How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Lance Black said elsewhere, not written here
On a flight between Beijing and London with Team GB divers. There was a fire on the plane. We landed on a long-abandoned strip in Siberia. Two days later, the same flight attendants told us we had beaten the odds by surviving.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 June 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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Being about nine metres away from a polar bear. In northern Canada, a young polar bear was very intrigued by our food. I was flying the drone at the time and the polar bear looked up and started paying attention, so then we flew the drone further away and he followed it while we got into our vehicles.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 September 2023 source ↗
A flight from Paraguay to South Africa that went badly wrong. The plane nearly fell out of the sky and the oxygen masks dropped. People were screaming but the pilot saved the day, and then apparently never flew again.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2025 source ↗
Vanessa Redgrave British actress and activist
In April 2015 I nearly died, as my heart was finding it too difficult to keep my smoke-destroyed lungs going.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 September 2018 source ↗
Emma Bunton British singer
When I was seven or eight, I got run over and was actually under the car, which was scary. I just ran out; it was totally my fault. I was fine – all I got was a tiny scar on my knee.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 June 2021 source ↗

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