#i decided against going into the MCAS/737 MAX thing because of the fatality aspect

[bucketsofgiggles]

Wait tell me something about commercial aviation safety that sounds cool.

okay so like, the engines being Important is an obvious statement right? because not only do they make the Plane Go but they're also the plane's electrical power plant. it's why you've got cabin lighting and A/C and flight attendants can make you food of various quality, and also, ya know, let the pilots have instrumentation. and modern aircraft can fly safely on only one engine! granted, your pilot will be landing that thing at the closest suitable airport ASAP, but it'll all in all be a fairly standard landing, probably just earlier and likely at a different place than you were planning.

but what if you lose both? like US Airways Flight 1549? i mean, beyond the fact you're now in a Giant Glider, the pilots are now flying said Giant Glider without all but the most basic, analogue instruments, right?

nope! (unless your pilots panic/are busy trying to keep the plane in control/incapacitated, to which then you have Bigger Problems, Sorry). there's the Ram Air Turbine, which will deploy automatically and use the air blowing past it to make electricity, though it'll be prioritized for cockpit instruments only. there's also the Auxiliary Power Unit or APU which has to be deployed by the pilots, but gives them even more power than the Ram Air Turbine because, if you've flown, i guarantee you've been on a plane that's used it, because that's the plane's power source on the ground when the engines are off, such as when at the gate.

if Flight 1549 sounds a bit familiar, that's because it's better known as the Miracle on the Hudson, AKA the A320 that landed on the Hudson River in NYC in 2009 after losing both engines to bird strikes at low altitude. and among the many brilliant things Captain Chelsea "Sully" Sullenberger did in that accident was almost immediately start the APU, which gave him and First Officer Jeff Skiles way more instrumentation a lot faster. in fact the emergency checklist made after Flight 1549 (because checklists for dual engine failure before it assumed you were at higher altitude, and thus assumed you had much more time to troubleshoot/try and re-start the engines) is pretty much just everything Sully and Skiles did based on pure instinct during that emergency, with starting the APU one of the first instructions. it's colloquially called the Sully Checklist for that reason.

anyway here are some more links to Wikipedia articles about really interesting air accidents (FYI none of these have fatalities so don't worry if you're sensitive to that sort of thing!):

TACA Flight 110: Proto-Flight 1549 effectively, a 737 loses both engines during final approach into New Orleans after hail ingestion into the engines. Captain Carlos Dardano (who is worth a look up on his own, this dude is a badass) safely brought the airliner to a stop on a levee.

British Airways Flight 5390: First Officer Alastair Atchison lands a BAC One-Eleven alone after Captain Tim Lancaster is partially ejected from the aircraft after the cockpit windscreen on his side is blown out due to improper maintenance. to an airport F/O Atchison is unfamiliar with. while also overflying London, some of the busiest airspace in the world.

Air Canada Flight 143 AKA The Gimli Glider: another loss of engine power, this time due to incorrect fuel loading due to Canada's then-recent switch from Imperial to Metric. pilots landed the plane safely at a closed down airfield that had been converted to a drag racing course. one of the most famous airplane crashes.

Federal Express Flight 705: (TW: attempted murder-suicide) okay this is technically a cargo flight, but it's one of the most badass displays of flying ever. a disgruntled Federal Express employee attempts to hijack the flight and crash it for life insurance payout and also revenge (he was targeting Federal Express' hub). despite inflicting all three pilots (this is old enough that this plane still had a flight engineer) with severe head wounds, they all fought off the attacker and landed safely, while also flying a fully-loaded DC-10 frighter like a fucking fighter jet to throw the attacker off-balance.

i also recommend the Mentour Pilot YouTube channel. it's run by an active 737 pilot who's also trains new pilots, so there's tons of good insider knowledge and he breaks down complicated aviation concepts into plain language very well. his videos are very well done and i always learn something new, even with accidents and incidents i've read extensively about.