What insane ways has the universe indicated that it could kill you at any time?

I once had an elevator drop more than 10 floors rapidly before deciding to work properly.

Let me explain. This happened to me at the Land Title Building in downtown Philadelphia.

I was visiting a friend on the 20th floor, and around floor 15, the elevator suddenly makes a

fatigued groaning sound before dropping. Fast. Scared the ever-loving pee out of me as I rocketed down to

floor 5 before it slowed, stopped and reversed course back up again. I noped. I hit the button for every floor so the

fricking thing would just let me off, and I walked down the stairs and out of the building.

I never did get to visit my friend. What random horrors as the universe subjected you to,

only to say, ha ha, got ya, right before the point of no return. And don't tell me this didn't or can't happen.

It happened. When I was 10, I was on a helicopter visiting an island off the south coast of

England. Everything was going smoothly until the helicopter turns on its side and proceeds to nose

dive for a good 10 seconds toward the sea. Needless to say, this had everyone screaming and scared

crapless. The helicopter suddenly levels off and the pilot comes onto the PA system and says,

Oh, sorry people, I could have sworn I spotted a dolphin, won't happen again. I now hate helicopters.

I think I've played Battlefield 3 with this guy. I'm a private pilot.

One time I was nearing the airport to land.

I hit the switch to put the landing gear down and only two lights showed up,

indicating that the two main gears were down, but the nose gear was not coming down as well.

So, if all else fails, I'd either have to raise the gear and do a belly landing,

or do a landing with only two gears, which would be even more dangerous. But first, I went back away from the airport to try and work out the problem, if possible. I tried raising the gear and re-lowering it. Same problem. Two lights, but no nose gear. Because the gear comes down from the force of gravity, I tried pulling a few Gs to force it down.

Nothing.

I tried wiggling the rudder since the turning mechanism is connected to the nose gear.

...