What you'll be told if your plane is about to crash

Passenger Don Preston recounts a terrifying crash landing in answer to the question, “If a plane crash is certain, are the passengers informed?” on Quora.

In 2000 my wife and I along with my 10 and 12-year-old children flew Spirit Airlines non-stop from Detroit to Los Angeles. My daughter and I were in the bulkhead seats on one side of the aisle while my wife and son were in row two on the other side. Twenty minutes into the flight we hear a loud bang and the plane immediately fills with a white cloud of thick vapour. It wasn’t smoke because we didn’t cough.

The pilot came on the intercom and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve obviously had a malfunction. The smoke will clear very quickly, (which it did). We will land at the closest airport. Please hold on for more info.”

So everybody is pretty calm for a couple of minutes until the stewardesses began the crash positions talk. I was very calm.  However, from our seats in the front row we could see into the galley where the two most senior stewardesses were openly sobbing and praying over a Rosary. This was serious.

A few minutes before landing the stewardesses began shouting as loud as they absolutely could “heads down”, “emergency position”. Non-stop for six or seven straight minutes. They were really serious. And clearly afraid. The pilot had never relayed anything other than a calm “no big deal” demeanour.

It only took about 15 minutes for us to land on a runway surrounded by fire trucks.

During our nearly full day stranded I had the opportunity to speak with the pilot. I asked him how serious this had actually been. A jet can fly on one engine. Right? Apparently not. He told me that when an engine blows you’re landing in 10 to 15 minutes. Airport or not. So  the pilot doesn’t always relay the danger level and if you really want to know, keep an eye on the most senior stewards.
Source: www.indy100.independent.co.uk