is it safe to fly during an earthquake?

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

You mean right under the Enrico Fermi II nuclear plant?

2-3 miles south.

 

[Ghery]

The Loma Prieta quake in 1989 (6 miles from our house in San Jose) allowed me to calibrate what it takes to wake me up. Anything less than a 5.0 and I sleep right through it. I was in my boss's office in Cupertino when that one hit. I'd rather not experience that again.

When the 7.1 one hit near Olympia a number of years ago I was on the east coast, so I missed it. My CFI, however, was airborne at the time and was asked by the tower at KOLM to fly down the runway and check for damage. He didn't see any. When you are in the air you don't notice anything, it's when you are on the ground that things get "entertaining".

 

[Pilawt]

it's when you are on the ground that things get "entertaining".

The 1994 Northridge quake wrecked several freeways. As a result what was normally a 45-minute drive from our firm's main office in the San Fernando Valley to our branch in Palmdale became a 3-plus-hour ordeal over a winding mountain road. So I used a rented Saratoga to tote office equipment and files back and forth between Van Nuys and Lancaster -- 20 minutes each way.

A few days after the initial quake, I was taxiing out in the Saratoga when a sharp little M4.5 aftershock hit. It felt like I'd blown a tire or two (or three), but I knew what it was.

I keyed the mic and told Van Nuys Ground I wanted to file a pilot report for moderate turbulence on the east taxiway.

 

[Shepherd]

Denver, 1969/1970 had a pretty good earthquake.
I slept through it.
I didn't know anything had happened until the officer of the day came through looking for damage.