Originally Posted by directbears
Two topics:
1) What are some close calls (in-flight) that you have had in the past? I mean real ones, not like the coffee pot broke or your number two comm went out.
2) What are some of the craziest or unbelievable things that a passenger has done on your flight?
If this thread goes anywhere I have a few stories to add.
Discuss........
1. Almost any air refueling training sortie that we fly with students here at the schoolhouse can be "exciting." The C-17 bow wave is pretty big and one of the dangers is the tanker autopilot kicking off because the student closes too quickly. Almost every time the tanker will dive down into you, I've gotten as close as 6 feet during one of those.
2. We transported the first 20 Al Qaeda prisoners out of Kandahar; they were cuffed and in leg irons, just like you would see for a standard maximum security prisoner. One of the terrorists had an artificial leg and was causing some trouble (as much as he could being secured to his seat). Anyway, he started thrashing around and his artificial leg detached; he was waving his "stub" around trying to hit whoever he could. The aeromedical guys had his leg (the foot end still cuffed to the floor), trying to reattach it. Pretty funny.