The Jet Blue jet, I remember the story - Jet was coming into Kennedy in NYC, brought the gear down, and they discovered a small problem - the gear had turned all the way to one side. They went through the whole procedure to get the nose gear pointed the right way, with NO luck. They flew around for a while, to get the fuel state down to a minimum (and of course while this was happening, all the news crews came out to the airport), ad when the time came, the pilot landed the aircraft, and held the nose JUST off the pavement for as long as he could - you are seeing the results of the nose gear touching down. I gather they managed to grind about 6" of the gear off

As for the "Car under the back of the truck" scenario. Many years ago, a friend was on a rescue squad - we were on our way to someplace by his house, when we came upon an accident scene that had been toned out oh, 30 minutes before, and his chief flagged him down for some help (and another friend and I got tagged for perimeter control - not much of a crowd...)

A car had done the "Under the back of a stopped truck" thing - the driver (licensed ONE day) was passing on the shoulder, came over the hill, and there was a parked truck. He tried to swerve back.

He ALMOST made it - it took about 1/4" of the right side of his skull off - mostly the flesh, and some of the bone - he lived. His father, who was in the passenger seat wasn't so lucky. Let's put it this way - the rescue crew said "I know we're supposed to work like the guy is alive, but there is nothing left above his shoulder blades - let's not rush this"

Had to be the bloodiest wreck I ever saw, and that's pretty bad, even though I'm NOT a first responder - My parents lived three doors off a corner that averaged 2 MVAs a WEEK when I was a kid - finally got a traffic light when there were two fatal MVAs in one week. Living there is where I learned to appreciate a GOOD first aid kit, and learned that first aid kits should have serious trauma bandages in them