Awesome Close Calls

Skiing can be incredibly fun – but it can also be quite dangerous. Big mountain skier Owen Leeper shows how scary things can get with this first-person footage of an avalanche that started beneath his skis as he headed down a rocky chute. Fortunately, he survived with only minor injuries. Here it is from another angle.

While performing an acro-paragliding stunt over Spain, Kevin Philipp found himself in the worst possible situation. His lines became tangled due to turbulence, and he plummeted towards the Earth. After a failed attempt to deploy his rescue chute, he managed to deploy it manually about one second before impact.

We’ve seen some pretty epic LEGO railroad builds over the years. This simple figure eight track won’t win any awards for complexity, but it’s the precise length of its train that makes it noteworthy. Every time it passes through the intersection, it comes within millimeters of ramming into itself. Ramp up the anxiety at 10x speed.

Longboarding down steep and twisty roads looks like quite the thrill. But it can also be quite dangerous. Boarder Josh Neuman compiled this video of 10 of his most butt-clenching downhill moments. Between the blind corners, steep drop-offs, roadside hazards, and unexpected vehicles, this is one pastime best left to the experts.

During the 2020 Portuguese MotoGP race, championship rider Aron Canet had a crazy close call that could have ended up much worse. Not only did he fall off of his bike at speed, but he also slid down the track for what seemed like forever, and narrowly avoided being run over by multiple racers. This guy should play the lottery.

Gursk3 recently took his first hang glider flight. However, something went horribly wrong, and his safety harness wasn’t connected. Through a sheer feat of arm strength and will, he managed to hang on and survive the 2+ minute flight with relatively minor injuries.

Footage from the 2017 Rally Islas Canarias, during which driver Tomasz Kasperczyk overshot the line coming around a bend and could have easily tumbled down a deadly cliff. Thankfully, unlike some rally courses, there’s a guard rail on this course.

Incredible video out of Korea of a tractor trailer losing control on the highway, balancing on just half of his wheels, then miraculously landing safely back on the road. Either the guy behind the wheel was a stunt driver, or his cargo was a bunch of self-balancing scooters.

You know when you’re driving down the highway and you see giant spools or pipes on the back of a truck? Admit it. You’ve always wondered what would happen if one of them got loose. Well, here you go. You’re welcome.

If you’ve contemplated using that drone you got for Christmas to shoot action footage of athletes or race cars, DON’T. This short video from last year’s FIS Alpine slalom at Madonna di Campiglio shows skier Marcel Hirscher as he’s nearly taken out by an errant UAV.

In 2014, pilot Mark Penell encountered a problem that would have caused lesser men to panic. His single-seat Rans S-10 airplane lost its propeller mid-flight. But Mark kept his cool, and brought the plane in for a safe landing without its primary means of propulsion.

It’s every rally driver’s worst nightmare – an animal runs into the middle of the course. Most of the time it results in a nasty collision or the car running off the road to avoid it. Not so for this scrappy pup, and equally lucky rally drivers, who must have someone looking out for them.

Last year, YouTuber TurboFoz gunned it through the tunnels of California’s Angeles Crest Highway in his tuned 2004 Subaru. He didn’t realize there was a sharp curve ahead, and ended up going off a cliff. Fortunately, he was okay, though we’re sure his underwear was not.

While performing a stunt, a seaplane was coming in for a touch-and-go landing on a lake, when it hit an unidentified object in the water, forcing the plane to spin out as it touched down. Fortunately, nobody was injured, but the plane required some repairs.

While most people install dashcams in their cars in order to record accidents, they’ve also been known to capture other events. For instance, this small plane made an emergency landing in Irvine, California, and taxied down the street along with the rest of traffic.

2012 footage of a Lockheed SP-2H Neptune making a nail-biting emergency landing. Not only did the pilot have to deal without landing gear on one side, but with strong crosswinds. Had the moving propeller hit the ground at speed, it could have been disasterous.

Paul Yearly was driving his Mustang when he inexplicably passed out. Incredibly, he managed to avoid traffic or any major obstacles, and is fine now. If you’re wondering, Paul records video so he can post bad drivers on his YouTube channel.

A pedestrian walking along a road in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil had the scare of a lifetime when an out of control truck headed straight for him, hurling hundreds of bottles of soda at him along the way. Incredibly, he escaped unharmed.

The monster truck responsible for making part of the audience have their lives flash before their eyes at this rally in Reynosa goes by the name of Perro Loco. Skip to the 1:18 mark to see this Crazy Dog almost go off its leash.