15 survivors of plane crashes, sinking ships, and natural disasters share their stories.

When we imagine planes crashing, boats sinking, tsunamis and massive fires, images of mass and near immediate death almost always surface. While riding in a plane is statistically far safer than a car, surviving a plane crash is far less common than surviving a car crash. So, when we hear stories of aircrafts careening out of the sky, there is often a body count.However, not all sunken boats or crashed planes lead to mass death, there are survivors who carry intense memories of flaming buildings, long swims toward survival, and planes that toppled into fields.In a popular Reddit thread, survivors of boat accidents, plane crashes, and natural disasters shared their stories.1. DicerNicer survived a building splitting in half. [srry in advance for bad english] Since I live in Chile, I'm used to earthquakes, perhaps in some countries an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 in the Richter scale is something big, but here is kinda normal, but the one I will never forget is the 8.8 earthquake in the Richter scale that happened in Santiago of chile. Let me explain a bit, I am a native of the northern Region of the country (where most of the earthquakes happen) so the constructions are especially resistant against earthquakes, Santiago is not like that since they rarely got movement. So back to the story, I was going to a concert in Santiago and was staying in a friend apartment for the week I was there. It was a 27 of february of 2010, 3:33 am, we were chilling with my friend and some of his when suddenly all the light went down, we thought that maybe the building got a malfunction, then, looking through the large windows we saw all the city went dark. I don’t know if u guys have been on an apartment building during a huge earthquake, but summarizing is like being on top of a wet noodle that moves one side to another constantly. The first thing that got to my head is to stay away from the large windows and go under the table (I happened to be very cold mind in this situations btw) while my friend and his where screaming like hell, I tried to keep them calm by telling them the usual, everything is goin to be ok, earthquakes are usually short so we just needed to wait in safe, Jesus I was wrong, the earthquake was 3 minutes long, the largest 3 fucking minutes of my life. When it finished I was relieved, I checked if everyone was ok and they were, just scared as fck, I ask my friend (named Ben btw) that we need to get the hell outta there, Ben gave me the reason and pack up a bp with some supplies, when he was getting his bp, his friends just run of the place to get to their families, told them to stop that we need to stay cool and together but the need to see their families was greater and I totally understand that, Ben finished packing and we started running to the emergency stairs, we were making our way while using the cellphones to illuminate de hallway, when suddenly Ben stop me from nowhere, I ask him what wrong and he just reply “look” pointing the flash of the phone to the floor, I was just like the movies, the building was split in half. I yell “ ohh sh*t” when he falls on his knees while looking at the bottom of the building, his friends, in the rush to see their families, didn’t see that the building was split in half and fell down, we expected the worst, Ben started crying and I was in shook, just 30 minutes back I was hanging out with them, laughing and now I just see their bodies there. And infinity of screams and cries created the atmosphere of that night, we make our way down through the holes in the building, while doing it, we tried to help as many persons as we can, some trapped by giant stones, some just dead. The one image that will stick to me forever, was the one of a mother hugging his daughter in order to protect her, we find both of them dead. We got to the place where Ben's friends fell, and thank to idk who, they were still alive,with many broken bones but alive, we took them one by one to the road and wait for help from police, military, medics or fireman, but lucky us, we were all alive. I watch and experienced 2 sides of humans that day, the ones that try everything to help other in anyway possible, and on the other side, the ones that take advantage of the situation, just to steal stuff from destroyed homes. So that my story, is actually waay longer but didn’t wanted to make it tedious to read, thanks for reading a piece of my story ! Edit: wow, didn’t expect this to blow up haha, thanks everyone for your kind words! We are actually fine now, for anyone curious, here is a pic of the building the next day Random fact: 3 years later another 8,3 earthquake hit my city, lucky me huh 2. Codvodka was saved from the waves. When I was 9, we were traveling from our cabin back to town with a open boat. This was right before Easter. About a 45 min trip. The seas were rough and the boat had a built in flaw that caused it to break in two pieces due to the pounding on the waves. I sat faced towards the back, so I didn't see it break, just suddenly had water up to my waist. When I turned around the nose was floating a couple of meters away from the boat. My moms husband at the time just said "jump" and so we did, into the black 2 degree water of the north sea, as far away from the boat as possible. This was by far the scariest moment. Her husband managed to launch 2 emergency rockets before the boat vanished below him. He was a very poor swimmer, and even though we tried to hold on to him, he got away from us due to large waves constantly covering us. After that it was about 10 min of trying to swim to shore which was about 400m away, before realizing we were never going to make it. After that we basically dodged waves and made bad taste jokes. We saw people on the shore, cars stopped on the highway. The last thing I remember before blacking out is a boat approaching. Then I woke up in the hospital basically trashing around from the cramps of my body trying to warm up. Apparantly I had a temp of 27 degrees when they brought me in. My mom was awake the whole time. She lost control of her limbs right after I blacked out, and gripped a rope from my lifewest with her teeth so I wouldn't float away. Even though though this is a scary story there are some awesome elements to it. An old fisherman in a house by the shore saw the whole thing. He was desperately trying to get a hold of rescue services, but no one was where they were supposed to be. His wife having lost both her previous husband and also a son at sea had some kind of a health issue while watching us swim around. So he had to take care of her, and try to get us help. The most badass part of the story is how we got rescued. One of my moms husbands friends got a call about what was happening. Got in his boat with his 8 month pregnant wife, and went full speed to our location. The boat he had was not designed for high seas. It was a summer type cabin cruiser. So he had to steer it towards the waves at all times. His wife then proceeded to pull 3 fully clothed people up to safety. Including an unconscious me. If anyone has ever tried to pull someone out of the water, you know how difficult it is. We all survived, I was totally fine, aside from my balls swelling up to 3 times the normal size for a couple of days. Mom tore a bunch of stuff in her back. Husband swallowed about 4 liters of saltwater and was sick for week. TLDR: Boat broke i two, cold water, amazing rescue. 3. Shurikane has never piloted since. F*ck, I'm late to the party. I was pilot-in-command of a small Cessna, taking my dad out for his first sightseeing ride on an October evening. He'd taken the backseat in one of my training sessions before, but this time was the first time the two of us were alone together and at liberty to go as we pleased. After a while, I noticed that the engine had lost 300 RPM. I pushed the throttle to max... no change. Turned on the carb heat (if I remember correctly)... nope, still nothing. I began heading back to the airport, but as the power slowly diminished, I knew we wouldn't make it back by a long shot. Conclusion: I had to get that bird down somewhere. It was night time. Beneath me were patches of fields or forest, and I couldn't tell which was which in the evening darkness. I opted for the only well-lit place in the circumstances: the freeway. I made my emergency call, got a response, told my dad what I was about to do, and proceeded to fly the airplane. By the time I was on my so-called final approach, the engine was puttering along at a measly 1000 RPM despite a full-open throttle. All I had to do was to follow a slight bend in the freeway to the left, just past a viaduct, and I'd have three open lanes of road on which to land and probably surprise a few drivers along the way. Huge black bars suddenly showed up in my field of vision, followed by bright white flashes of light. The aircraft had just struck high-voltage power lines. By the time I was done screaming, the aircraft had rolled down in a side ditch and slammed itself against a fence. Ambulances arrived within a minute, pulled my dad and I out, and raced us to the hospital. I awoke in a dimly-lit hospital room - dimly lit because of the city-wide power failure I'd just caused, which I realized once all the other lights turned on late at night and the nurses cheered at getting power back. Somehow, I didn't break anything, though I had a sore and stiff body for a few weeks, and my back became prone to locking for the next several years. My father had a few broken bones, but was judged stable and set to recover. However, he suddenly and unexpectedly succumbed to his wounds a week later. I haven't piloted an aircraft since, and have no desire to. I can be a passenger in an airliner or a commercial small aircraft without a problem, but my days of flying are over. 4. pedazzle is endlessly grateful to the volunteer firefighters. I was stuck in a bushfire here in Australia. My SO, myself and our infant son were in the car evacuating on the only road out of our small town, we got very little warning as the fire moved so fast. Fire was coming on the right side of the road. Smoke everywhere, could hardly see. SO was driving and luckily saw the truck in front of us and stopped in time before hitting it. A semi-trailer truck (18 wheeler) had jack-knifed in the road and was blocking the way. We couldn't see if anyone was in the truck and I was going to go out and check but the fire was now at the roadside on our right and years of fire safety education had taught me you stay in the car. We had a UHF radio in the car so tried to contact the truck on that with no response. The fire started to blow across the road and ignite the bush on our left. There were embers raining down on our car, we just stared at them bouncing off the car bonnet. I saw a flashing red glow in the smoke beyond the truck and it took a minute or so to work out what I was seeing, it was a fire service truck. I had to fight every bit of instinct I had in me which was screaming at me to grab my baby, hide him inside my clothes and run towards the red lights. I doubt I'd have made it, fire was literally blowing around in front of us but d*mn if that wasn't the strongest instinct I've ever felt. I just sat there in the car repeating over and over to myself, "stay in the car, stay in the car." SO managed to contact the firies on the UHF to alert them to our presence. They sprayed water over us while a secondary truck drove through the burning scrub around the big truck to reach us and then the rest all was a blur, being transferred to their truck and driving out of there watching the bushfire raging behind us. Saw the news in hospital where they reported two deceased people found in that semi-trailer truck. Volunteer firefighters saved our lives. 5. cactussword is lucky to be alive. I was in a plane crash in 2013. 3 friends and I had taken a Cessna to interior BC for the long weekend (one friend had their private pilots license). The day we were heading home it was quite hot, and the plane was, according to investigators, over-loaded and over-fueled for the heat/altitude. Once we reached 2000(?) feet above takeoff we began losing airspeed. The pilot panicked and did some steep turns in an attempt to gain some speed, but it scrubbed nearly all our altitude pretty much instantly. Now at a few hundred feet and descending rapidly the pilot took aim at a farmers field. They managed to level out at around tree-height but we were quickly running out of field. Maybe a hundred or so meters before the end of the field they dropped the plane to the ground, the nose dug in and we flipped end for end. I ended up walking away essentially unscathed, minor bruising from the seat belt and some small scratches. The pilot had a pretty good cut, and bashed their knee up on the dashboard. The front passenger (my gf) took pretty much the brunt of it all. Her seat ripped off the floor, smashing her against the roof. It shredded the ligaments in one side of her neck, compressed her spine, and concussed her badly. The ligaments were bad, and are still causing issues now 5 years later. But the post concussion issues were far worse. Watching someone you love lose the ability to; read, remember what they had for breakfast or whether or not they HAD breakfast, maintain any semblance of emotional stability, or even do something like play a board game to pass the time (learning and remembering rules was too stressful) was the worst thing I have ever experienced. It took a solid 2 years before things started returning to what I could call normal. I'm sure Ill come back and edit/add to this post, but I've got to get back to work. TL;DR here's a pic of the plane. https://imgur.com/1K2fhWB 6. punking_funk survived the 2004 Tsunami. So when I was a very young child, I lived in South East Asia. One day early in the morning I was just playing, my parents must have been doing their morning prayers and the next thing I knew the entirety of the ocean was spilling over itself. We lived on the coast at this time and it was like the whole ocean had just lifted out. My dad grabbed me and ran towards a block of apartments at the end of the street. I don't know what happened to my mum but she must have been unable to run fast enough because I'm pretty sure she got overwhelmed by the tide and survived by holding on to a tree. I'm not entirely sure how she survived actually, because looking back on the extent of the 2004 tsunami she should have been swept away completely by the force of the water. So now I'm on the top of this roof and my dad goes back in, swimming to our house to retrieve our passports and documents, while the water keeps creeping up. I think it was a 4 or 5 story building and the water must have reached the second or 3rd floor. He must have been a really strong swimmer because he got pretty much all of our documents in between the waves (and probably saved my mum as well???) After this we were able to stay with friends some distance away after this, but everything in the town got destroyed. In fact I realized the reason why my parents don't bring up my childhood friends or try to keep in contact with their families is because they're dead. This is pretty much the only really vivid memory I have from that age, and my parents still kind of had a fear of the sea for a long time after that (they still can't handle videos of flooding) Edit: my dad appreciates becoming a legend on Reddit (Btw my mum is doing absolutely fine now, she's learning how to swim!) 7. FatCunth survived a sinking boat. I was on a boat that sank on the Mekong river in South East Asia. It was a 2 day trip with an overnight stop as it is too dangerous to be on the river after dark, we stayed in a bar and got extremely drunk as there was a serious tropical storm that knocked the power out in this tiny village on the banks of the river. The following morning we set off on the final leg of the journey really early the next day, everyone was feeling pretty terrible after drinking way too much so were trying to catch a few hours nap on the boat. Around an hour or 2 into the journey the boat rolled quite heavily to one side and some cups and glasses slid off the tables and fell onto the floor startling most people awake, we picked the stuff up off the floor and went back to sleep. I'm not really sure how much later but the same thing happened again but even more violently. The boat rolled so heavily i slid from one side to the other and smashed into a table on the now lower side of the boat, at this point I noticed that water had started to come over the side and was getting deeper. Everyone was looking around at each other looking pretty terrified not knowing what to do, the water level was now at probably waist height, I told my gf to get out of the boat and swim for the banks of the river, I had to help her climb out the high side of the boat and onto the roof as the lower side was now pretty much fully submerged. At this point I realized I was stuck between the table I had smashed into and a bench that had fallen on top of my leg, with the water now getting towards shoulder height and the boat sinking pretty rapidly, I took a final breath and went down with the boat, it's hard to say how long but it probably sank in around a minute, 2 if you were being generous. Luckily as the boat fully sank the benches and tables started to float and move away from each other and I got free without too much trouble. I opened my eyes and all I could see was brown dirty water with some sunlight in the distance, I swam towards it, being careful not to knock my head on anything and knock myself out, trying to swim horizontal until I was sure I was clear from the boat before I could try for the surface. I managed to pop up not too far away from the river bank, I looked around and saw a few of the other passengers being swirled around in the rough current, trying to grab anything that was floating to save themselves, calling out for help. I'm a pretty terrible swimmer so realized trying to help anyone else would probably just end in them dragging me down with them so struggled and eventually made it to the bank, I made it but didn't have the energy to pull myself out of the water, I half got onto some rocks and waited to catch my breath, some other passengers that made it out of the water ran over to tell me my gf was safe further down stream, the guy driving the boat had jumped in and pulled her out because she was struggling. To give some background detail this boat was being run by a young family that lived onboard, as it customary in large parts of SE Asia it is considered rude to wear your shoes inside someones house as a consequence we had to remove our shoes when boarding the boat. We were now trying to traverse the rocky banks of the river with no shoes, trying to find other passengers. Getting back to the main story; the captain of the boat at this stage was screaming at the river, not knowing if his wife and 2 children made it off the boat before it sank (we came across them later on, his wife had somehow managed to make it off with her baby slung over her back and her young son). After a while we had managed to flag down another passing boat, initially they didn't stop but I think they must have started to see random bits of floating debris from the boat and realized what had happened and came back for us, further down the river we found more passengers that had been rescued by some local fishermen. We tried to account for everyone and quickly worked out that everyone was present apart from one girl, no one had seen her during the scramble to get off the boat. We boarded the boat that we managed to flag down and left for the next nearest large town where we would be able to get in contact with our countries embassies (there was zero phone signal around here and all our phones were either in the river of completely soaked) which was over 6 hours away, the local fishermen promised us they would search for the missing passenger. Having made it to the next town after a pretty fucking long day by this point we were greeted by the local police who were in plain clothes as it was Songkran and everyone was celebrating by having a huge 3 day water fight. They took some details and told us to come to the station in a few days. We ended up having to sit around for days sorting out loads of stuff as our passports were lost and all the local places that could do anything were closed. Once we got enough documents to allow us to move on and fly to the capital we had to go to our consulate to sort out new travel documents and assist in the matter about the missing passenger with her friends that had made it off the boat (she was from the same country). After a few days the consulate informed us a body had been found and unfortunately it was the missing passenger which was pretty devastating experience to take along with the additional stress everyone was currently going though. I feel like I'm rambling on now but after a few weeks we luckily managed to get new passports without flying home which we were informed is the standard procedure for my countries passport office, going home to get a full passport wasn't really an option as we were around 5 weeks into a 7 month trip. Was a pretty fun 6 months after that although did end up in some other pretty dangerous situations, we were also on 2 buses that crashed and a friend of mine that came and met us for a month was involved in a pretty nasty motorbike accident. Apologies for the piss poor comprehension, I've never taken the time to write this experience down before and I'm not the best writer as it is. TLDR; Got on a boat, it sank, it wasn't much fun. 8. iforgottoeatlunch will never see cheez-its the same. My plane landed in a field and flipped. Flying in a single-engine Cessna 210, my family was on the final leg of a 2 week camping trip. My dad, piloting, had started the decent down when at 3,000 feet, our engine started rattling uncontrollably. 10 year old me remembers seeing the oil temperature gauge in the red, but not understanding the significance. As the rattling got worse, my dad shut the engine off and radioed Mayday to the tower. That's when I started to pray. We were only 5 ish miles from our final destination, but we had to make an emergency landing in a field. I remember staring out the window at the ground thinking about my cat, and my mom leaning back from the co-pilot seat to tell my brother and I to pull our legs up for the crash position. My dad exchanged a few other words with the controller and then shut the rest of the plane down. We hit the ground a little fast at 80 knots (normal is 65-70 kts). Our front gear struck an irrigation pipe running across the field which caused it to shear off. Without a front gear, our nose hit the field and we went belly-side up. When I came to, everything was eerily dark, and I was hanging upside down. My dad basically ripped the doors off the back of the plane to get my brother and I out. My family was shaken up, but okay. The farmer appeared minutes later, absolutely astonished. Then, five news helicopters starting circling. Traffic was backed up for miles around the field as people strained to get a look. Then the paramedics arrived. My mom likes to joke they were a bit disappointed to find 'victims of a plane crash' to be standing around chatting. The worst injury of the lot was my cut lip which I cut with my own teeth in the jolt of the crash. And my parents got some bruising from seat belts a few days later. The farmer's wife gave my brother and I cheese-its and honey sticks and I can't eat them to this day. And the first thing I did when I got back home was hug my cat, as a ten year old does. As far as my individual story goes, I got my pilot's license three years ago at the age of 18. I'm now in school to become an aerospace engineer where I hope to one day design planes that save people like this one saved my life. It failed in the most elegant of ways, and my dad's quick thinking and training was able to see us to the ground alive. And for those wondering what happened to the plane, an unidentified object clogged the oil filter in the engine leading to a piston overheating, snapping, and punching a hole in the side of the engine. 9. critty15 knows just how important life jackets are. I’m late, but I hope some people can hear me out. I was in a plane crash when I was 9. It was a small plane, with only my dad and I being the only ones in the plane. The plane had 4 doors and a propeller. That kind of plane. We were about 1000 feet over the San Francisco Bay, and the engine quit. The plane proceeded to fall, as would be the case. We approached the water, my 9 year old brain coming to grips with the concept of death and such. We hit the water, and the plane skipped a few times, and water began to flood through the floor. My dad and I got out and sat on the wing of our sinking plane for about 30 minutes and the plane was too sunk to stay sitting on, so we had no choice other than to swim towards shore. The shoreline was miles away at least, however we had no other options. As we were swimming, (mind you the water was freezing in October), another recreational pilot in a helicopter flew overhead and attempted to drop us life jackets. One was horribly off the mark, but we were able to grab one. After swimming for half a mile in t-shirts and shorts we came across a mud flat and dragged ourselves onto it. We were waiting there for a while, and a department of fish and game boat trolled by, looking for illegal hunters. This led to our rescue! When I got home, I took the best shower of my life. Now, I’m 19 and still have a residual fear of flying, but I am okay with flying on my own and all that. What really left an impact on me is the experience of a worst case scenario, and how my mind will usually jump to that in most situations. This anxiety has led to me being incredibly jumpy, and on edge constantly. PTSD can manifest itself in all walks of life, with even the littlest things resulting in my getting spooked. As a 9 year old without any follow up therapy, coming to terms of this on my own has really shaped my character. The cause of the crash? Condensation in the fuel bladders of the plane put water in the engine, killing it mid flight. They didn’t successfully recover the plane, but they managed to pull it up out of the water to see if they could determine a cause. The plane was far too damaged to be anything other than scrap at that point. On a positive note, this accident gave me a new perspective on life, and showed me that life can be taken away just as easily as it is given. Life each day like it could be your last!! 10. LordLogan27's smarts saved their life. When I was 19 my buddy and I went fishing is a pretty big lake up in Gainesville Florida, I was sitting at the very front with the cooler to try to balance out the weight and while we were crossing the middle of the lake in our gheenoe we had a paddle strapped to the side and it caught the water while we were going about 20mph, it threw us probably 7-10 ft and immediately started sinking. About five minutes before that happened we decided to put both of our phones in a water proof box which ultimately saved us bc there was no one else out that day given it was a little chilly outside. So after we were in the water the boat started sinking fast but my friend and I stayed calm and started brainstorming on what we should do. First thing I did was swim down to the boat and by feel had to find the phones, once that happened we called the police but their response time was awful, we were treading in water that was cold enough to give us hypothermia, with the box that had our phones in it over our heads for about 50 minuets until the dispatch lady said they were commandeering someone else’s boat because theirs wasn’t starting. Once we got out the officers told us that they were expecting to find us dead either from getting stuck on the mushy bottom and drowning or by some of the big gators but luckily we didn’t encounter any of them. After the ambulance took our temperature and we came back fine they proceeded to makes sure we were okay then let us get on with our day. Life and death situations are no joke and they can happen at anytime. Make sure you are prepared mentally and physically, your life or your friends may depend on you and how you’ve trained. 11. nevernottraveling barely swam to safety. I was in a smallish fishing boat charter that sank a little less than 12 miles from a Caribbean island in the Atlantic. From the first sign of trouble to looking straight down at the boat slowly sinking beneath the surface was only about 10 minutes time. Trust me when I say that's an image I'll never forget -- a white sport fisher being swallowed by the dark blue beneath me. When boats sink, they SINK. Somewhere in the chaos the captain called his friends in the marina before the boat sank, so we waited there just drifting for a while, collecting any floating debris we could hang on to. Fortunately we had life vests otherwise I have no doubt we'd all be dead. 2 hours pass, nobody comes by to pick us up, clouds and rain are more frequent so we lose sight of the island occasionally, and I finally convince everyone to agree to start swimming towards the island -- I know the best thing to do is stay together and not move, but the island didn't seem too too far away, and it was obvious to me that nobody was going to find us at this point. Just as we start slowly moving a helicopter comes and hovers somewhere between us and the island, presumably over the coordinates the captain gave his friends. I swim my a*s off towards that thing and in so doing lose sight of the captain and first mate, so now it's just me and my sister...and then the helicopter leaves. That sucked. But, given the weather there was almost zero chance of them spotting us unless we were right under them. We decide our best chance at survival is to keep swimming towards the island. The whole time it's rainy, cloudy, rough seas (there was a small craft advisory -- wish we had been told that before leaving the marina!), and much of the time (literally hours) we can't see the island AT ALL and use the wind as our directional guide... That sensation of not being able to see anything but grey skies and waves with nothing to grasp on to was the toughest part. We did see another helicopter before nightfall when the weather started clearing a bit, but it was way too far away from us. Nightfall is also when we can tell that we actually made progress and were getting closer to the island, but the darkness changes all that as all we could look at were a handful of lights on the island and a bright spot that was probably a resort ~7 or so miles to the north. Fast forward to maybe 2 or 3am, some 15-16 hours after the boat sank, and we actually get to the island. Of course it's mostly cliffs, the water is colder (being churned from the deep by the currents hitting the island), so we swim South until we can see water that isn't white. We get out of the water maybe an hour later and can barely walk. There are some lights in the distance but no way we were gonna get to them in our condition, so we just tried to stay warm under some trees out of the rain. No sleep, just shivering and trying to stay warm. Finally the sun comes up and we are able to stop shivering. We can walk somewhat better now, so we start drinking from a nearby stream -- assuming we'll get to help before we die from some parasite -- and start hiking over the hills. I tossed my lifevest into a tree just in case someone spots it. The hike takes us a few hours over two ridges and through some pretty thick brush. Fortunately there were a few more streams. We finally get to a makeshift farm of sorts and decide to eat some bananas from a small banana grove. That's when we spot a guy walking to work on the farm. He feeds us some crackers and water and walks up the road to call the police for us... Based on where we got to land they changed their search and found the captain and first mate in the water shortly thereafter. We all end up in the hospital around the same time, and we finally got to escape the hospital after ~36 hours and several bags of IV fluids. There's a lot more that happened in that whole 72hour period, but you get the idea. Funny thing - we went back about 8 months later and tried to get a boat to take us to where we got to land, but they all said it was too dangerous, ha! It was all over the news for like 2.6 minutes, like everything these days. Even though we all survived, I still have PTSD from that event, which sucks. It's pretty well triggered when I'm on the water and it's stormy or in airplanes and it's turbulent (and I fly all the time sigh), but PTSD be damned, I'm planning on buying a sailboat by the end of the year and sailing around the Caribbean and Central America...and if I can get enough blue water experience, across the Pacific? We'll see... 12. tamzidC barely survived their hiking tour. Back in 2008, I was in a hiking/sight seeing tour with a well known rugged travel outfitter. The tour started in New Delhi, India and ended in Kathmandu, Nepal. Halfway thru the tour, we meander our way to Varanasi when there were rumors of strikes in Nepal - mainly Lumbini and the Chitwan national park area. So instead of taking a bus to the border to get to the park in Nepal, we took a plane. Crisis averted right ? Landed in Kathmandu, and of course the baggage handlers decided to strike, had to wait about 5 hours to get our bags 🙄 We stayed about a day at Kathmandu and about the strike ended. We ended up proceeding with our trip to the Chitwan national park and staying at a home stay for a few days. After a few days of getting our fill of elephant riding, hippo watching and tiger tracking there were rumors going around in the village about a huge strike next day with travel on the roads potentially barred with the threat of death. We all decided to head out extremely early so we would not be stuck in Chitwan for potentially days. So around 3am, me and 11 other members of the group and our guide and driver head out into the dark and onto Kathmandu. It was quiet for about the 15-20 minutes of driving in the dark, lots of meandering turns around small villages and lakes. However that was stopped short, we saw a small minibus torched, fires burning wildly and soon we were stopped by these masked villagers holding sticks. One of them came to the drivers side and pulled the driver out, proceeded to repeatedly smack him on his face over and over. Another masked man tried to open our passenger door, luckily it could only be opened by one side, and luckily it was held tightly closed by a burly Australian member of our group. While this was going on, another masked man broke our back window, this resulted in a few of us crying in fear. Me, my cousin and a few other guys were thinking of breaking out of the car and tackling these masked men with skirts (longyis). We figured the combined arms of a few Americans, aussies and a German can take them down right? No sooner than we thought of that plan, motorcycles started roaring in close by, carrying moltov cocktails... shit!! Our guide and the driver started pleading with them, saying we are tourists, there are women in here and that we will go back in peace, just let us go.. They eventually let us go, told us to turn around and don’t come out until the strike is over. To this day, every time I hear glass break - I cringe and remember these events clearly 13. businessisusual survived the Boscastle floods. In 2004, I was caught up in the Boscastle floods in Cornwall. I was 14 at the time, and was on holiday with my mum, dad and younger brother. We’d arrived in the picturesque village of Boscastle to do the typical tourist things and parked in the car park which was right next to the river. I remember standing looking at the river when we got out of the car - others were too. It was really going some, but nobody thought anything of it. After a few minutes, we headed further down the river towards the ‘witches museum’, which was quite the attraction for the sleepy village. I can’t remember much of the museum, but I’m sure it was excellent. We were near the end when the owner ran round saying we had to leave immediately as the river had burst its banks. We left, but at 14 years old, I was rather annoyed we hadn’t got to the end. Obviously that was where the REALLY good bits were! Unfortunately, by this point, the route back to the car park was blocked by a torrent of water. Fortunately, there was a high pass that we could walk along to snake up and around the village and get back to the car. It was however a long walk (run) back and by the time we reached the car park, it was knee deep in water. My dad took his shoes off and rolled up his jeans and went to fetch the car. At this point, cars were still getting out. I can remember the shop on the corner seemed to be getting looted - or maybe they were just giving away stock that they knew was going to waste anyway. We stood for a while, waiting for my dad to pull the car around, but the water kept getting higher. It wasn’t just the depth of the water though that stands out. Water is powerful! A couple of young ladies had the same idea of rescuing their car and got stuck. They found refuge on a glass recycling bin. The moment scary kicked in was when the water started to move the bin. This was an industrial sized bin, assumingely filled with glass. The water just picked it up and started to move it. At that point, people started to panic and realised this wasn’t just a bit of water you could wade through. A couple of locals in wetsuits went in and managed to get the ladies on the bin to safety. At the same time, my dad returned - without the car. As a family, we made our way up to higher ground to a nearby pub and had a cup of tea. Being English, this of course makes everything better. And it did, until I noticed through the window, our red ford mondeo bobbing along the water in the distance. I went to ask my Dad, who was sat next to me facing the window, “is (that our car)?”, but he cut me off, saying “yes, it is the time to leave and move to higher ground”. He’d seen our car too, but didn’t want to panic my Mum. We went to leave the pub, and the water had risen considerably higher. In the pub, we hadn’t noticed it, but upon us leaving and commenting on it, everyone else left too. We all walked up the road and were taken in by a local couple who seemed to have an endless supply of bottled water. I’m not sure why they did, or why I remember that, but I’m very grateful for their disaster planning! We stayed for a few hours before being collected by a minibus that took us to a local sports hall where the Red Cross had setup a disaster shelter. We spent the night there, though none of us (except my younger brother) slept. In the morning, the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, John Prescott arrived. He made his way round the sports hall talking to each family and person one by one. He reached us, and me and my younger brother stood up. Mr Prescott reached out and shook my Dad’s hand and simply asked, “So what’s your problem?” I’m amazed that nobody died that day. The rescue effort was incredible and the help and support of the local community certainly played an integral part. For reference: my parents insurance paid out fully on the car - no questions asked, and provided a hire car the very next day for the rest of our holiday. Edit: Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3570940.stm 14. LatrodectusGeometric's parents were saved. My husband's parents lived on a boat off the coast of Asia for a while about 20-something years ago. Well when my mother-in-law was about 8 months pregnant with my brother-in-law, the boat sank in the middle of the ocean. It happened slowly, over the course of a day or so, so the couple sent out a bunch of distress calls, packed the important things, and camped out in the lifeboat while the ship sank. They saved a few nice things for their eventual rescuers: a nice canned ham and a good bottle of wine. Well, they were eventually picked up by the Exxon Valdez, which was fortunate. Unfortunately, at the time the crew was entirely Muslim, and as such the canned ham and nice wine weren't ideal gifts. 15. BloodySpies's childhood house blew up. Probably a bit too late to the party but when I was 10 my house kinda blew up. When I was 10 years old, less than 10 days before Christmas time there was a gas leak at my house. We had no idea it was leaking, but it had been building up behind hour wall near the gas fireplace for a while. In the morning I was getting ready to go to school. My mom was almost ready to go to work, and I was tying my shoes to head out the door. My mom comes out of the bathroom and is putting on her earrings, grabbing her self phone, etc and is heading toward the door. She tells me to unplug the Christmas tree lights (we love decorating). When I did the spark from unplugging them ignited the box around the socket, and then the pocket of gas behind the wall. It all blew up. The fire place was pushed out of the wall in one whole piece. The wall was destroyed. The mantle over the fireplace flew clear across the room. The Nutcrackers we left on the fireplace flew across the room and 2 got embedded in the wall. The Christmas tree (luckily a fake plastic one) was knocked over. The side facing the wall was curled, melted, and burned. Almost every ornament made of breakable stuff was shattered. Rather from the boom, or the fall, hard to tell. The shock wave traveled through the house, down the hallway into my moms room and blew out the sliding glass door, and blew it into the pool in pieces the size of pennies or smaller. All throughout the house were stress cracks in the sheet rock. Cracks in windows. Various things. We were lucky. I got minor burns on my face. I was just off to the side of said blown up wall. My mom was sitting on a chair near the door, far away from it all. Had she sat on the couch to put on her shoes (as she does sometimes) she may have been severely injured or worse. There was no real fire. It was more of a blast of really hot air, really fast. The fireman chief called it a "flash fire" There was no fire because there was nothing close enough to the hottest part that could ignite. (good thing we got a fake reusable tree that year to save money) If we had not, it DEFINITELY would of blown up.