this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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Paranormal or explainable.

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[–] Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

8 way skydive. Two friends were getting married and they wanted to do a formation skydive as part of their wedding ceremony. They were going to get married, then 8 of us would get into the plane and do an 8 way formation dive. Land and eat cake.

The problem was they were both low time jumpers, with about 70 jumps each. The other 6 jumpers were all highly experienced, so we tried to make it work. The jump in question was a practice jump about a month before the wedding.

The bride fell out of the formation and went low. Meaning she was below everyone else and was continuing to get even lower. People in a formation will fall more slowly than an individual.

The formation of 7 other jumpers gets to about 5000ft and she is about 500ft below us and just sitting there. She is making no moves to track out and it is becoming a very dangerous situation. Then she starts waving off, which is what you're supposed to do right before deploying your parachute. We all see it, break the formation turn and burn. The jumper to my right videoed the whole thing. By happenstance I was the closest to her. The video shows me in a full track when she and her deploying main parachute come into frame. I might have missed her by about 20ft. Later she told me I sounded like a jet airplane passing by.

Everyone needed a change of underwear after that jump. I grounded her except for coached jumps, which I took on myself. I did about 15 jumps with her over the next month with increasing number of people until it clicked with her on how formation skydiving actually works.

We did not get to do the jump the day of the wedding unfortunately. Just after the nuptials were completed and we were to head to the airplane an intense thunderstorm blew in grounding the planes. We still held the reception in the hanger though and it was a good time. We did the wedding jump a couple of weeks later and sent the video to all the wedding guests.

But yeah, it was pretty fucking scary.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Either when my first baby fell out of bed followed by a big clonk, or when I tried to get someone out of a car in flames.

My eldest is fine, that guy didn't make it and I will never forget the smell.

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[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The time I was charged by a grizzly bear in western Alberta

TIL grizzly bears could be district attorneys.

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Were you trying to take a selfie with it? We see a lot of that in AB.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

No just wrong place wrong time

[–] Haus@kbin.earth 18 points 1 week ago

Got launched off the side of a boat near Tokyo in January. Wasn't very buoyant due to heavy winter clothing and the cold water was... something else. Felt like I was sinking down forever. When I did resurface, it took a long time for them to rig up a ladder for me to climb aboard the adjacent ship.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Paragliding, I was literally on the last step from the clif, the next step would be off the cliff. Right as I took that last solid step, I got a collapse (meaning my wing folded, this basically turns it from a parachute to a shopping bag in the sense of keeping you from falling to the ground)

Luckly I noticed, took a few steps back and started going "what the fuck was that???" Sat down for 15 minutes while figuring out what I did wrong. After the 15 minutes I took off again, this time safely.

I'm pretty good at handling scary and dangerous situations so even though I was a literal step away from probably death, definitely life long disability, I can't really say that I was extremely scared.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's weird is how everyone reacts differently. Someone talked about spinning out in a car; once, my girlfriend was driving, in the winter, and we tried to pass someone on the freeway, going near freeway speeds. The roads were icy, and we spun around multiple times, and ended up coming to a stop on the other side of the freeway facing oncoming traffic. Throughout the entire episode, I remember only thinking, "Ok, this is happening." I wasn't afraid, my heart rate was normal, I was completely calm. I think I may have put my hand on the dashboard, as if that'd do anything. I think, for me, it was the utter inability to do anything about the situation that made me calm. I've lost control on ice while I've been driving, and that's nerve-wracking. But that one time was the worst, and yet I had no fear. It's really strange, isn't it?

So, my answer is being up on the town hall tower in Rothenburg, Germany.

I know I'm acrophobic, but not pathologically, but I figured I'd be a little scared and that would be it, and I wanted to do it. So we climb about 800 floors of stairs and crawl through this little submarine-like hatch onto a mayor walkway around the tower literally wide enough for one person, as long as they're not too fat. The railing is a metal bar about waist-high, and I am not joking, you didn't have enough room to turn around. So you shuffle around the entire spire - there's just a column behind you - until you make the circuit and can climb back in the man-hole. It was not great; I was already anxious, except that after I got out, people just kept coming out of the hole. It was literally impossible to go back - you had to make the circuit, and there were people on both sides of you. You shuffled as fast as everyone else was, which was slow, because you'd stop when someone would finish and climb back in the hole.

I was about three people out of the hole, and thinking about the warning sign about the walkway being rated for only 4 people at a time, and how by my count there were at least a dozen, and I panicked. It was one of two or three times in my life when I felt like my brain had run off and was doing its own thing, and I had no control. I didn't make a scene, but internally, I was completely terrified, and probably wouldn't have been able to move if I hadn't been part of a press of people on both sides inexorably shifting around the walkway. I don't think that utter loss of any rational control can be adequately described unless you've experienced it.

The view was, apparently, beautiful, but I have no memory of it; all I remember is that it took 6 hours and all I could think of the entire time was getting back inside.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I can relate with your story as a fellow acrophobic (relatively mild...), and it reminded me of a similar but very different situation I lived.

I was on a holiday with friends, we were planning to do some canyoning. I scouted the path beforehand just not to get stuck, and everywhere I read that there are always alternative paths to jumps. The day before we make a hike, 700m of climb over 5km, steep as hell and in the evening my legs were butter (not sure if the same is for you, but the more I don't feel my body in control, the more fear takes over).

Next day, we go canyoning and I could legit barely walk. I start the course already thirsty, and after almost 1h we were barely halfway. Having to climb and jump (small stuff) made me sweaty AF, I was completely dehidrated. At some point we reach a place and I clearly realize there is no way back. I am the last one of the group, tired and thirsty as fuck, we are all tied on a rope, and we are on top of a big boulder. There are 2 ways down: jump 10m or go down with the rope.

I have spent close to 10min on top talking to the guide, asking completely moronic questions, and I have 8 of them on video because my friend was just before me and filmed.

I ended up jumping, I figured that with the energy I had left, I would rather do something that takes 2s rather that rope myself down. I probably managed to do that just because I was that dehydrated and almost in a delirious state. I remember looking down the water and just the memory makes me dizzy. But the feeling of not having an option B (or C) is what really gets you, this is why I could relate with your story even though this is a completely different situation.

Fun fact, I ended up being the only one in my group to jump 10 meters, and now the memory is a mixed bag of emotions, but I will always have brag rights with my friends.

Edit: I added a picture of the jump as seen from top. It's a screenshot from the infamous video.

The view from below maybe is more realistic...

[–] sxan@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's an awesome story. The call of the void is certainly a thing, but having no control of what triggers the terror, for me at least.

That's a long jump! Did you get your water, in the end?

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[–] coaxil@lemm.ee 15 points 1 week ago

First time I had severe anaphylactic shock, only juuust got given adrenaline in time apparently, don't rate.

[–] M137@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Very currently scariest, the night before yesterday a neighbour almost got killed by her son. She's in her 50s and he's in his 30s, I woke up to half the apartment building being closed off and police everywhere. He had called SOS himself and told them he killed his mom, and they found him outside the building at 3am, he was covered in blood and barely there mentally. The entryway still had blood on the floor and the door to the apartment building is broken to shit. It's still so recent that we haven't heard anything more, she's in hospital in critical but apparently stable condition.

[–] Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

7.7 magnitude earthquake from the 33rd floor. It happened 2 weeks ago. I will never go in a tall building again.

[–] sxan@midwest.social -3 points 1 week ago

"I'll never put on a life jacket again."

[–] callyral@pawb.social 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Sudden low blood pressure after seeing my own blood. I went temporarily blind and my hearing was weird for a bit. Thankfully, my father rescued me.

The reason I didn't faint was because, when I felt my blood pressure dropping, I immediately kneeled to avoid further injury.

That was most certainly the scariest thing I've experienced. Somehow, it was scarier than actually fainting.

[–] discostjohn@programming.dev 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have a friend who passes out every time he gets his blood drawn. He's like a deflating balloon.

He's diabetic and has to get blood work done every so often, and he always warns the person taking his blood that he's going to pass out for a second, and it's no big deal, but they always act surprised and panic when it happens.

[–] callyral@pawb.social 7 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I had to go to therapy for that. What works for me is closing my eyes so I don't get to see the needle or the blood. I still feel a bit weird after but I don't pass out anymore.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Somehow I've never actually fainted but I've had near fainting episodes tons of times. Literally every single time I've been too embarrassed to say anything to anyone or take immediate logical action bahaha! One time when I was a teen at dance class I started feeling that way. Decided to excuse myself to the bathroom. As I was walking down the hall, my vision went black and I had to literally feel for the bathroom door. No idea how I made it in there without fully passing out but it's funny how self conscious I am to do that. I sat on the floor for a few minutes before going back to class. 🙃

[–] Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've joked about how if I was choking in a crowded restaurant that I would just die because I'd be too embarrassed to draw attention to myself.

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[–] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been in some scary situations, but I don't think anything has ever compared to the fear + PANIC feeling of getting separated and then lost from my parents inside a busy store when I was a child. I feel like I can handle fear and get ahold of it pretty quickly as an adult, even in dangeroussituations, but panic is an entirely different animal and as a kid you have zero reference for that kinda thing.

[–] capital_sniff@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well now I feel bad for laughing at the leashed children.

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[–] fekdifeyeno@lemmy.cafe 9 points 1 week ago
[–] TheWeirdestCunt@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago

Almost spun out because I hit a pothole, luckily the oncoming lane was empty and I managed to recover though

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

When my son had scarlet fever.

[–] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago

Going from an employee to self-employed was fucking terrifying. It felt like risking my entire future even though I rationally knew that not to be the case.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 points 1 week ago

Had to jump about 30 feet off a cruise ship (into water of course) in a "gumby" suit as part of training to work on said ship

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