Never a good call to hear. It usually comes out "Boeing 737 with 186 souls on board having hydraulic problems with 4,000 gallons of fuel on board". It goes on to say the runway and how many minutes out it is.
The real bad ones dump fuel or cant get Landing gear down. Strange but Ive never heard an engine out, let alone two, but have heard engine problems. And have never heard a bird strike but it is a big problem at airports. Its extremely unusual for commercial aircraft to have serious problems but it does happen. Most crashes are due to Pilot error. These things are built like Toyotas. They fill em with food, gas, and luggage again and get them right back in the air.
But when one has to turn around, or especially a divert, you never know if its the big one coming. I think Sully was flying an AB 320 If I remember right. Its a very dependable airplane which is a good thing cause Spirit Airlines flies it.
Scarriest conversation I've ever heard on a radio...
"We went out to Mobile to do a few ILS and VOR approaches, nothing exciting, and as we're headed to NPA for some PARs, I hear what I thought was the scariest call of my life. "All aircraft, radio silence, Navy 097, say intent and souls on board". I knew that's not a phrase you hear when things are okay. They try calling 097 two more times, and suddenly, the next call is to us. "Red Knight 024, tune [Can't recall the frequency] fly 170, and relay a message". I've got the plane, the IP takes the comms, trying to get a hold of them. I hear a VERY broken response "097 is near the beachline. Squaking 7700. No VHF. No cabin lights (It was about 2100 at this point, pitch black out). Intermittent power loss." That's the last we heard, but ATC had them on radar. They gave me a new series of vectors, I complied, thinking they were getting us out of the way of this emergency. "Red Knight 024, helicopter should be at your 12 o'clock, 6 miles." Oh hell, WE'RE the SAR asset for now! And then I learned that I was wrong earlier, the SCARIEST call I have ever heard came next. "Red Knight 024, radar contact with the helicopter lost. Your 11 O'Clock, 2 miles." My heart sank. I looked up and all I saw was black water... And then, about 2 miles ahead, on the beach, I see two brief flashes of a strobe light. I'm in the back, so I give the IP up front the controls to get us in closer. He can’t see anything, but I give him instructions to circle over what I think was the spot. One turn. Nothing. Two turns. Nothing. Three... red and green! The position lights come on, VERY faint (I could barely see them at first, and we were only about 1,000 feet above them). I tell him I've got them in sight, and we relay to ATC. They want an exact fix, and the IP still can’t see them, so I talk him out, into a turn, and put us immediately overhead to mark for ATC. As we're relaying it back we get a very broken transmission on guard "Red Knight 024, 097. We see you overhead. We're down safe, please relay to Lucky Base we're all okay". We send that on to ATC to make the call, and ask if there's anything else they need, and if they want us on station. They say no, proceed with your flight, and as we head for NPA for our approaches, we see a 60 coming down the coast to the site. "
