driving, huh?

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  2. Razmataz17 April 2012 at 04:57

    That dominated our news last night Tom. It's timing is interesting though. It happened in January 2011 yet made the news just as Air Canada Pilots were doing "sick off" illegal strikes stating fatigue etc in order to get Air Canada to increase their salaries.

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    1. Tom Stephenson17 April 2012 at 10:59

      Oh! Interesting, Raz - it was told here as if it had just happened.

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  3. The Weaver of Grass17 April 2012 at 06:33

    Strange what happens to us in that moment of waking Tom. I have the most fantastic dreams and often they last for a few seconds after I wake up, so I can sympathise with both the chaps involved in your stories.

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    1. Tom Stephenson17 April 2012 at 11:00

      I know what you mean, Weaver. I've had some very strange looks from air-hostesses on long-haul flights just after I have woken up.

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  4. Chris17 April 2012 at 08:15

    Any cartoon from Gary Larson makes me wet myself with laughter...

    ...

    ...oh dear.

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  5. Dominic Rivron17 April 2012 at 18:10

    It's a bit random, but the pilot's experience reminded me of one of my favourite sayings: "what you thought was the light at the end of the tunnel is in fact an oncoming train".

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  6. The Broad17 April 2012 at 21:10

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. The Broad17 April 2012 at 21:13

    I was amazed to learn that the pilot had overslept by 20 minutes. He was only allowed 40 minutes!!!

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