close calls

17 Stories

Runaway Saw Blade Narrowly Misses Oregon Man

It slammed into front of store moments after he entered

(Newser) - It's a narrow escape many commentators have likened to scenes from the Final Destination movies. Surveillance video shows a runaway saw blade slamming into the front of a convenience store in Eugene, Oregon, moments after Shane Reimche entered the building. The blade can be seen spinning through the parking...

NASA Watched 'Helplessly' as 2 Satellites Got Perilously Close

Space agency's TIMED spacecraft, defunct Russian satellite came within 65 feet of each other last week

(Newser) - Last week, a NASA satellite "almost got clobbered high above Earth." That's the scoop from Space.com , which reports on a near collision last Wednesday between the space agency's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) research spacecraft, which has been in space studying data since...

US Airlines Are Having Lots of Close Calls

'New York Times' investigation discoverers nearly 50 last month alone

(Newser) - On the bright side, no US airline has had a fatal air crash since 2009, the longest such streak on record, reports the New York Times . The flip side? Close calls are happening with what the newspaper calls "alarming" regularity. The newspaper's investigation, based on a review of...

Watch Guy Not Tell His Wife There's a Shark Behind Her

Ricky Tribble didn't want Malea Tribble to panic as she paddleboarded to the safety boat he was on

(Newser) - A paddleboarder raising money for charity as part of a long-distance relay had quite the close call last weekend when a shark appeared to be stalking her in the water. WPBF reports that Malea Tribble of Fort Lauderdale was about halfway through the 80-mile-plus journey from Bimini in the Bahamas...

Huge Rock Slide Misses Village by a Whisker

Residents of Brienz, Switzerland, evacuated last month, just in case

(Newser) - Residents of the tiny Swiss village of Brienz had to evacuate last month because geologists feared a massive rock slide was imminent. The geologists were proved to be correct overnight Thursday, though the massive rock slide stopped short of the village by a matter of feet. Remarkable images show the...

Cop Narrowly Avoids Getting Crushed by Speeding Car

Crash in Fairfax County, Virginia, involved teen going 'well over 120mph," officials say

(Newser) - A Virginia police officer is shaken but lucky to be alive after narrowly escaping being crushed by a speeding car in Fairfax County. WUSA9 reports on the accident on the southbound Fairfax County Parkway, where the officer had made a traffic stop just after noon on Monday. A dashcam video...

'It Looked Like He Was Basically Sliding Down the Mountain'

Man records snowboarder, skier caught in avalanche at New Hampshire's Mount Washington

(Newser) - RJ Phipps was hiking up Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington over the weekend with his wife when he took out his camera to shoot a snowboarder and skier. Within seconds, Phipps watched as the two men were nearly engulfed by an avalanche, and he caught it all on video . The...

Woman's Close Encounter With Boulder Has Hearts Pounding

Giant rock came crashing through her Oahu home, narrowly missing her

(Newser) - A woman on the Hawaiian island of Oahu got a most terrifying welcome to her new home. Caroline Sasaki was walking into the living room over the weekend when a huge crash shocked her and her family members: A 5-by-5-foot boulder had barreled down a hill and right through the...

JFK Has a Close Call: 'Cancel Takeoff Clearance!'

American plane taxied across runway in front of departing Delta 737

(Newser) - The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after an airliner crossed the path of another about to take off Friday night at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The crew of a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 was able to abort takeoff, CNN reports, and the plane stopped less than 1,000...

Somehow, a Driver Survived This Crash

Video and images from scene of Connecticut accident show guardrail that impaled vehicle

(Newser) - Looking at these images from a car accident last week along a Connecticut highway, your first thought will likely be, "Well, that doesn't look good." Officials from a local fire department near Hartford, however, say the driver is A-OK, despite a guardrail that impaled the car and...

Guy Finds Lost $1M Lottery Ticket in Parking Lot

Close call for an almost unlucky Tennessee man

(Newser) - No one was more excited than Nick Slatten when he discovered he'd hit it big last week in the Tennessee lottery—and no one was more frantic than Nick Slatten when he subsequently lost the winning ticket. Slatten, who lives in Sparta, had picked up a Tennessee Cash ticket...

Boy Was Building Tree House When Screw Entered His Brain

Doctor says Darius Foreman was 'a millimeter from death's door'

(Newser) - Johns Hopkins' chief of pediatric neurosurgery tells WJLA that young Darius Foreman "was a millimeter from death's door." The seventh-grader was building a tree house Jan. 20 in Maryland when he fell from a branch and a 5-foot board landed on his head. His cousins' mom came...

He Heard a Report, Checked a Pocket ... and Now Has $24.1M

Jimmie Smith had winning lottery ticket in shirt pocket for nearly a year

(Newser) - Always check your shirt and pants pockets before you throw your clothes in the wash, or even before you hang them back up in your closet, especially if you've recently purchased a lottery ticket. Jimmie Smith found that out this spring when he was watching the evening news in...

Cruise Ship Just Misses Jet Skiers
Cruise Ship Just 
Misses Jet Skiers
VIDEO
Mar 13, 2017 7:21 AM CDT

Cruise Ship Just Misses Jet Skiers

Young women rescued right before Carnival Magic barreled into them off Florida coast

(Newser) - "There's people on a Jet Ski … right in front of the boat, and now we're going to hit the Jet Ski." That's an observer's play-by-play in a YouTube video now making the rounds after a very close call in Florida waters over the...

Harrison Ford's Harrowing 45 Seconds Captured on Video

He mistakenly flies low over airliner

(Newser) - Video released Tuesday shows a plane piloted by Harrison Ford suddenly and mistakenly flying low over an airliner with 110 people aboard at a Southern California airport. The 45 seconds of soundless video show the 74-year-old star's potentially serious mishap at John Wayne Airport in Orange County last week,...

Tiny Kitten Rescued From Recycling Plant Conveyer Belt

He was spotted by a worker sorting recyclables

(Newser) - A worker at a Northern California recycling center saved a tiny kitten from certain death when he spotted the animal heading down a conveyor belt. Tony Miranda tells television station KCRA he was sorting recyclables Tuesday when he found the pink-nosed, white-pawed cat between the debris and scooped it up....

Women Run Over by Train, Survive, Flee the Scene

Cops have identified 2 alleged trespassers

(Newser) - A camera mounted on a 14,000-ton freight train in southern Indiana captured what was likely a heart-stopping moment for the engineer: the sight of two women lying down on the tracks right before the train ran them over. Even though the engineer thought he had struck and killed the...

17 Stories