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Experienced Pilot Debunks the Popular "My Plane Ran Out of Fuel Over the Ocean" Video

When someone’s telling you that they’ve survived a major possible catastrophe, you’ll most likely want to hear that story. It’s our human instinct. We want to survive anything and hearing a story like this one is surely going to feel good. Landing unscathed after the plane runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean is a great subject. However, an experienced pilot explains why there was no reason to worry. Here’s a quick, insightful breakdown.
Experienced Pilot Explaining the "Fuel Problem" 8 photos
Photo: 74 Gear on YouTube
Experienced Pilot Debunking the ProblemsExperienced Pilot Listening to the YouTuber Sharing His Flight ExperienceThe Flight Tracker MapThe YouTuber Crying in the Plane's BathroomThe YouTuber Texting His WifeThe Pilots Explaining Why They Had to Return to JFK74 Gear
A YouTuber with over five million subscribers shared what he thought was “the scariest day of” his life. Fortunately, nothing bad happened and he was able to share the whole experience. The footage immediately made it onto YouTube’s Trending page.

Xiaomanyc embarked on a 10-hour non-stop journey to Ghana and had to cross the Atlantic Ocean via an air route. He now says this trip was the closest he’s come to “having a near-death experience.”

While in the air, the captain came to some of those sitting next to one of the plane’s wings and opened the blinds to get a better look at the aircraft. People were visibly concerned, but nobody said anything. Only after an hour did the flying crew tell the passengers that there was a fuel issue and the plane must return to New York. That’s when the worrying began.

The vlogger explains he thought he was going to die. So, he started recording videos for his family from the plane’s bathroom and sending texts to his wife. He looked at the navigation screen and thought the distance was too big to make it back to land in time.

Fortunately, the pilots landed the aircraft safely and everyone made it out uninjured. The captain even told the YouTuber what happened and explained that a fuel imbalance was the cause of the return to the JFK airport.

Delta Airlines also made sure to give everyone complimentary meal vouchers and refunded the whole trip.

But an experienced pilot decided to do a public debrief about the event and explained why this was, at no point, a threat to passengers’ lives. He explains the vlogger got “too worked up” because he “didn’t understand aviation.” The man is trying to address nervous flyers and wants them to not worry about situations like these. He even says that it’s unlikely something like this will ever happen again to those that experienced the abrupt return.

The pilot breaks down every stage of the flight and reassures everyone that the crew did the right thing. He also makes sure to underline that nobody was in any danger at any given moment.

The insights given by 74 Gear are extremely useful since it gives everyone the chance to better understand what was going on with that flight and why people should have just trusted the pilots.

Besides 74 Gear, other pilots commented on the video and told the vlogger that he shouldn’t have ever been worried because the scenario wasn’t “an end-of-life event.” Someone even underlined the pilots could’ve chosen to land in Bermuda, which would’ve been a lot closer than New York’s JFK airport.

At the end of the day, even if the YouTuber overreacted, the video still provided a great opportunity for flying personnel. Now they know why communication with passengers is very important and things shouldn’t be left for interpretation.

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About the author: Florin Amariei
Florin Amariei profile photo

Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one.
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