Airplane facts

While investigating facts about Airplane , I found out little known, but curios details like:

In 1985 a drug smuggler jettisoned 40 kilograms (76 pounds) of cocaine from his airplane over Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest. A black bear (later dubbed 'Pablo EskoBear') found and ate ALL of the cocaine and died of an inconceivably massive overdose.

Sabrina Pasterski built a single engine airplane by the time she was 14 y/o, at 16 became the youngest person ever to fly their own plane; graduated MIT in 3 years with a 5.0 GPA and is now 24 at Harvard getting a PhD in high energy physics.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Airplane I managed to collect.

1. There was a research paper which claimed that people who jump out of an airplane with an empty backpack have the same chances of surviving as those who jump with a parachute. It only stated that the plane was grounded in the second part of the paper.

2. A director of the movie 'Airplane!' spent $60,000 on 3 horses over ~4 years for a joke; "All Pink", "Ol Pink", and "Awl Pink". He instructed the jockey not to win, but to run as close to the inside rail as possible so the track announcer would have to call "...and it's All Pink on the inside!"

3. After arresting a man for blowing up an airplane federal agents learned that it was not in fact a federal crime to blow up an airplane. Colorado instead charged the man for the single murder of his mother, a passenger on the plane.

4. The Dutch King had secretly been piloting commercial KLM airplanes as a "relaxing hobby" for 21 years as of May, 2017

5. 4chan found the unknown location of a flag that Shia LaBeouf placed for his HWNDU project using only the live stream of the flag by studying the weather and the flight patterns of airplanes flying in the background in a little over 37 hours.

6. A US Marines airplane cut through a cable car wire at an Italian ski resort, which caused the cable car to plunge 80 meters (260 feet) to the ground, killing all 20 people onboard. One of the crewmen later destroyed incriminating evidence against himself and the rest of the crew.

7. A bald eagle somehow made its way to Ireland in 1987 and was so tired that it had to be returned via airplane.

8. In World War II, a few engineers wanted to reinforce the (returned) fighter planes where most of the bullet holes were. Mr. Abraham Wald then said: Let's reinforce them where no bullet holes are instead - because apparently, airplanes hit in these spots did NOT return.

9. While touring in Australia, Frank Sinatra insulted the media, especially female media. The stagehands union refused to work his show until he apologized. Sinatra threatened to cancel his shows. The transport union refused to prepare his airplane for departure

10. About the Asoh defence, a term for frank acceptance of blame when you are at full fault. It’s named after Kohei Asoh, an airplane pilot who landed his plane in the waters of San Francisco, just shy of the runway. When asked about why he did this, he said: “As you Americans say, I F**cked up.”

Airplane data charts

For your convenience take a look at Airplane figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

What is true about airplane ?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

Leslie Nielsen had essentially two acting careers. He spent two decades playing leading men and the occasional villain. After Airplane! came out in 1980 he played almost exclusively comic roles.

When Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he carried with him a piece from the Wright brothers' first airplane - source

Michael Richards, who died in his art studio on 9/11, floor 92 WTC North, whose art focused on planes; including sculptures of airplanes piercing his own body. - source

When Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he carried with him a piece from the Wright brothers' first airplane - source

Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) allowed Chic-Fil-A to use her song 'Nothings Going to Stop Us Now' in a commercial just so she could take their money and donate it to 'Lambda Legal,' an organization that offers legal support to the LGBQT community and people living with AIDS.

In 1957 an airplane crashed onto Rikers Island. 57 inmates ran to help the survivors. Most of the prisoners who helped were either set free or received reduced sentences.

Women can fly airplanes in Saudi Arabia, but can't drive cars.

In 1945 an airplane crashed into the Empire State Building, injuring elevator operator Betty Oliver. When rescuers attempted to lower her on an elevator, the cable snapped, plunging her 75 stories down. She survived the fall, and to this day holds the record for longest survived elevator fall.

In 1986, a Soviet pilot made a bet with his co-pilot that he could land the airplane blind, with curtained cockpit windows. He crashed the plane into the landing strip, killing 70 out of 94 passengers and crew.

That, fearing rogue Kamikaze attacks, US Navy Admiral Halsey informed his sailors of the end of hostilities in the pacific with this message: "Cessation of hostilities. War is over. If any Japanese airplanes appear, shoot them down in a friendly way."

Airplane infographics

Beautiful visual representation of Airplane numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.