What's the closest you've been to a plane crash site?

My mom lived in NYC at the time of the 9/11 attack. She was certainly within 10 km of the WTC but not super close to it. I tried to call her but couldn't get a phone call to NYC through from California. But, I was in online contact with a friend in Canada who was able to get through to my mom and check that she was ok. It was odd.

Best I got is being in a glider that we had to ditch in a corn field. Hopfully I never have to witness anything worse than that.

I was at work in Crystal City VA, less than a mile from the Pentagon, on 9/11.

How about...

Inside the damn airplane. It was a Beech 18 with Pratt and Whitney Wasp Jr engines used for skydiving operations. The pilot was also the drop zone owner (DZO). The DZO normally kept 3 loads worth of fuel in the plane and I got on the 4th load.

We take off and are on climb out and about 200 feet off the ground it gets... quiet. Did you catch the previous paragraph where I mention the plane had two Pratt and Whitney Wasp Jr engines? I mention that, because those engines are loud... Like really really loud. We crashed in a corn field off the end of the runway. It was like being in a car accident, except a whole lot more noise and grinding metal and quite a bit scarier. With that said, no one was hurt and there was no fire, because there was no fuel in the plane.

All but one person in the crash got out and jumped into the other Beech 18 and did our jumps.

Yeah, skydivers are a bit of a different breed, no doubt about that.

As far as closest to an airliner accident. I saw the remains of United 232 in Sioux City IA about 4 hours after the crash. My parents and I were on the way to see my oldest brother and his family that lived in Sioux Falls, SD at the time. We passed by the airport on I-29 which is less than half a mile away. It was far enough to see the debris and rescue crews working, but not close enough to see the victims... Thank god.

Seeing that accident, plus a strong love of aviation ignited an interest I have had ever since to learn as much as I could about aircraft incidents. I probably should have pursued a career in aircraft accident investigation, not sure why I never did.

I live in Philly, so apparently ~9 miles is the closest I've been to a plane crash.

I was on the very same plane that crashed a few days later. Air France 447. I was working in Brazil at the time, and those of us who flew in from europe took that aircraft from Paris to Rio. We learned not long after that the plane we took had gone missing.

Maybe 500 feet. Stunt plane lost control in a spin. Instantly caught fire.

Literally been at one where the rubble was still smoldering and another one where we didn't even knew how many people we were looking for. And saw an actual emergency landed airliner from a few hundred metres away. But I work as a paramedic. The first one was a small prop plane, one two people miraculously survived, but with life altering injuries, the second one was a crashed glider, sadly the pilot died, but it's highly likely that he was dead before he crashed - a medical issue was suspected.

The third one had a few lightly injured passengers but they were already transported by the time we arrived.

Ah. And a Fastfood joint I used to go to as a kid was the site of a gnarly crash where a small two engine plane crashed into a bus and said Fastfood joint a few years earlier.

The current crash hits home differently as I have spend countless hours on the same aircraft type and the same (aeromedical) setting. While I did not know the crew, have left the field long ago, the community is tightly knit and I know people who knew them.A truely sad case.

My dad once had an engine failure shortly after take off, and had to ditch into a bean field. He was fine plane was only a little damaged. I helped him fix the wheel, and get the plane (well, ultralight) to the highest corner of the field so that he could take off down the hill.

30 ft from landing in Boston from the UK in bad weather the pilot aborts the landing. Honestly thought we were all going to die, the plane was moving around so much and the run way starts just after the water. It seemed like we'd just hit the water or at least clip a boat. Ended up diverting and landing elsewhere where we sat on the plane for 5 hours waiting for the weather to clear. My stomach took another 5 hours to recover. 0/10 do not recommended.

My father once crashed a small plane and the engine wrecked a family's living room. Nobody was hurt. He invited the family for a scenic flight and they accepted.

This felt close, in a way: in May 2014 I flew UK to NZ on Malaysian Airlines. One of their planes had gone missing in March that year, so I came in for some joshing over my choice. I flew out of NZ on 22 July. The Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam leg had a slight change of flight path because on the 17th a Malaysian plane on that route was shot down over Ukraine.

(I felt so sorry for the air crew - some of them may have lost friends and colleagues on those flights, and here they were, smiling away and bringing us drinks.)

When it crashed? Not very nearby. Miles at a minimum. Well after the crash? I've gone to a few. We traveled as children in an RV, and dad loved to stop everywhere for education times. I liked nature stops, hated people dying stops.

Not a plane crash, but a decade or more ago there was a fiery crash with a train hauling fuel through an urban area at an intersection I drove through about 3 hours earlier. I was 2-3 miles away at the hospital working with the crash happened, several dead, although I forget the exact number. We had the amounts of rain that day and that parts of the track were getting submerged and the train hydroplaned.

Also had a school shooting happen at Cole Hall the same day I had class, I think it was the class after mine that day, maybe 2 classes later

Couple hundred feet. Saw a plane that was taking off collide with one still on the runway. I was just off the taxiway.

Saw another two occurrences of a plane hitting trees due to power loss on takeoff

I was almost in a couple myself. Almost hit a tower cable in a snow storm that rapidly developed, and another where made an emergency landing due to engine failure.

I grew up with several of my dads friends that I had flown with dying. I didn’t end up becoming a pilot as my career.

I was in a building that was rebuild after a fighter jet crashed into the one before it...

I had Cessna crash land on a duplex down the road from me. All involved died except the cat that belonged to the poor bastard in the apartment.

A Canadian Snowbird jet crashed ~2-3 miles from my house. It was Friday evening, fresh home from work, and heard the boom. My ex actually saw it come down.

The Snowbirds had been practicing for an air show over the weekend. Investigation revealed the pilot's restraint harness had come loose, making him lose control.