Tell me about your most unpleasant and/or scary airline flight

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

I was commuting between New York City and Washington DC, a couple decades ago (worked in NYC, weekends in a DC suburb).

I spent a few months taking a puddle jumper from JFK to National and back, and had a really bouncy flight one day - as in the flight attendant was actually thrown off her feet and onto one of the seats. So the next bunch of tickets I bought were from LaGuardia to Dulles on a real jet.

My first flight, there was so much turbulence the entire flight that the plane was shaking like a toy in an angry dog’s mouth. The flight attendants had to sit down. The plane couldn’t climb above the turbulence because the flight was so short.

So I spent the entire 45 minutes (hours?) alternately counting (hey, it’s mentally soothing) and thinking “dammit, I took this jet to AVOID turbulence and this happens anyway???”.

Then there was the flight from Dulles to San Francisco for a business trip. Crazy, wacked out day at work, no time for lunch. Food on the flight, supposedly - only the left broke from the galley to the passenger area, or some such lame crap. We got free movie headsets (this was when they charged extra for those) as a compensation, and a 25 dollar discount certificate for a future flight, which of course I never used. Fuckyouverymuch, United (in fact every really bad flight I’ve been on was United). Finally got to the hotel, and thank heaven their room service was 24 hours, as it was 10 PM by then (1 AM, my time) and I’d have eaten the bellhop if they hadn’t promised me real food.

Then there was the flight from San Diego to Washington National. Nonstop to Philadelphia then Philly to DC. Except when we landed at Philly they said everyone had to deplane so they could do something-or-other to the cabin.

Then on the walkway to the terminal, they let the other shoe drop: not just deplane briefly, but go get your luggage and we’ll arrange for buses at some point when we feel like it because the plane isn’t going anywhere.

An hour and a half later (during which time we couldn’t risk taking the kids (9, 8 and 5) to the bathroom because the buses were leaving any minute and you don’t want to miss the bus, do you???, we’re finally on the bus, which was driving WELL in excess of the speed limit (in sub-prime weather too). I seriously considered calling 911 to get the bus pulled over because I was afraid the driver was going to kill us all.

Obviously we did arrive safely despite the bus driver’s efforts, at something like 3 in the morning.

OK, that trip was American, not United.

62

I used to travel to Indonesia in the 80s & 90s a lot as an ind. businessman. I was there during both econ./currency collapses. Some months after one in which Garuda collapsed & sent all their U.S. passengers to KAL, I met a fellow who told me of his last flight back to L.A. His KAL 747 left Seoul & climbed to altitude. They were more than one hour out over the ocean when all four engines shut down. He said he never experienced such silence in his whole life. Nothing happened except that the lights went out. No stew., no captain spoke, the passengers were all silent in fear.
He said it went on an unbelievable amount of time & he thought the end was surely near. Then, the flight path of the aircraft changed and shortly thereafter, all four engines returned to life. They then ascended slowly to full altitude and the flight carried on as though nothing at all happened - and no crew would comment.
I asked him if the flight path changed was a dive and he said it definitely was so. I told him that is the last and only hope of restarting jet engines in flight and this time, it worked. At that time, KAL was unquestionably the most incompetent and dangerous airline on earth. The most likely explanation was “finger problems” which is when the pilots accidentally shut off fuel to the engines.

63

*Dear Jesus/Allah/Hormuzd/Yemaya/Pacha Mama/FSM:

Thank you for mercifully delivering me from high excitement when I entrust myself to being conveyed inside a large beer can at preposterous speeds and altitudes. Bring in the crying babies, broken tray tables, mild turbulence, and fees, go ahead please.*

64

In front of us (my husband and me) were seated an adult woman, a teenager, and a toddler. The toddler sang, “Skiddle-a-dink-a-dink-a-dink” over and over and over again. Cute the first time, but after the thousandth…

Finally, the teenager whined, “Ma, make her stop singing.”

“She’s your daughter. You make her stop.”

65

Hi all! Been lurking (enjoying!) for a couple of years, and finally joined just to respond to this thread.

I should not travel. Ever. This has been confirmed by a number of my employees who refuse to board the same plane as me. There are several examples of my travel mishaps, but here are a few highlights:

About 1987, I was on a Northwest flight from Detroit to Milwaukee. Takeoff seemed normal, then suddenly we began climbing at an alarming rate. After several seconds, we began dropping altitude at an even more alarming rate. My seatbelt was a bit loose, and I rose about 2 inches out of my seat during the decline. We eventually stabilized, and the flight continued without further incident. When I got home, I learned on the national evening news that we had a “near miss” with another aircraft. I also had substantial bruising on my upper thighs from the seatbelt.

Late 1990’s, I was on the Orlando runway awaiting takeoff when the plane’s engines revved, we lurched forward and took a hard left. Out the right side of the plane where I was sitting, I saw another plane land on the runway just ahead of where we were just sitting. The pilot actually came on and told us that they erroneously cleared another plane to land on our runway.

About a year later, I was on a small plane from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach in bad weather. As we were approaching the runway in Myrtle Beach, the plane seemed to be struggling to stay level. Suddenly the plane tipped to the right, we bounced several times on the runway and it felt like the plane was turning counter-clockwise. We heard the engines roaring and felt the plane struggling to get some air underneath it. For what seemed like an eternity, we were being lurched back and forth until the plane became airborne again. The pilot eventually came on, told us we experienced a shear wind, and we would try another landing soon. The plane was silent. Attempt number two was nearly as traumatic, and once again we were airborne. After several minutes, the pilot came on and said, “Folks, I just shit my pants. I’ve requested to return to Charlotte, I’m not attempting that again.”

So, back to Charlotte we went. I was with a group of nine friends to enjoy a golf vacation. By the time I boarded the next plane to Myrtle Beach, I was too drunk to remember whether that flight had any issues. :stuck_out_tongue:

66

Well, there was that time Brian Williams, Harrison Ford, and I were flying over this golf course in southern California when we got shot down by Boba Fett.

…although, in truth, the worst flight I ever had was the one where the screaming baby behind me would not shut up for love nor money for two honkin’ hours.

Reading back over this thread, now I feel a little ashamed for whining about it.

67

I read your original thread and I think I have an idea. Since Food poisoning takes 6 hours from ingestion to ejecta, it’s unlikely that anything on the airplane caused the problem. The ill people may have been on a previous flight together where a bad meal was served, or had a meal in the same place before getting on the plane. I’ve frequently been to conferences where I had a breakfast at the conference hotel and recognized people from the hotel dining room on the plane with me, even though we weren’t flying together.

68

I would be tempted to categorically deny that a pilot would ever use language like that in a cabin announcement, but it seems just possible.

69

I was flying from California to Boston and had to made a change over and I had to walk a way to get the gate . As I was walking under a tunnel I got a feeling that something was not right with the airplane I was to get on. Our plane was in the air for about half a hour and the captain came out and walked over to my seat and looked out window at the wing ! Then he when back and got on the speaker and told us that an engine light is out and we have to made an emergency landing at an airport . I could not believe it , I picked up on that something was going to go wrong . We had to wait for a few hours and were told to reboard the airplane as the problem been fixed. Everyone looked very worried the rest of the flight and people were not talking as much . It seem like a long flight to Boston and I had to fly back home to California . :eek:

70

Yeah. Sure. You must me psychic.

71

I had a feeling you were going to say that.

72

I agree with the other poster who said those people had some bad food on a previous flight, or at a restaurant they dined at prior to boarding.

When I was in high school, I was on a Cessna that hit some turbulence, and I accidentally unlocked the door.

73

I really could care less if you believe me or not ! People that know me do and that is what count .

74

I was telling Ms. DrumBum about this thread and she reminded of the vacation we took to Kenya. We were on a small plane headed for the safari camp and the pilot let us know we were about to land on the dirt strip. Just a few feet above the ground, the pilot cursed and yanked the plane up. When he got things settled he told us that some cattle had wandered into our path. :eek:

75

There was the flight from São Paulo to Atlanta where I was next to a 300+ lb guy spilling into my seat who ate an entire bag of chips, fell asleep and began loudly snoring before we’d even taken off, and then farted in his sleep for almost the entire 9-hour duration of the flight. That was a bad flight.

76

I never have the fish on a day I fly.

77

Maybe the “loose item” was the co-pilot decompensating. Toys in the attic…items loose in the galley.

78

I’ve flown on Aeroflot - twice.

79

Most nervous I’ve ever been on a flight was a transatlantic leaving from Madrid. Perfect weather the entire trip. Plane was in tip-top shape. Landing was textbook. The entire flight was devoid of angry drunks or loud children.

But it did take place on the second or third day after they lifted the flying restrictions after 9/11.

When we landed, the entire passenger compartment was on their feet, cheering.

80

Most nervous I’ve ever been was when flying in a tiny bushplane with my dad some 35 years ago, in Northern Quebec - we were flying into a small lake for a fly-in, canoe-out camping trip (my dad was (and still is) an enthusiastic outdoorsman, and these trips were several week long adventures).

First thing I noticed was the plane was in crappy shape; next thing I noticed was that we had no actual seats - only the pilot had a seat. We sat in the back, on our packs.

Last think I noticed was the sheer number of empty whiskey bottles rolling around in the back - and the half-full one the pilot had in the map holder up front.

Then, we took off, and almost immediately ran into lousy weather - the tiny plane was bounced all over the sky. Not being in a seat, and so not actually strapped to anything, we bounced around inside the plane - at one point, I nearly joined the pilot in his seat. I was almost too sick to be as frightened as I probably should have been …

… and then we landed, on a lake that looked the size of a postage stamp. It was full of stumps and rocks, which the pilot had to jig and jag between.

Well, we survived it. :smiley: