19. We were close to death during a plane crash

“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.” — cactussword

20. We were stuck in wildfires in Tennessee

“Me and a friend were caught in the wildfires in Tennessee last year and had to find a way to get out. I was at a his house, helping him move of all things. The local govt didn’t call for any evacuations at the time, so we just went on with moving stuff in. There was smoke everywhere, but we couldn’t tell where it was coming from or how close it was. We wore face masks to help with breathing outside.

Once daylight was starting to go away, the darkness made it easier to see where the fires were. To our surprise, the fires were all around us going up and down mountains. Once they did a mandatory evacuation, it was already to late for a lot of people. We started down the mountain and the further down we got, the more fire we saw. Trees, bushes and brush were all on fire all around us. Trees and power lines were falling. We got to a place on the road were a tree had blocked the road. We couldn’t back up, because the roads were small and there were people behind us. We were in a big truck, my buddy said he was going to try and push the tree out of the way. After a few tries we were able to push it slightly out of the way which no doubt helped the other people behind us. The inside of the truck was so damn hot. We wanted to open the windows but then the smoke would get in. We were able to make it off the mountain in one piece.

Its still surreal to me that I was that close to death. ” — Decaposaurus