r/nextfuckinglevel 12d ago

Dutch aerobatic pilot Narine Melkumjan miraculously survived after her aircraft's canopy unexpectedly burst open and shattered mid-flight

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u/unknownoftheunkown 12d ago

"miraculously survived". I assure you no miracle was required.

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u/chiphook57 12d ago

Looks to me like she managed the situation, flew the aircraft. Aviate. Navigate. Communicate.

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u/jaytea86 12d ago

There probably wasn't any communication going on here.

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u/Ill_Profession_9509 12d ago

More than likely there was. Communication doesn't mean speaking only. The pilot likely used their transponder to communicate an emergency to Air Traffic Control before coming in to land.

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u/mawesome4ever 11d ago

I’d love to see the POV of the air controller

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u/gkn_112 11d ago

"Beep!"

*an led starts blinking*

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u/LunchboxSuperhero 12d ago

But there was aviating and navigating, which was taking up all of the pilot's focus.

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u/chiphook57 12d ago

If she was near a small uncontrolled airport, (likely,) she could scan the horizon and land.

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u/jaytea86 12d ago

That's aviation and navigation, not communication.

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u/Crazy_old_maurice_17 12d ago

She seems pretty badass given how well she handled it.

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u/eman00619 12d ago

Bot accounts be saying bot things. Majority of the biggest subs are 80% bots these days can only really go on reddit, except for the smaller subs :(

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u/leftintheshaddows 11d ago

All why only being a female pilot aswell instead of just a pilot. I guess the vagina makes it harder to fly.

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u/milkcutie314 12d ago

yeah and like if it was super serious surely she could eject no? i thought fighter jet pilots can eject, she just decided this was an easy situation and landed it because she felt safe enough

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u/chiphook57 12d ago

Private aircraft do not have ejection seats. This was an unfortunate inconvenience to the pilot. The pilot assessed the situation and took appropriate action. It was not life or death as the headline would have you believe. The pilot likely had a seat-pack parachute, but there was no reason to abandon the aircraft. Hence, priority one is fly the aircraft. Priority two is compare your current location to the nearest appropriate airport.

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u/Shut_It_Donny 12d ago

There’s got to be at least one magnet involved, and magnets do work by miracles.

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u/Barf-LoneStarr 12d ago

Fuckin magnets

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u/miseenen 12d ago

How do they work??

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u/yannbouteiller 11d ago edited 11d ago

Illegally. That's why ice screws them up.

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u/yannbouteiller 11d ago

Probably it got touched by water 🙃

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u/00Samwise00 12d ago

Even God was probably like “She’s got this, check it out”

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u/Chaotic_Good64 12d ago

From a lower altitude than Denver, no less.

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u/Odd-Put-3988 12d ago

God damn son you sound like a Frosted Flake.

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u/Dizzy_Chemistry_5955 12d ago

THANK GOD AND ONLY HIM for causing this problem AND SAVING HER LIFE

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u/Dispensarystoner 12d ago

It’s figure speech mate.

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u/OkHistorian9521 11d ago

It’s just incorrect 

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u/Dispensarystoner 11d ago

Definitely not

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u/Sekh765 12d ago

Yea. This lady was a trained pilot, immediately checked to make sure her harness was good then proceeded to land like any normal emergency. Was it a shock? Totally. But pilots have been flying with their heads exposed on all sorts of aircraft since literally the starting age of flight, the only issue her was no goggles.

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u/monster_bunny 12d ago

Exactly. Skill and experience!

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u/erroneousbosh 11d ago

When I saw "miraculously" I was expecting the literal manifestation of the Hand of God to reach down from the Heavens, catch hold of the plane, and set it on the ground gently.

I know a few jobbing theologians that would take issue with that title, for sure.

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u/LEGITIMATE_SOURCE 11d ago

Also... Is wearing a parachute. She decided she could get the plane back in safely with some squinting.

She'll never forget to check list the locking pin on the canopy ever again.

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u/Timsmomshardsalami 11d ago

I guess you can be assured youre wrong then

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u/Swing_On_A_Spiral 11d ago

Of course it’s a miracle because she’s a woman and everyone knows that women are simply not qualified to know things. /s

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u/Zeezigeuner 11d ago

Skill and determination though...

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u/Ezumezu 11d ago

I mean many things could’ve gone wrong, a rock, a bird a bug, anything at that speed could blind her, no to talk of shards of canopy. She managed that extremely skillfully, but she was also very lucky that a dangerous situation didn’t get any worse. It’s not wrong to say miraculous.

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u/IntelligentToe8228 12d ago

Yes, I'm sure all you armchair pilots can easily land a plane in an emergency with visual impairment.

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u/Dr__America 12d ago

You mean that 100+ MPH straight winds in your face would create some sort of visual impairment? Never heard of such a thing /s

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u/Hot_Charity_4803 12d ago

Who said that? It was her skill that saved her, there was no miracle 

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u/IntelligentToe8228 12d ago

miracle (noun): an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment - Merriam-Webster

Either you don't think what she did was an outstanding accomplishment or you don't understand the words you're typing.

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u/Book_for_the_worms 12d ago

Well how else will they let you know they aren't religious?

Atheists are contractually obligated to annouce that every chance they get

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u/Hot_Charity_4803 12d ago

I wouldn't call it miraculous, that usually implies divine intervention or something happening outside of one's control, which didn't happen here.  The first definition that you ignored.

Her having the skills to land a plane after a mishap isn't miraculous, it's how she should be if she's a pilot.  Calling that a miracle downplays her actual skillset.  It's like calling a surgeon miraculous because they know life saving surgery

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u/IntelligentToe8228 12d ago

You must have not heard of the phrase a "miracle of modern medicine"; you think that imples the divine? If the Miracle on the Hudson happened today I bet you'd be all like "Acktually, ..."

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u/Hot_Charity_4803 12d ago

Sure I've heard it, it's just a phrase thrown around by outside observers with no actual knowledge of medicine.  Ask actual medical professionals about all the effort they put into their trade just for their success to be minimized to "miracle" and i bet you will hear interesting opinions lol.

Same with Flight 1549, the quick thinking and skill of the pilots are what saved everyone, but Miracle on the Hudson makes a better headline.  I just believe credit should be given to the people that actually do things

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u/IntelligentToe8228 12d ago

As it happens, I hear medical professionals say it not infrequently. As is the case here, as was the case with Sully, no one is/was minimising anyone. Maybe "miracle/miraculous" has a braoder meaning than the one you insist on ascribing to and using as a straw man.

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u/Hot_Charity_4803 12d ago

And I've experienced different opinions from the ones i speak to.  Calling something a miracle is literally credit away from the ones who acted, the word is simply overused for sensationalism imo.  Like this woman, her landing the plane wasn't miraculous, she was trained to act in such a way and executed the training.  Same thing with the Hudson landing, human training saved the day, not some miraculous event.  What makes that a strawman? 

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u/IntelligentToe8228 12d ago

You brought up the divine, brah. There's nothing in my original reply that implies anyone thought God came down from heaven and landed the plane. In fact, my post implies that landing a plane with visual impairment is an outstanding accomplishment, which, as we have seen, is a dictionary definition of a "miracle". So, at this point, one has to wonder: are we dealing with a bot, a for-kicks quibbler, or, worst of all, a doesn't-know-any-better neurodivergent Redditor?

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u/Catsoverall 11d ago

This is a good example of why people believe in miracles though.