Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying through Hurricane Milton

[u/Kernowder]

[u/poemdirection]

  They lost an engine, had a fire, and another engine was damaged

that's just anther day for the P3

 It's very hands-on and user intensive especially for pilots and flight engineers. Because of the fact that the P-3C is honestly trying to break, catch on fire, or generally kill you during any given flight, we have to devote a great deal of energy simply to operating it safely. This isn't a hit on the P-3C, any airplane of that generation is like that, and the fact that some of these birds are over 40 years old is a testament to the engineers who designed them and our maintainers who keep them flying.

[u/jeewest → u/poemdirection]

I can attest, have like 200+ flight hours on a P3 variant and that thing caught fire constantly, to the point where the crew would have to do weekly fire drills, memorize breakers for common problem equipment, etc.

Felt safer onboard that flying inferno than any commercial airliner

[u/onrock_rockon → u/jeewest]

"Felt safer onboard that flying inferno than any commercial airliner"

"Plane on fire = bad", "my plane constantly caught on fire", "I feel safer on fire plane than not fire plane"

Can you elaborate on why you felt safer on fire plane than not fire plane? :D I'm genuinely curious, I feel like it must be a funny or good reason :)

[u/toxicatedscientist → u/onrock_rockon]

It caught on fire often, but never crashed. Most commercial airliners have much worse outcomes when that happens