>Volcano erupts in Indonesia
>Locals don't notice because they have shit weather radar
>747 flies through the dust cloud
>All 4 engines get filled with volcanic ash and burn out
>"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
>Spend 12 minutes gliding, dropping 23,500 feet in the process
>The pilots are preparing to be the first 747 ever to attempt a water landing
>Finally one of the engines restarts
>But ILS is offline
>Windscreen is completely opaque due to ash, no way to clean it
>Manage to land running entirely on instruments
>Fatalities: 0
>Injuries: 0
Survivors: 263
When I was a kid, there was a TV show on the Discovery Channel called "Mayday" where they would reenact famous plane accidents. The episode about this particular incident (Falling from the sky) was my absolute favorite.
One thing anon left out is that they didn't actually realize what was going on at the time, and they witnessed something called "Saint Elmo's Fire" which looks a bit like the way they show stars whizzing past the Enterprise in Star Trek when they warp. So these pilots were not only flying blind and lame, but the whole time were seeing something that looked like they had just been teleported to another dimension out their window.
Edit: It turns out the full episode is on YouTube. Enjoy!
That show is now called Air Crash Investigation and it still airs! Its my favourite, I highly recommend catching up the recent seasons
According to the wikipedia I linked, the name varies based on where the show is aired. In Canada and the US, it's still called Mayday