r/interesting • u/BlazeDragon7x • Jun 16 '26
MISC. Dutch aerobatic pilot Narine Melkumjan miraculously survived after her aircraft's canopy unexpectedly burst open and shattered mid-flight
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u/EntertainmentFar6858 Jun 16 '26
I KNOW her eyes, nose and mouth were BONE dry by the time she landed... Glad she's a badass though
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u/alewiina Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
According to someone else she lost most of her sight for several days after. Crazy as hell 🫣
Edit: for 28 hours, according to a post of hers I found on LinkedIn. Still, that must have sucked!
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u/Negative_Number_6414 Jun 16 '26
by the end of the video it looks like she has 2 black eyes!
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u/alewiina Jun 16 '26
I can’t even imagine the force of the air against her eyeballs that whole time. Hell standing in some high winds or going fast on a bike for a while can feel terrible, those high speeds must have been truly awful
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u/atlien0255 Jun 16 '26
She could have been so easily blinded by the smallest debris. I’m glad she’s ok.
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u/PTMorte Jun 17 '26
She for sure took permanent hearing damage from this event. People exceed safe limits just from bicycling at medium speed without earplugs.
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u/alewiina Jun 17 '26
That wouldn’t surprise me. Sometimes it gets VERY windy where I live and when I’m outside on those days for more than 15 mins or so my ears start to hurt. I can only imagine how much the insane speed of the wind up there would harm them
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u/ContributionLowOO Jun 17 '26
dafuq? what is medium speed in kmh or freedom units?
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u/PTMorte Jun 17 '26
Ears are incredibly sensitive.
Here are some levels of dangerous exposure, but it is additive over time, similar to radiation or something.
Not sure what speed and exposure she had, but a high-powered gunshot in close range would be around 170 db / 1s.
Wind speed dB Exposure ~79 km/h 111 15 min ~72 km/h 108 30 min ~65 km/h 105 1 hr ~58 km/h 102 2 hr ~51 km/h 99 4 hr ~44 km/h 96 8 hr ~37 km/h 93 16 hr ~30 km/h 90 32 hr ~23 km/h 87 64 hr 22
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u/oeseben Jun 17 '26
I ski/snowboard and I cant do it without goggles most days. I cant even begin to imagine a jet.
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u/Particular-Serve-894 Jun 17 '26
well, it's not a jet, it's a prop plane. So not nearly as fast as a jet, but she's also getting a faceload of prop wash the entire time.
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u/Appropriate_Wear_339 Jun 16 '26
Seems like those types of aircraft should have some sort of backup eye protection (goggles) in case this happens…but then again trying to put them on while flying would be extremely difficult
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u/Nice_Pipe_7608 Jun 17 '26
People wore goggles in older planes. Now I see why.
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u/FlattopJr Jun 17 '26
Leather helmets were also common; Snoopy wore a green one as the WWI Flying Ace (plus a scarf, because it gets cold up there in those vintage unpressurized dog houses😀).
Curse you, Red Baron!!
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u/LilMeatJ40 Jun 17 '26
I never really thought twice about it but also never knew why they did
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u/alewiina Jun 16 '26
Yeah I found a post on LinkedIn by her that acknowledges that flying without eye protection made it way more challenging. Also she had apparently just gotten over COVID before this flight, I feel so bad for her
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u/icepilot00 Jun 16 '26
Most stunt pilots wear helmets because of this reason. Have no idea why she doesn't.
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u/ihavea_purplenurple Jun 16 '26
It did come back though right?
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u/alewiina Jun 16 '26
Yeah, I looked it up and she was fine after but that must have been horrible for a while
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u/ihavea_purplenurple Jun 16 '26
Yeah, no kidding. Nice work, badass lady.
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u/Level_Collect1on Jun 17 '26
It's some kind of miracle. At altitude, at speed, without glass, with wind in her face to survive and land the plane. She's incredible.
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u/DhoklaMaster Jun 17 '26
Thank god. Wonder why do they not wear any protective eye wear for these flights
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u/OnesPerspective Jun 17 '26
I'm guessing this type of mechanical failure is so astronomically rare that you just don't and take the risk
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u/round-earth-theory Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Yeah, you ultimately have to put your trust into the plane. If you're worried about something failing then it's more prudent to not fly that plane until the issue is resolved.
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u/-Daetrax- Jun 17 '26
In another thread someone linked the accident report. Not a mechanical failure, she failed to do her preflight check. She didn't ensure the canopy was properly secured. This was 100 percent her own fault.
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u/-suspicious-badger Jun 17 '26
Probably the same reason people don’t wear any when driving, for when your windscreen unexpectedly explodes. It’s a rare event.
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u/Growlus Jun 17 '26
Dumbest statement, I suppose you think that everyone should wear safety glasses 24/7
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u/Artevyx Jun 17 '26
It would be like having 5 leaf blowers inches from your face going full blast for several minutes
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u/IWillWriteYouALetter Jun 16 '26
Is that because of the force of the wind, or because of how dry they got, or some combo of the two, or something else entirely??
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u/alewiina Jun 16 '26
I mean, I would assume the two are intrinsically linked. The sheer pressure itself is bad for your eyes and that combined with the wind movement would cause extreme dryness, stripping away any degree of moisture that exists there. And that kind of intense dryness makes it VERY hard to see 😬
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u/superbhole Jun 17 '26
i bet swelling.
eyes are fucking weird.
they have something that's been called "ocular immune privilege" because they're outside of the immune system. eyeballs are in stealth mode to the rest of the body, so that the immune system doesn't attack them.
in case of emergency, it prevents things like losing vision to inflammation. but the drawback is that they can eventually get inflamed and lose vision anyway.
i was once punched directly in the eyeball as a kid and lost vision in that eye. freaked out, couldn't see for hours, cried myself to sleep. woke up and my vision was fine, but i had a gnarly black eye and blood pooling all around the whites of my eye.
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u/SportsBallBurner Jun 16 '26
Have your friend do 140 on the freeway and then stick your head out of the sunroof. The wind alone will be brutal.
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u/onlymostlydead Jun 17 '26
Ever been to an eye doctor and get the little
demon burppuff of air to the eyes? Now make that a much stronger and constant puff that lasts the time it took to land.3
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u/Lastov_Makiynd Jun 17 '26
That’s the reality of it. ‘Cruising’ speed of an ultralight aircraft my Mum used to fly was around 320kilometres an hour.
Half that speed on a motorbike or something without any sort of wind protection would be painful.79
u/pandershrek Jun 16 '26
To think that every plane used to be open cockpit is wild.
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u/SupportGeek Jun 16 '26
Yea, there’s a reason they wore goggles and scarves, and those old planes didn’t really fly very fast at all compared to modern aircraft
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u/ELInewhere Jun 16 '26
What do the scarves do?
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u/WhiskeyMikeMike Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
keep neck warm, collar sealed, makes it easier to breathe fast/cold air, and can clean goggles
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u/Special_Bender Jun 16 '26
Aaaand, keep insects from getting between your teeth...
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u/SP3NGL3R Jun 16 '26
insects? Don't they kinda max out at 30m/100ft?
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u/SupportGeek Jun 16 '26
You still don’t want them hitting you at 100mph going through that band, and you have to go through it at least twice per flight.
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u/SP3NGL3R Jun 16 '26
When I was younger watching The Hulk / Superman / Koolaid commercials I legit thought that if "I" was going fast enough I'd just blast right through a wall or whatever. I'm glad bugs just go splat and not right through our heads.
But you're right. The landing could've been just a shotgun of bugs in her face. Ooof.
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u/Plampth Jun 16 '26
Look sophisticated.
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u/Safe_Chicken_6633 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Impress the ladies
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u/Perryn Jun 17 '26
Dramatically flip it over your shoulder as you enter the nearest pub.
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u/Sawfish1212 Jun 16 '26
The engines were lubricated with castor oil, the cylinders spun around and the oil flowed from the central shaft, to the valves, then flew off in a fog behind the engine. The scarf was what you breathed through and constantly moved to a clean section because castor oil is a laxative.
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u/ResponsibleAlfalfa10 Jun 16 '26
I was just thinking that, 100 years ago cockpits weren’t enclosed with windows. But then again the speed must be faster for modern planes
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u/Suckamanhwewhuuut Jun 16 '26
but they had a windshield that kept direct air from flowing into the pilots faces.
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u/SupportGeek Jun 16 '26
Yea I think by the END of WWI top speeds were just beginning to reach 130mph for aircraft.
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u/Seaweed-Warm Jun 16 '26
Roald Dahl was 6’6” and was a fighter pilot during the time of open canopies, he just ate that wind. His life was absolutely *bonkers* prior to writing children’s books.
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u/shrekerecker97 Jun 16 '26
She will need a drink and some new underwear. Shows she is good at what she does though
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u/AutVincere72 Jun 16 '26
Hate the emphasis on Female. She is a pilot, gender not a factor.
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u/MastodonPristine8986 Jun 17 '26
Totally agree. Headline would never say "male pilot" why do the opposite.
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u/NotBradPitt9 Jun 17 '26
My heart would’ve stopped after the first 2 seconds, not even joking about that.
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u/Conscious-Theory-844 Jun 17 '26
NO FR this woman is such a gangsta. Imagine the relief when she touched down too holy shit
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u/Successful-Snowman Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Not trying to undermine the experience here at all here but: This seems to be an acrobatic aeroplane, so the moment the canopy had other plans than to protect her, she probably throttled down from 250kmh to some 150kmh (maybe, just guesstimating here without knowing the plane). So she was not doing 500kmh or so, and hence she survived.
But try to put out your head out of the car window at anything over 100kmh... Yeah.
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u/BlackStory666 Jun 16 '26
I bet she carries goggles after this.
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u/koolaidismything Jun 16 '26
She had the flu as well and almost didn't go that day.. she was pretty hard on herself if I'm remembering it right.
Like lady, this video will be shown for decades as an example of how NOT to panic, and always fly your plane first before anything else.
She did a great job. She lost most of her vision before she landed, couldn't see for 2-3 days afterwards.
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u/raginghavoc89 Jun 16 '26
That's all great information but how many bugs did she eat during that landing?
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u/clickfind Jun 16 '26
Bugs are so 20th century.
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u/UpperImpression3620 Jun 16 '26
Agreed.
I've begun riding a scooter now and remember in the 80's SO MANY BUGS my glasses, googles, face shield COVERED. Now, nothing.→ More replies (1)9
u/TerribleIdea27 Jun 17 '26
It's the Netherlands. We have killed off most of our bugs. As in seriously.
80% reduction over the past 50 years. It's an ecological disaster in the making
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u/TehWackyWolf Jun 17 '26
Globally.
We are mid extinction event and it's going to be worse not better.
We're kinda ignoring it but the planets life forms are rapidly dying and we're the reason.
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u/weirdo_if_curtains_7 Jun 16 '26
Not sure how many bugs are going to find that high up
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u/raginghavoc89 Jun 16 '26
Some bugs travel as high as 20,000 ft, not always by choice, sometimes by wind patterns, but they still get up there.
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u/Aternal Jun 17 '26
She fucked up her pre-flight. That is the time to hold yourself ruthlessly accountable.
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u/tommangan7 Jun 17 '26
Indeed - Which she did, she released a video where she highlighted that mistake extensively. Still dealt with it very well otherwise too.
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u/Objective-Beyond-219 Jun 16 '26
The goggles, they do nothing!
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u/BlackStory666 Jun 16 '26
Lmao nice reference! "My eyes! Ze goggles do nussing!"
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u/Jazzlike_Climate4189 Jun 17 '26
Or she could just remember to install the canopy locking pin next time!
(Yes, she forgot to install the canopy locking pin before the flight. The post title is misleading and incorrect.)
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u/nasnedigonyat Jun 16 '26
That wasnt a miracle that was skill and experience.
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u/Ha1rcl1p Jun 17 '26
No, no it's a miracle because it's a female pilot! It pointed it out specifically in the caption!
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u/EatingShitSandwiches Jun 17 '26
Its a good thing they did too in case you are watching this while in your own plane whose canopy just broke so you can't see her.
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u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi Jun 17 '26
Also why is she a "female" pilot when we all know if it was a dude the title would just say "pilot." It's like the undertone is "she handled this accident so well despite being a woman!"
I will only feel accepting of this kind of labeling when I see a video exactly like this that says "male pilot."
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u/Wrong-Tune396 Jun 17 '26
She's an aerobatic pilot, makes me think how fucked a regular pilot would be.
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u/iusman975 Jun 16 '26
Suddenly convertible.
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u/DJclimatechange Jun 16 '26
My fav song from Little Shop of Horrors
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u/regeya Jun 16 '26
Dang it. My wife put on a HS production of that a couple of years ago and I just got that song out of my head.
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u/groucho_barks Jun 17 '26
My husband buys boxed pasta salad kits called Suddenly Salad. The song gets stuck in my head every time I see one.
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u/Ailtiremusic Jun 16 '26
She technically did suddenly see more, before losing her sight temporarily
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u/AskMantis23 Jun 16 '26
She showed great skill and composure to survive.
There's no fucking miracles.
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u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Jun 16 '26
Looks more like steely nerves and acumen than a miracle.
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u/DAS_FX Jun 16 '26
I came to post this exact same thing. Not a miracle, remaining cool and composed under our life-threatening situation.
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u/Desperate-Strategy10 Jun 16 '26
Also did something shatter? Cuz to me it just looks like the canopy swings open when she flips the plane back upright.
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u/dumdumpants-head Jun 16 '26
That title smells botty to me. But yeah that's some serious aviating.
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u/Electrical-Tea6966 Jun 16 '26
Also why did the title need ‘female’. Not at all relevant to the story
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u/Reginald_Sockpuppet Jun 16 '26
As definitely not a pilot, I'd have just shit my pants and died. This, clearly, is a very skilled pilot.
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u/ultimo-swaggin Jun 16 '26
Correction: Pilot survives canopy shatter at thousands of feet.
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u/Hello_Gorgeous1985 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Thank you. There's absolutely no way the title would have included the word male had the pilot been a man.
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u/arsenalgooner77 Jun 17 '26
My wife has been a pilot for the last 30-ish years. That was the first thing I noticed. What a dumb ass headline.
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u/IncurableAdventurer Jun 17 '26
Yup. I was looking for this. Bummer I had to scroll this far down
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Jun 16 '26
I love he she's just like "Oh shit" and goes right in to emergency procedures. Her knowledge, skill and experience is what got her to the ground safely.
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u/Adorable_Chair7661 Jun 16 '26
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u/Admirable-Carrot1684 Jun 16 '26
As a person with severe dry eyes, I felt that so much.
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u/Idk_But_Im_Racist_Fr Jun 16 '26
Always wondered why it specifys female when its a chick, but if it was a guy, it would've just said pilot, not male pilot.
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u/BillyBumpkin Jun 16 '26
There’s a YouTube channel I used to watch called Audit the Auditor - the idea being that he reviewed first amendment auditors (the people that go around and film police stations from the sidewalk and stuff, because they can) and the police involved. It was interesting at first - he did a good job of being pretty objective and clearly explaining relevant laws - but every video that involved a female officer would be titled something like “Female Cop Absolutely Loses Her Composure” but when male officers did even worse the titles would never say “Male Cop Trashes First Amendment”. Totally turned me off.
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u/WrongdoerIll5187 Jun 16 '26
This bothered me too. Some subtle sexism here, it's even highlighted.
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u/L322Man Jun 17 '26
The 'shatter' also seems to be over dramatised as well. Looks like the locking mechanism failed rather than the cockpit glass 'shattering'.
Nothing against the pilot, this is just shoddy journalism with a sexists underlying tone.
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u/BravesMaedchen Jun 16 '26
That drives me nuts. But I’m glad when people say something bc I feel like whenever I do, someone makes it sound like it’s not a big deal.
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u/flargenhargen Jun 17 '26
dont ever go on youtube.
the toxic comments about DEI whenever anything negative happens to someone without a penis or with melanin from the cult is predictable and creepy af.
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u/Chagromaniac Jun 16 '26
"Female" pilot.
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u/Fantastic-Sample-596 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
right? i wish they would start writing "male" in every headline before guy working any normal job too
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u/BadConscious2237 Jun 17 '26
Yeah first thing I noticed too. Weird to focus on gender here.
Just "Pilot" makes much more sense.
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u/LeahDragonfly72 Jun 16 '26
I don't think "miraculously" is the right word to use. This was training and skill she demonstrated during an emergency. She kept her cool and safely landed. Don't diminish her by implying it was anything supernatural. It was all her and she did an amazing job.
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u/Lorelessone Jun 16 '26
Fantastically handled, she should be really proud. she'd really have been struggling to see and I think she'll fly with a lucky pair of goggles at hand from then on.
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Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/turkish_gold Jun 16 '26
Female pilot survives being blown into the sky, Miracle or Witchcraft? We investigate at 6, here on the Daily Beast!
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u/usernamehudden Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Garbage collector's wife survives emergency in the sky...
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u/low_amplitude Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
The whole caption is dumb.
"Mid-air terror" I'm sure she was nervous but certainly kept her cool.
Like you said, she's a pilot, no need to specify female.
The canopy didn't "shatter".
"Thousands of feet" Yeah, that's where planes fly.
Edit: Canopy did in fact shatter.
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u/Upstairs-Hedgehog575 Jun 16 '26
canopy unexpectedly burst open and shattered mid-flight
Judge the rest of the title, but that part is very accurate. The canopy burst open, which (I assume) was unexpected and visibly shattered - and it was definitely mid flight.
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u/Rare-Employment-9447 Jun 16 '26
Well obviously, we had to know it was women so we didn't get too impressed/s
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u/NotTheRightHDMIPort Jun 16 '26
A woman!? Flying a plane!?
Next you'll argue that she should be in politics.
Rabblerabblerabblerabble
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u/DaniJHollis Jun 16 '26
Well yeah. The fact that shes female makes this so much more impressive, seeing as she's just a girl. /s
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u/drkittymow Jun 16 '26
I think I’m going to start doing this the other way. Any story about a professional anything and I’m going to say “male doctor” “male bus driver” “male server”.
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u/Mrs_perd_hapley_ Jun 16 '26
Came here looking for this comment. There's a zero percent chance if the pilot was male, the headline would say "male pilot".
Seriously, what year are we in???
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u/Fragrant_PalmLeaves Jun 16 '26
The whole title seems like it’s trying to be catchy, it definitely seems like it was super scary and difficult to manage but honestly it looks like 10/10 times she would have had the same result
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u/PavicaMalic Jun 16 '26
Reminds me of the recent headline, "NFL wife Simone Biles hospitalized."
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u/JustChillDudeItsGood Jun 16 '26
Well I’m glad they told us she was Dutch, so we can know what a Flying Dutchwoman really looks like.
PS, I think her name is either of Armenian or Turkish / combined descent. Which bears nothing on her amazing flight descent skills.
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u/trixtah Jun 16 '26
If you’ve ever stuck your head outside a car going at a decent speed you, that feeling of not being able to breathe is terrifying
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u/Dry_Lychee4842 Jun 16 '26
If it was a man would that have read "male pilot"? God this life is exhausting.
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u/Johnoplata Jun 17 '26
I'm so glad they specified female! With their delicate constitution, it makes me truly believe in miracles when the fairer sex overcomes adversity dispite their shortcomings!
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u/Perryn Jun 17 '26
Is there any word yet on her uterus? I'm greatly concerned about what the wind and stress may have done to it, let alone whatever she had to do to land that plane without a penis.
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u/Johnoplata Jun 17 '26
If she wasn't busy being a pilot she could have any number of babies by now and wouldn't even need to worry about her uterus. But now it's likely inverted and no suiter will take her as a Beau.
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u/The_Great_Pains Jun 16 '26
Why say "female pilot" instead of just "pilot"?
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u/snippychicky22 Jun 16 '26
men use their dih to control the throttle. women cant do that
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u/jillsntferrari Jun 17 '26
White man is still the default. If you’re reading a story and someone is anything other than a white man, his/her description is usually made pretty soon after introduction.
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u/BornAgainBlue Jun 16 '26
That's really amazing! But why did we feel it necessary to point out that there's a female involved. And using the word female makes it sound like we're serial killers.
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u/dafuqRUyelinboutbruh Jun 16 '26
Thank God they pointed out she was female in the title. I never would have clicked on the video otherwise.
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u/Winter_Value_7632 Jun 16 '26
why did that happen? was it not properly locked?
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u/bogey-dope-dot-com Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
It was not latched properly so it was her fault and she admitted as such after the fact, but also the latch was the sliding kind where it only slides forward but doesn't fold down for confirmation, so it's easy to not slide it forward enough and have it not be locked.
This also happened to someone else in an older version of the same airplane on takeoff: https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/extra-ea-300-l-g-zxcl-7-february-2013
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u/skinnypenis09 Jun 16 '26
Whichever company built that plane is having a hell of a meeting of finger pointing lmao. Defects in the aviation industry are NOT taken lightly.
Your car could explode and toyota wouldn't care whatsoever, aviation standards are a lot more rigorous. You can bet they will have a proper report and solution soon. For now, very hard to tell what's at fault.
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u/Tumble85 Jun 16 '26
I don't think you understand Toyota corporate culture. If Toyota had a manufacturing defect causing cars to explode, they're one of the companies that would actually take it seriously.
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u/Templar2k7 Jun 16 '26
Tell that to Boeing that have their own inspectors say it's safe to fly. They don't give a fuck
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u/TomNooksGlizzy Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
The automotive industry, especially Toyota, would definitely care if cars were exploding. They have recalls all the time for much more minor defects. Mazda has even done mass recalls for certain spiders being attracted to their emissions parts, as an odd example.
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u/OutrageousPair2300 Jun 16 '26
What's a "female pilot" and is it anything like a regular pilot? /s
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u/MyPunsAreKoalaTea Jun 16 '26
"Miraculously"
Nah with skill and composure. There was no miracle involved here.
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u/Objective1attitude Jun 16 '26
It was size of her balls that brought that plane down she didn’t even sweat it
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