Ever Had a "Close Call"???

Rafting down a dangerous river with my buddy in the PNW, raft flipped and I got sucked under a log jam in a river bend (friend managed to crawl onto the log jam). Knew for sure I was a dead man as I struggled underwater against the current. Finally I closed my eyes and let go of a branch I was hanging on to, knowing that my next breath was going to fill my lungs with water and my body would likely never be found under there.

The current battered me around a bit and just as I'm ready to take that life ending breath, my head pops up out of the river, about 50 meters downstream of the log jam. The water was freezing and I had barely enough strength left to fight the current and get to a fallen tree sticking out into the river. I hugged that tree trunk tight while I caught my breath for a minute as the river current beat down on me like a fire hose against my back.

Managed to shimmy along the tree trunk to the edge of the river and climb out onto solid ground. Still took us around 4 hours to find our way through the forest (him barefoot and me w/o my glasses!) to some ATV riders who helped us get to a main road.

Also survived a nasty car wreck (vehicle folded up like an accordian) but not without permanent injuries.

Few other near miss type things, but those two were for sure the closest to death.
 
The one that comes to mind happened while I was ice fishing in Canada.
We stopped our snowmobiles to look at the view. (bright sunshine -5 f)
I saw what I thought was a spot of oil back 20 ft. that we had just run over. I fell through the ice (60 ft. of water), but luckily, it was cold enough that my gloves froze down when I reached out and I pulled out of the hole like a seal, and crawled away, shouting to the others to keep away. The cabin was about 11 miles away, so we jumped on the snowmobiles and took off. When we got to the cabin, I was stuck frozen to the snowmobile and all zippers frozen. The guys got the teapot off the stove and poured hot water on the zippers to get me out.

When my clothes dried I went back fishing.
 
Incidents I was told about:

1 year old - fell face down in irrigation ditch w/ a couple ft. of h2o, Mom momentarily distracted

2 years old - fell from moving car when door left ajar

incidents I remember:

5 years old - rope burn on throat when fake hanging went wrong while playing "cowboys & Indians"

10 years old - fell through ice while playing alone on frozen lake

17 years old - bad car accident

20 years old - USMC, Vietnam; most of tour "in the sh*t", worst day resulted in purple heart & couple months in hospital/recovery

27 years old - 50 mph motorcycle accident

59 years old (last year) - matter of seconds from drowning while trying to rescue wife from under-current at Costa Rican beach

These are the "highlights".

I am typing this very slowly with my left hand because my right hand/wrist is in a cast.

Am/was I reckless or stupid, lucky or unlucky? Mostly a combo, I guess.
 
Martha said:
I am amazed at all the falling through the ice stories. Scary.
Click to expand...

The only ice I like is in my drink..........:)

I forgot another event. When I was 8, some kids dared me to jump into the deep end (10 feet) of the local swimming pool. I hadn;t learned how to swim yet and almost drowned. The lifeguards saved me.......:D
 
Couple times surfing. Once got all the way to acceptance, that drowning wasn't so bad.
 
11-Sep-01: I was supposed to be at the Risk-Waters conference at the Windows of the World, on top of WTC1. I had a conference call in the morning which I felt I couldn't miss, so I decided to stay home for it and go to the conference at lunch time. No one who attended the conference survived, including 2 co-workers of mine who were there on time.
 
Circa 1974, 35,000 feet above the central US, at night, on a training mission in a KC-135. The navigator had control of the aircraft while practicing celestial navigation. What could possibly go wrong?

This was a routine exercise where we pretended WWIII was underway and we could only use a sextant and the sun or stars to navigate. (If you think that was primitive, you should have seen what we called a toilet.)

For the pilots this was a couple of hours of boredom while we tried to stay awake and follow the nav's occasional requests for change of heading. Prior to beginning the celestial nav training, we notified ATC what we were doing (we'd be wandering aimlessly across the central US, lumbering in one direction, then another) so they could keep separation between us and other aircraft.

An hour or so later, half asleep, this image flashed from left to right across our windscreen:
img_771408_0_3fdaecddf5f1f2b93e1fa33d022cbcab.jpg

After having a very interesting conversation with the ATC controller (and the guy who suddenly replaced him on the radio), I recall thinking how nice it was that PanAm kept the spotlights on their vertical stabilizers turned on when flying at night. Made it easy to see them...:eek:
 
REWahoo said:
Circa 1974, 35,000 feet above the central US, at night, on a training mission in a KC-135. The navigator had control of the aircraft while practicing celestial navigation. What could possibly go wrong?

This was a routine exercise where we pretended WWIII was underway and we could only use a sextant and the sun or stars to navigate. (If you think that was primitive, you should have seen what we called a toilet.)

For the pilots this was a couple of hours of boredom while we tried to stay awake and follow the nav's occasional requests for change of heading. Prior to beginning the celestial nav training, we notified ATC what we were doing (we'd be wandering aimlessly across the central US, lumbering in one direction, then another) so they could keep separation between us and other aircraft.

An hour or so later, half asleep, this image flashed from left to right across our windscreen:
img_771409_0_3fdaecddf5f1f2b93e1fa33d022cbcab.jpg

After having a very interesting conversation with the ATC controller (and the guy who suddenly replaced him on the radio), I recall thinking how nice it was that PanAm kept the spotlights on their vertical stabilizers turned on when flying at night. Made it easy to see them...:eek:
Click to expand...

Unreal...........:eek::eek: Didn't you fly fighters too?
 
Got charged by a black rhino in Kenya. We were walking with an armed guard on a rhino preserve and had been instructed to scramble up a tree if a rhino was aggressive. We were hiking across a huge open area when this momma and her calf approached perpendicular to us, saw us, and charged. Caught in the open, it was useless to run. The guard fired his rifle in the air and the rhino turned off and retreated. Before our arrival, another guard had had his leg pierced by a rhino horn, so the danger was real.

Later hiking up Mt. Kenya with an unarmed guide, we came upon fresh elephant dung, which is scary because wild elephants will stomp a human just as a precaution if they have young with them.
 
Two summers ago, my husband and I were on a tour bus back from El Portillo ski area in Chile. There is one good road between Chile and Argentina - a two laner and all of the semis use it. They also all drive like maniacs (not just the truck drivers) in Chile - perhaps I can even generalize to South America. I was in the second seat behind the driver with my head turned talking to the person in behind me and my husband next to me. The next thing I know their eyes go bugged-eyed and the bus swerves right and slams into a 20 foot side wall. We kept going and then stopped a little later to see the damage. Turns out a semi was passing another semi and in our lane and at that point of the highway there was a block wall on our side and a ravine/cliff on the other side of the road. Somehow, the side wall swerved just enough to the right and the truck barely passed the other truck in time for us to not end up in a head-on collision on a highway in the Andes. Our driver did not have his seat belt on and was thrown across the bus. We were stopped a bit later down the road by the carabineri (national Chilean police) and told that witnesses of the near-accident were sure we were goners. You wouldn't believe how courteously the driver drove after that. Luckily I didn't see the incident, only felt the slam.

Other was boogie-boarding at Manhattan Beach and having to wave off because some smart-ass 11 year old stole my wave - unfortunately another wave came down right on top of me and did the 'force me down, scrape me across the bottom and luckily spit me out on the back-side.' While I was being given the underwater ride and bottom of the beach view I wondered if I would make it back up in time for air.

Last was white water rafting for the first time on the American River. We had a yahoo who on the boat who was telling his wife to 'put her game face on' - she was the heels and make-up type. Our boat came up upon a rock on the middle of the river and got stuck on it - the people in the front of the boat fell out and floated down. I and she got stuck on the rock with fast swirling water around it. She then told me she couldn't swim........I got to be the guinea pig for grabbing a rope and sort of floating to the side. I had to lay out flat and try not to have the current slam my legs or head against the rocks and logs underneath. They kept telling me to just go with the current, but I used some arm strength I didn't know I had and pulled myself out. For the non-swimming lady, they found a better angle and she just glided over. I almost smacked both husband and wife for their stupidity. I was later told they were amazed at the strength I had to pull myself against the current and get out. One's body can do amazing things when it senses life or death situations.
 
REWahoo said:
Don't tell us you replied, "Not as much as the one you wore yesterday."
Click to expand...

Or, "Not more or less than any other dress you cram yourself into"...............:eek::p
 
Among the memorable close calls, this one i posted a while back (6/10/08):


As for not wearing seat belt and stayin alive a personal saga: while in the Army, driving an M151 jeep, late at night, with only blackout lights on, on a dirt road during FTX (field training exercise for non-Army) encountered a deuce and half oncoming. Ditto on the lighting, I swerved hit embankment landed upside down. The truck did not stop, just drove on. Recall laying across passenger seat mid flight.

Upon landing after a few moments to regain normal breathing, crawled out from under jeep. The damage, scraped toe of my spit- shined jump boots.
Walked a 1/2 mile to an artillery unit, woke up CO, asked to get a tank retriever, they did not have tow trucks, which he gladly authorized.

He wanted to know who the driver was, I just pointed to my chest. The retriever crane picked up jeep, flipped it right side up,the crew hammered out bent tie rod. Bent broken windshield onto hood, I was back on the road.



An other one with a little more time for experiencing:

On top of 6000' plateau in the Aleutians we loaded up for departure a UH1H helicopter, which was nearly full of fuel, planned to return to pick up 2 persons and their gear after unloading at the LZ. Call came over radio to pilot: there will be no return trip due to weather. Must get everyone and everything of NOW.

Naturally all aboard, helo over gross limit for altitude.
Could get up and fly in ground effect, but no higher. So pilot scooted off to one end of plateau, got up to 100 kts in ground effect (skids 3' off the deck) and dumped the bird over the other side of the mountain.

After looking at the valley bottom approaching through the windscreen for what seemed like forever, he pulled out of the dive pulling 115% power. The drop was 2500 feet or so, finally leveling out at 1800 feet msl. (msl= above mean sea level).
Not sure if the pucker marks ever came out of the seats.

After landing we all hoisted several brews for medicinal calming of nerves. The pilot had a few extra for the unauthorized stressing of airframe and transmission.

Any helicopter pilots would have good appreciation of the feat.

As the Ginzu knife commercial used to say: and there is more. I'll pass on them, some i'd rather prefer to forget.
 
Tori (DD) stopped breathing when she was 4 months old and I was the only one home. I'm really glad the paramedics arrived so quickly. Despite a battery of tests and a scene out of ER with doctors everywhere, the reason is undiagnosed to this day, but probably due to heart defect (now fixed). I always imagined myself as someone who handled stressful situations well ( I went around shutting off people's gas when I lived in Northridge during the earthquake), but the paramedics had to guide me into the ambulance as I kept wandering the house looking for her favorite blanket.

Anyone who knows Palm Springs knows the Palms to Pines highway/byway. We took that a couple of years ago when DW was pregnant with our second. DW likes to drive and so she was navigating the twists and turns on the way down to the desert floor. We could see evidence of those who had launched off this road in years past in the canyon below. As a truck is approaching from the opposite direction, a corvette being driven by a large type a-hole pops around it and tries to pass it, and we are a moment from a head on collision. DW manages to take the Jeep up onto the hillside/shoulder and dodge the jerk-mobile. At first I was like, "Hey, what the heck are you doing?!" until the blow by of the corvette shook the whole SUV, then I was singing her praises for saving all four of us. I never saw him coming. I really hope he saw how close he was to death (fiberglass sports car vs. SUV?) and is driving a little safer now.
 
I guess I have had more close calls than I originally posted.......:(

I used to race road bikes. I lived in a hilly area of southwestern Wisconsin, where there were 1 and a half mile climbs up bluffs. Of course, on the descent we would hit close to 60 mph........:(

We got a sudden squall during a ride, the rain was horizontal. We started on a descent, and I watched in fascination as the front wheel of my road bike started slowing down, slower and slower, then nearly stopped. I checked my cyclometer and it measured 4 mph, although we were hurtling downward at probably 45 mph.

I got to the bottom shaking, and pulled over. My riding partner pulled up next to me and we found shelter in a bus stop. His only comment?

"That must have been your first experience with hydroplaning. I'm glad you didn't hit the brakes, you would have wiped out for sure". Nice, I had a 200 foot drop on one side, and a guardrail hugging solid rock on the other.......

That slowed down my biking for a few days........
 
Like everyone else, there are many. Funny how you seem to forget them. Must be some sort of defense mechanism.

One which came to mind was a flight into Salt Lake City. The weather was rough and we were bouncing around a lot. Not that unusual, though. I was still reading a magazine as I'm usually a good flyer (used to fly private planes.) On final approach, we hit a shear which dropped the plane 500 ft faster than you can tell it. (The drop is a guess based on my time flying private AC.) My arms flew over my head and the mag hit the ceiling. The pilot aborted the landing and announced that we'd hit a small thunderstorm.

After mushing around over the GSL for an hour we came back and did it right. I still didn't think too much about it. While retrieving my luggage, I overheard a conversation between a couple of "uniformed" airline types discussing the T-storm they had watched off the end of the runway. "Yeah, I was sure they were going to lose flight (whatever ours was!). I saw them fall out of the sky like a brick! Hadda be a miracle they made it."

That's when I started to shake.

Sure I could come up with a dozen more (can think of at least 3 flying related ones - go figure!) but then someone would ask "Bragging or complaining?"
 
I hate to fly. Once, I flew into the "old" Denver airport. We saw huge anvilheads forming, and the turbulence picked up. The pilot came on and said he was going up to 42,000 feet to try to find some smoother air. It didn't help.

He came on a little while later to tell us that the Denver airport was closed and we would be flying around for awhile, but not to worry, we had plenty of fuel......

After flying around for 45 minutes, he said we would be landing. As we came down through the clouds, the plane was bouncing all over the place. When we hit the low clouds, the rain was so bad I couldn't see the end of the wing, even though I was sitting right next to it........:(

We made the runway and taxied to a stop. On the way out, the flight attendant said: "thank for flying Norhtwest". I asked: "Instrument landing, huh"?? She said, "I can't comment on that"..........:(
 
bbbamI said:
Stay on the ground FDude. ;)
Click to expand...

I always think of myself as "well-grounded".......:D

This past June, I was out in Bozeman Montana for a work meeting. On the return flight, the pilot seemed anxious to get out of Dodge. We saw why, a huge thunderstorm was approaching. We taxied to the end of the runway, and sat there. He came on the intercom and told us we had to wait because a thunderstorm was right on top of us.

Sure enough, about 3 minutes later the skies opened up, wind rain, and pea-sized hail pelted the fuselage. After about 10 minutes, the rain subsided and a couple little carts came out to check the runway. We got the go ahead and took off.

The plane bounced all over the place on the way up to cruising altitude. We banked to the east and things quieted down. The pilot came on and told us that Bozeman airport was closed because of a new more powerful thunderstorm was hitting there. We probably hit the leading edge of that as we were climbing above it.

Any wonder I don't like to fly?? :p:p
 
I also nearly met my end in an aircraft.

1983 - My flight instructor and I were approaching an airport with a day time control tower but no radar. A twin engine aircraft reported by radio that he was escorting a friend in a second aircraft that had radio trouble. We were all inbound for landing and about 10 miles out. Our high wing Cessna 150 limited our upward visibility. The other two planes had low wings which limited their downward visibility.

As the instructor and I scanned for the other two planes, the windscreen suddenly filled with fuselage and wings. I could even see the rivets! I pulled power and shoved the control yoke forward while screaming something related to excrement. The instructor took the controls as we dove away to the left. He had been looking down and to the rear when the twin engine plane nearly landed on us.

BTW, I went on to become a private pilot and have never had anything resembling a close call since.
 
hankster said:
I also nearly met my end in an aircraft.

1983 - My flight instructor and I were approaching an airport with a day time control tower but no radar. A twin engine aircraft reported by radio that he was escorting a friend in a second aircraft that had radio trouble. We were all inbound for landing and about 10 miles out. Our high wing Cessna 150 limited our upward visibility. The other two planes had low wings which limited their downward visibility.

As the instructor and I scanned for the other two planes, the windscreen suddenly filled with fuselage and wings. I could even see the rivets! I pulled power and shoved the control yoke forward while screaming something related to excrement. The instructor took the controls as we dove away to the left. He had been looking down and to the rear when the twin engine plane nearly landed on us.

BTW, I went on to become a private pilot and have never had anything resembling a close call since.
Click to expand...

See, you "got it out of the way" back then, and it was smooth sailing since........:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

jollystomper
Dash Cam - an example of its usefulness
Replies
22
Views
1K
Sunset
Sunset
C
Do any of you cut it really close in easy retirement?
2 3 4
Replies
87
Views
8K
Koolau
Koolau
K
Lost phone, recovered from perp
2
Replies
49
Views
3K
Gremlin
Gremlin
M
A Day in Provence
Replies
11
Views
1K
oiseux
O
pb4uski
How can I get Google Maps attention?
3 4 5
Replies
124
Views
12K
street
street

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom