Top all-time · #4502
Fear of Landing
Personal blog · fearoflanding.comother
Fear of Landing is a personal blog at fearoflanding.com. Since 2013, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “Lightning aircraft crash at Hatfield (2013)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Fear of Landing's accident write-ups, which analyse aviation incidents such as hypoxia, decompression, fuel shortages and the Ethiopian Max crash, often citing the official reports.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Fear of Landing
Most-linked posts?
- Lightning aircraft crash at Hatfield (2013)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-10-08
What Hacker News says?
Example where the pilots involved pushed their luck until that 1% chance finally killed them (and their passengers): http://fearoflanding.com/accidents/accident-reports/how-to-d...
Comment linking /accidents/accident-reports/how-to-drop-a-gulfstream-iv-into-a-ravine-habitual-noncompliance/
on “Medical error is third biggest cause of death in the US, experts say”Submitted The unstallable plane that stalled as a story · 176 points
HN discussionWhile it's "only" 52 years old, another plane still in production (albeit under a new company) that's worthy of discussion is the de Havilland Canada (now Viking) DHC-6 Twin Otter[1]. The Twin Otter isn't just nice to fly, cheap, or ubiquitous. It isn't just a mainstay bush plane everywhere. It's still the best plane in existence for certain extreme requirements. Many different planes can go deep into Antarctica dur…
Comment linking /misc/twin-otter-emergency-winter-flight-to-the-south-pole/
on “A plane so good it's still in production after 60 years”Submitted Sequence of Events in the Cockpit on Asiana Flight 214 as a story · 158 points
HN discussionSo it turns out not only was that guy negligent, but there was also another plane in the pattern who got priority because, at the time, it looked like that other one was low fuel also (maybe a false alarm). Here's a reputable source. https://fearoflanding.com/accidents/not-enough-fuel-the-disg...
Comment linking /accidents/not-enough-fuel-the-disgusting-truth-about-lamia-flight-2933/
on “The Silent Anniversary: Fifteen Years Since Our Last Major Crash”Submitted Lightning aircraft crash at Hatfield (2013) as a story · 92 points
HN discussionRemember that they left an airport about 7000 feet up and headed over mountains. It's unlikely the plane was ever more than a few thousand feet above ground level. Page 26 in Ethiopia's report: https://fearoflanding.com/files/2019/04/Preliminary-Report-B...
Comment linking /files/2019/04/Preliminary-Report-B737-800MAX-ET-AVJ.pdf
on “Ethiopian Max Crash Simulator Scenario Stuns Pilots”Submitted Post-Pandemic Mystery at Heathrow as a story · 12 points
HN discussionThere's a transcript from a decompression event that shows what you're talking about here: https://fearoflanding.com/accidents/accident-reports/weve-lo... I particularly like the "He's doing it anyway" comment. I imagine there are situations where they can't descend though.
Comment linking /accidents/accident-reports/weve-lost-the-cabin-southwest-flight-812/
on “American Airlines Bans Wearing Too Much Personal Protection Equipment on Board”Submitted The Story Behind an Unbelievable Photograph as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAnother interesting one is the guy that was suffering from hypoxia. "Unable... to control... altitude" "Unable... to control... airspeed" "Unable... to control... heading" "Other than that, everything A-OK!" Guy landed safely after ATC realized it was hypoxia and ordered the flight to descend. EDIT: link https://fearoflanding.com/accidents/accident-reports/hypoxia...
Comment linking /accidents/accident-reports/hypoxia-on-kalitta-66/
on “Abstract of the NTSB Report on Air Canada flight 759's taxiway overflight at SFO [pdf]”Submitted Santa's instrument approach charts (2015) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttps://fearoflanding.com/
Comment linking /
on “A Matter of Millimeters: The story of Qantas flight 32”Submitted Recognising NASA Technology on Modern Airliners as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Missing Bolts from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fear of Landing – When Both Your Mind and Your Instruments Are Lying as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Just a little slip: a tragedy of errors for G-EUOE as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
