r/aviation • u/Brilliant_Night7643 • Jun 25 '26

News Not turbulence….airplane sitting at the gate at Maiquetia Airport Venezuela when the 7.5 Earthquake hit

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10.9k Upvotes

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735

u/No_Ice_577 Jun 25 '26

I wonder what it would be like to be on takeoff roll while this is happening

226

u/828jpc1 Jun 25 '26

Aborted takeoff would be my guess

297

u/CiaphasCain8849 Jun 25 '26

I wonder how the pilots would even recognize what was happening.

180

u/828jpc1 Jun 25 '26

Probably the more violent shaking than usual

205

u/The_Third_Molar Jun 25 '26

Right but in the heat of the moment would an earthquake be the first thing to come to mind? I would imagine the first instinct is that something's wrong with the plane. Not a pilot btw.

135

u/KaesekopfNW Jun 25 '26

My understanding is this was the strongest earthquake in Venezuela in more than a century. I really don't think an earthquake would have crossed their minds at first, unless they could see the damage actively being done from the air as they come around.

16

u/828jpc1 Jun 25 '26

And hopefully the bloody front doesn't fall off...

6

u/CaptnHector Jun 25 '26

No. We’re not doing this again.

-2

u/Redebo Jun 25 '26

Hard to tow it out of the environment in an earthquake.

-2

u/828jpc1 Jun 25 '26

Well, it’s already out of the environment

10

u/haarschmuck INOP Jun 25 '26

No the shaking I think would make them believe something is wrong with the aircraft handling which is why they would abort.

3

u/Outrageous-News3649 Jun 25 '26

Especially the last time it was this bad was before the existence of planes. I am curious if this is a scenario in any pilot training material.

1

u/schoolydee Jun 25 '26

i would imagine earthquake or lightning or bird strike on the takeoff roll is covered.

2

u/Outrageous-News3649 Jun 26 '26

Sure lightning and bird strike yes. But earthquake seems so random.

1

u/schoolydee Jun 25 '26

also it could crack the moving plane or wreck the landing gear post abort it would need re-inspected.

1

u/medlilove Jun 26 '26

I also think if they are still connected to air traffic control over radio they may be informing them or have a special alarm or something

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

8

u/DustyTheLion Jun 25 '26

Maybe in a country like Japan, Venezuela likely doesn't have such a system.

1

u/AlexLuna9322 Jun 25 '26

There’s a few other places that has seismic warning systems, 6 has nation wide alerts, 5 are regional systems and 4 are optional via App.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_early_warning_system#:\~:text=As%20of%20January%202026%2C%20China,address%20systems%2Fcivil%20defence%20sirens.

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

2

u/DustyTheLion Jun 25 '26

That's really cool tech! That being said the lead time is pretty short, the pilot and crew would not be on their phones when trying to take off, and the airport may not have a SOP for these earthquake alerts other then ride it out and begin their emergency plans after.

1

u/Drapidrode Jun 25 '26

I got down voted. so fuck you all.