---
title: "Crash Diary Podcast: What it Feels Like to Survive an Airplane Crash"
description: "Mike Prichinello nearly died in an airplane next to the Lt. Governor of New York. This is his story."
date: "2017-11-09"
modified: "2017-12-05"
authors:
  - name: "Mike Guy"
    job_title: "Editor-at-Large"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/mike-guy"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/article/15924/crash-diary-podcast-what-it-feels-like-to-survive-an-airplane-crash"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "airplane"
  - "Aviation"
  - "Car Crash"
  - "Plane Crash"
  - "Podcast"
---

# Crash Diary Podcast: What it Feels Like to Survive an Airplane Crash

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/11/gettyimages-498544574.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

For people like Mike Prichinello, the cofounder of [Classic Car Club of Manhattan](<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjzhe3l9LHXAhVnjFQKHeYmDxkQFggpMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fclassiccarclubmanhattan.com%2F&usg=AOvVaw3ipVgw1lokS9DNrr8BY7f8>), the hardest part of flying might be the fact that he's not at the controls. A motorcycle freak, gentleman racer, adrenaline junky, and lifelong frequent visitor to emergency rooms around the world, Prichinello is a firm believer that risks were there to be taken—consequences be damned.

In 1998, Prichinello was a communications aide to Betsy McCaughey, at the time the Lt. Governor of New York State under George Pataki. [In this episode of "Crash Diary](<https://soundcloud.com/user-705966783/crash-diary-vol-1-mike-prichinello-survives-an-airplane-crash>)," Prichinello walks us through one fateful rainy day in March that ended in Buffalo, New York, with him, the Lt. Governor, and several other people plunging into a cornfield in a six-seat twin-engine Beechcraft.

Prichinello, who has crashed everything from a bicycle to a motorcycle to a Mazda Miata, describes what it's like to survive something that usually ends in death, and to do it, for once, as a helpless passenger.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fuser-705966783%2Fcrash-diary-vol-1-mike-prichinello-survives-an-airplane-crash

![message-editor%2F1510245177279-carradio-art-4.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/message-editor/1510245177279-carradio-art-4.jpg>)
**The Drive**

## Author
A former editor at *Details* and *Rolling Stone* and the digital director at *Maxim*, Mike Guy is a longtime contributor to *Road & Track*, *Playboy* and *Men's Journal*. His writing on motorsports is collected in the *Best American Sportswriting* anthology.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/mrmikeguy>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/mrmikeguy>)