D’oh. :smack: I had wanted to add this post to this thread instead of the other one. Too many darn dope windows open at once…
There’s a play called Charlie Victor Romeo (a.k.a. CVR, cockpit voice recorder) that was put on here a few years ago which reenacted several plane crashes, including that one. Utterly riveting. The play has been revived lately, and I think they might tour with it - if you get a chance, see it. It’s a stunning exposition of humans at their best and worst under deadly stress.
mischievous
Oh, gosh, this thread has been ever so much fun…
… hmmm… should we stick to just commercial airliners or throw the field open for a few more stories. Maybe not the worst but the notably bad…?
Yikes. The OP’s experience was horrible.
I can’t hear the announcements so when I leave, I ask the ticket-tearer and the flight attendant and/or the gatekeeper (hey, I don’t know their official position names) if this, indeed, is the right flight.
Well, one day, it must’ve been a long night for those workers… after three yes’s from three different people, I was comfortably seated in the plane… only to have the flight attendant inform me that, no, this was actually a flight bound to Jacksonville, FL, not Charlotte. :smack:
Can’t recommend Flyi.com highly enough. They have barcodes on their tickets, which eliminates the whole inconvenient hassle of pretending to read your ticket to make sure you’re on the right flight. :mad:
I am never, ever, ever getting on a plane. Ever.
Coward!
Why should we have all the fun?
When I read the title of this thread, I was all ready to post about my experience of being stuck on the tarmac for three hours in Newark. I can see now that that was kid stuff.
However, I do have a more interesting story to relate about a college friend of mine:
We graduated at the same time, December 1983. I said goodbye to him a day or two before he flew back home, this time for good. His plane “accidentally” wandered over Soviet airspace. It was shot down. A flight can’t go much more wrong than that.
I thought we were all going to complain about seeing Turbulance
Alaska Airlines (which I like, BTW) from Burbank to Seattle-Tacoma, coming home from Christmas with the parents, with Mr. Gratin. We’re on the last flight out of Burbank, should get home around 9:00 or so. It’s a dinner flight, and we’re speculating about what dinner will be, when the pilot announces that he’s hearing from flights ahead of us that there’s some rough air to come, but he’ll do his best to find us the smoothest altitude.
A little later, we’ve started on our pizza-calzone pocket things in their nifty foil bags, and the bumping starts. And continues. And then gets worse, to the point that I’ve stopped eating in order to hold my little glass of Diet Pepsi, which is in danger of flying off the tray. The pilot has come on several times to apologize and let us know he’s still looking, but reports from ahead are not encouraging. We are under seat belt orders, and yet idjits are heading up and down the aisles still, prompting the attendants to call for everyone to take their seats again and again.
The bumping still gets worse, and then the plane makes one of those slewing moves to the right, freeing my stomach from its normal moorings and sending it surging toward my left armpit. And an attendant gets on the intercom and yells,
“We are in a DANGEROUS situation here! Everyone needs to take their seats and fasten their seat belts RIGHT NOW!”
Silence. Gasps. And then people start screaming, including a group of teenage girls behind us, shrill and loud. The plane takes what feels like a ten-thousand-foot freefall DOWN, and half-eaten calzones and drinks go flying, including mine. At least people finally sat down, eliminating my fear of being crushed by one of my fellow passengers.
Never been so scared in my life. We never did find a smooth ride, but it did get better, and when we landed the pilot got a thunderous ovation. I know she had to get people into their seats, but it really seemed like when the attendant started yelling about DANGER, it ratcheted up the tension and panic to a level I’d never experienced.
And I realize it couldn’t have been as big a downward movement as it felt like, but that feeling of falling was terrifying.
-AuGratin
My worst horror stories, horrible mostly because of their repetition, involve being stuck in coach on a transcontinental flight with nothing to eat but a dry, mass-produced, ham and cheese sandwich on a dinner roll.
Well I have to feel sorry for the other people who were on the plane with me.
I was at the Vancouver Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Nanaimo (on Vancouver Island for those of you who don’t know) . I got a magazine, a carton of chocolate milk and a pack of Rollos. I drank the milk, ate the rollos and then it was time to board.
It was one of the smaller planes with two rows of seats on either side. We take off and all seems well at first. We never really get very high because the flight is only 12 minutes.
The turbulance starts. As we keep lurching up and down I can feel my stomache getting more and more queezy. I tried to pinch my lips shut so I wouldnt puke. But then i realised that I probably was going to but I couldnt get the barf bag because everytime I start to let go of my lips, I can feel the barf starting to come up. So I tried to hold on really tightly.
The plane did one big dip and all of a sudden up comes the barf. I try holding on to my mouth to not let it out but it started spraying out both of the corners of my mouth. Because of the pressure that had built up in my mouth it was really moving as it exited the corners of my lips. It sprayed the poor guy next to me, the ladies on the other side of the isle, the two people infront of me and, of course, all over myself.
Do you know what chocolate milk and rollos look like when they are barfed out? They look like chocolate milk and rollos.
Because of the turbulance the flight attendant cant get up to help me. So I had to just sit there with chocolate milk and rollos all over the place, and I mean all over. Finally someone passes down a box of kleenex and those of us with barf on us clean up.
So we all had to get off the plane still wet from all of my barf.
Oh, my –
If they’re daying the “D” word, believe 'em. That don’t do that lightly, precisely because it can cause panic.
But hey, it DID get people in their seats and strapped down, right?
Makes me wonder if the pilot got a warning from someone ahead of him about the conditions.
Days like that are why I tend to keep in the seat and the belt on as much as possible whenever I leave the ground, regardless of what I’m sitting in. Any time stuff goes flying and/or floaty it’s serious. If you’re strapped in and the overhead luggage secured you’ll be fine - it’s when someone is loose and can go flying or floaty that people get hurt.
Since we seem to be on the turbulence stories I’ve got another - this isn’t the airlines, though, it’s from my primary flight training, when I was earning my license.
One of the many tasks a student pilot must successfully complete before getting the prized piece of paper saying they are a “real” pilot is a rite of passage called “The Long Cross Country”. This is a trip of a minimum several hundred miles, with at least two stops at airports other than the airport where the journey starts. It must also be done solo. It comes towards the end of training and incorporates not only basic flying skills but also navigation and trip planning skills.
The airplane I was using for the trip was a Cessna 150. Folks, you just think you’ve been on a small plane… this one really IS small. As it was (and still is, for that matter) an Aerobat it weighed in at 1,010 lbs, 100 lbs heavier than a standard Cessna 150. It contained exactly two seats, with a space behind the seat about as big as two milk crates side-by-side for “cargo”. Because it was an Aerobat, it also had 4-point harnesses for “seat belts”, the straps about two inches wide and strong enough to lift a Buick from back in the days when Detroit still built cars out of steel.
What’s an Aerobat? Well… it’s basically a Cessna 150 that is rated to take up to 6 g’s. Remember this, it becomes important later. Now, as a student I wasn’t performing any manuvers that required anything near that (max g’s I pulled as a student was 2), and really the thing flies exactly the same as any other C-150. It may be capable of airshow stunts, but it’s docile enough for beginners to use as a learning airplane.
Anyhow, I’ll skip over most of the trip, but there are a few more details you need to know. First of all, I was at the airport at 7 am to start this enterprise - had to check weather, pre-flight, my plans had to be reviewed and OK’d by my instructor, and so forth. I took off, flew to Fort Wayne, IN and did some stuff required for this project, took off again, flew to Winnemac, IN. OK, there was some further delay at Winnemac I won’t bore you with, but suffice it to say I’m looking at 1 pm for a Winnemac departure. That’s a long day, I hadn’t had lunch, I’m starting to get tired (didn’t expect it would take this long), and by now the winds are starting to pick up. Pick up enough I’m a little worried. OK, more than a little. I called my instructor and conferred with him. I almost backed out right there, but that would have meant doing the whole trip over at a later date, which didn’t sound very appealing (mind you, if there had been a thunderstorm or the like I would have just said screw it, have someone drive down here and pick me up or at least point me to a good hotel).
OK, so I decided to complete the trip. I get in the teeny-tiny airplane and taxi out to the beginning of the runway. While I am doing this I can feel the wind tugging at the airplane, rocking the wings, and so forth. It’s all under control, mind you, but I’m having to pay attention and stay on top of things. The way the runway is lined up the wind in perpendicular to my planned route off the ground.
Oh, this is going to be interesting…
Let’s see, the wind is from my right… maybe I’ll scootch over to the right side of the runway, just in case, instead of departing from the exact center. (Before anyone comments that maybe that should have been a clue, remember, in this story I am still a student pilot, that is, not fully trained nor fully competant in all matters aviation)
I take off, and for conditions it’s remarkably uneventful. However, it IS a little bit windy, and gusty. And it’s a little itty bitty airplane. Which, being little and light, is easily batted around the skies by moving air. This is starting out bumpy.
Here we go, heading home… and conditions worsen. In addition to some side-to-side action the up-and-down starts going. Lots of up and down. Unlike those of you in tourist class, I am actually able to document my vertical travels. First, I was bouncing up and down maybe 10-50 feet. Then 50-100 feet. By the time I got halfway home it was 500-800 ups and downs.
Maintain a steady altitude? Fuggeddaboutit
I opt to try to for a higher average altitude. I didn’t want to be only a couple thousand feet up, hit a drop, and spang into a thousand foot radio tower or something.
Whenever I hit a down everything loose in the cockpit slammed against the ceiling and stuck there. When the air let me go either it just dropped to the floor again or, if I hit an up, it slammed to the floor. Or onto the seat next to me. Or onto my head. There were pencils and pens and loose change and a soft drink cup I didn’t remember seeing before that had probably been crammed under a seat wandering through my field of vision. My flight plan was scattered about the cockpit - nevermind, the only plan now was to get home in one piece. Checklists and fuel sample cups wandered about freely. On one bump the glove comparment slammed open and the spare fuses exited towards the tail of airplane. I can’t find a smooth layer of air. I’m trying for an airspeed that gives me a slightly better ride and find one marginally better and opt for it.
It is 2 pm. I have been awake since 4 am, and “on duty” for five hours, three of which have been in the cockpit flying. Judging from current position and airspeed I have at least another 40 mintues to go.
Then I have to land this motherfucker.
My eyes start to tear up - and not from the clipboard that whacked me on the back of the head.
The problem is - well, one of the problems - is that I can’t take time out to cry and weep and sob. I mean, I am ALONE up here, it’s just me, there’s no one else, no autopilot – either I am going to fly this airplane or the piloting part just ain’t gonna happen.
This little airplane is about 30 years old. Shit is creaking and groaning around me. I think I can hear the rudder cables rattling in the back where they run through the tail. The plastic headliner over the panel is loose and the far corner does a rat-a-tat against the windshield on the big bumps.
I am starting to get a little scared.
I sternly remind myself that I am a GOOD pilot, a COMPETANT pilot, that I can handle this, that I HAVE handled turbulence before (just not three hours of it in one day). I remind myself that this is an Aerobat, it is good for 6 positive g’s, and 3 negative, plus a margin of safety beyond that and hey, let’s face it, that’s more g’s than I am “stressed” for! It is a good, strong airplane. It will not break. I will not break. I can do this. I have to do this. And it’s not as bad as my Worst Airplane Experience Ever (see earlier post in this thread for details)
Alright, first decision - I can try to keep even altitude and airspeed, which will take effort, or I can “ride out” the bumps, letting them throw me around and just worry about keeping out of the danger zones regarding speed and altitude. I opt for the less strenuous effort, because I am getting tired and I must pace myself. I tighten down my straps and remind myself how much fun roller coasters are.
I concentrate on maintaining heading. At least the sky is still largely clear, the few clouds well above my position, no need to worry on that account. See? The outlook is improving, right? (Right?)
FINALLY, I come up on the home airport. I am also approaching it from about twice the altitude I normally do… now I have to descend in a controlled manner. Also, the runway here at home is configured like the runway at Winnemac - perpendicular to the wind.
I am so fucking tired. And getting sore. Flying is not so much fun today. I’m about willing to make a bargain with God that if I just make it safely home I will never let my feet leave the ground again. I’d cry but I don’t have the energy to spare.
I call the airport to let them know who I am, where I am, and that I’m coming in for a landing. One of the instructors answers back and asks me how I’m doing. I report exhaustion but I am coping - can I please go home now? He chuckles grimly and asks me about fuel. He tells me to standby. Specifically, he tells me to not enter the traffic pattern and circle if I have to for a couple minutes.
I found out later there was a hurried discussion - it’s a crosswind in the 25 knot range, a challenge even for a good pilot, it’s 90 degrees to the runway, and there’s real concern whether a student can handle it. Said conference includes an assessment of my personal abilities as well as opinions of other instructors. It’s a problem - I have to get down before the gas runs out. (Fortunately, I had refueled at Fort Wayne. I could circle (well, bounce up and down in a roughly circular way) for another two hours if I had to.)
The instructor gets on the radio. I am told to make one and ONLY one attempt to line up and land on the runway. If I can not line it up absolutely *perfectly * on that first attempt I am to do a go around and depart immediately for Gary Airport. Do not even attempt to make a radio call - just concentrate on maintaining control and they’ll call the tower to let them know I’m on my way. There’s no one else in the vincinty of my airport, so the sky is mine - it doesn’t have to be pretty, just safe.
OK, it’s really hard to yield altitude. The ride is no smoother down below, and I’m a lot closer to trees and power lines. I wrestle the airplane around, give myself a little extra height and distance, and line up on the runway.
Because of the crosswind, I have to point the airplane to the south west in order to fly due west, which I must do to land on the runway. This just adds to how disconcerting the whole business is. Off the end of runway 26 - the runway in question - is a row of trees I must pass over. Even on a day with small winds those trees generate turbulence. I am not, not, NOT looking forward to this. My mouth is dry, my hands are wet, and yes, I am definitely into the fear territory. But the important thing - the MOST important thing - is that I am still flying the airplane. It’s OK to be scared as long as you can still function. I am still functioning. I am a good pilot. I can do this. I have to do this. I WILL DO THIS!!!
It’s a long, slow slide down to the runway. Which is good. I have ample time to correct course, refine my approach… but oh, the anticipation…!
Here we go - the treeline approaches. I’m over the –
!!!WHAM!!! wham-ma-dee-wham-ma-dee WHUMP!!!
–trees. Uh, yeah, *there’s * the turbulence. That hurt
But I can’t think about that now, or that I’ve got the taste of blood in my mouth from having bit myself going over the treeline - the pavement is approaching. I want to get this right the first time. I don’t want to have to go back up, I don’t want to go to Gary, I want to GO HOME NOW!!! And I HATE FLYING! What the fuck was I thinking???
In order to control this puppy in the wind and everything I’m coming in without flaps and half again as much speed as normal - about 90 mph but honestly with all the bumping and thudding and shaking the needle on the gauge wasn’t exactly steady and neither were my eyeballs. I forced myself NOT to think about the consequnces of screwing up now. I had the rudder full over to one side to stay on the centerline and I’m jamming that thing over as hard as I can. The airplane is bucking and rocking and wobbling.
I have never been so fucking motivated to get something right the first time.
OK, now that I’m low to the ground and faster than normal the airplane doesn’t want to stop flying. I’m having to wait for the speed to bleed off with the ground rolling by just beneath the wheels. Hold it off – hold it off – hold it off —
Let it drop.
WHAM
The wheels are on the ground, but it’s not over yet - the wind still wants to have it’s way. I’m rolling AND flying - I’m still working the wings like I’m airborne to help stay on the centerline while I apply the brakes.
You know how when you’re on a boat for awhile and you get used to the motion? Then you get back on land and it feels like the land is bobbing up and down?
Yeah - it was like that. I was sitting in a stationary airplane on solid ground and yet I was still weaving up and down…
The radio blatted at me, it was the instructor asking if I was alright. I hadn’t touched down until I was behind a row of hangars. I reported I was on the ground and I’d be taxiing back to the tie-down. I turned the airplane around and did just that, still having to think about the wind that kept rocking and shaking the airplane. Or maybe that was me shaking. Or both of us Mostly me I suspect.
I parked the airplane, let out one good sob, pulled myself together, and got out. My knees weren’t too steady, so I hung onto the strut for a minute. Then, for the first and so far only time, I had to ask for help to put a C-150 away. Someone came out and helped me secure the airplane and clean up all the shit that had spilled all over the cockpit and basically put things to right.
I staggered back to the FBO and got a rousing round of applause and pats on the back for what was, truly, a spectacularly well-handled landing. I had not only got it right the first time, I had nailed the sucker. Several people asked me if I needed a ride home, but I declined - it’s only about five minutes.
I got home.
I flopped onto the bed around 4 pm.
I slept until 8 the next morning.
When I woke up I had a bruise on each shoulder, matched bruises across my hip bones - just about where the seat belt straps are on a C-150 - and two more just above my knees - coincidently just about where the bottom of the instrument panel of a C-150 would hit if, say, my legs were slammed upwards into it. I had bitten my tongue, my lip, and the inside of one cheek. I had that all-over-body-banged-up feeling you get from a good jolt or too much carnvial ride. I ached for two days.
The next weekend I was back in the air. In the same airplane.
Well, of course I was - I am a pilot…
I have three that probably qualify.
Sea-Tac United 737 headed to LAX. load up, close door, push back, taxi to end of active. Throttles come up, plane starts to roll. About the time we get to 25 mph, throttles return to idle. My head comes out of the book I am reading, I reach for my seatbelt with one hand and start eyeballing exit doors.
NOBODY ELSE HAS NOTICED ANYTHING WRONG! :eek: We suddenly hang a hard left onto a taxiway, and then everyone else wakes up and starts paying attention.
The pilot comes on the PA and says that the prior crew had left a switch in the wrong position. I think our crew did not do a very complete pre-flight.
A few years ago I got a free trip to the Indy 500. Flying American LAX to Huston to Indy. The Huston-Indy leg was in an MD-80. I am sitting in the back near the engines.
On approach we are coming down through heavy clouds, and the pilot is on and off the engines over and over again. I recall thinking “keep looking mac, I know there is a glide slope in this cloud somewhere”
Anyway all of a sudden we are out of the clouds, and the engines go wide open (don’t forget the engines are right behind my row of seats). I look down and I can see the ground say about 500 feet below us. The only problem is there is a distinct lack of airport located on that ground. :eek: The engines stay at wide open throttle and finally we stop sinking and we are flying for almost a minute at under 500 feet, not climbing, or descending. At last I see the airport boundary fence and the pilot sets the plane down. Engines to idle, thrust reversers, and full throttle again to bleed off that excess speed. I was hoping the cockpit door would be open by the time I got to the front; I wanted to ask if the pilot often flew nap of the earth approaches. When I go there the door was closed. Damn.
Took the redeye into Boston, during winter. Pilot lands plane, and hits the brakes. I can hear the antilock brake hydraulic unit hammering away. And it keeps going, and going, and going. We are not slowing down that much it seems to me, and it seems like we must have landed long, cause we are a long way down the runway. We get to about 35mph, and suddenly the plane makes a hard left turn. As we turn I look out the right side windows and I see that we are at the end of the runway. About 50 feet beyond out wing tip is a large embankment of snow. Cockpit door stayed closed on that flight too.
My worst flying horror story is probably the time I flew from Dallas to London with a non-working TV set on the seatback in front of me, but I have really enjoyed reading everyone else’s, especially your landing story, Broomstick.
I just wanted to make it clear, since there seems to be some confusion, that this line was to instill dramatic tension by placing the incident into present tense. I am not 15 years old. I’m 29. My birthday was November 30th.
Thank you.
Once I had to fly from SLC to Detroit with 3 colleagues for a business meeting. Our flight was scheduled for 8:30 am, but due to heavy overnight snowfall it was cancelled, along with quite a few other flights.All of the ticket agents were busily trying to book people on other flights, and we eventually got rescheduled for an 11:00 takeoff.
Eleven o’clock came and went, with no sign of the plane, and we finally were boarded around 1:00, then we sat in the plane on the tarmac for about another hour before we actually took off. About 45 minutes into the flight the captain came on and said that there was a minor malfunction with one of the radios, and we would be turning back. However, Salt Lake City was now closed due to weather, so we would be landing in Las Vegas instead.
In Las Vegas we deplaned and milled about the lobby while they tried to fix the radio. We waited 2-3 hours until they decided that they couldn’t fix it, and they would have to fly another part in from Atlanta. Meanwhile, it was now around 8:00 pm, Salt Lake City was still closed, and all the flights out of Vegas were full.
Delta wound up putting us up in a hotel then flying us back to Salt Lake the next morning. We never did get to Detroit.
My last cross-country flight, long story short…
The plane boards and taxis out to the runway. Ready for takeoff … and the captain comes on saying there is some bit of maintenace that needs to be double checked, so we are going back to the terminal. OK better safe than sorry. 20 minutes later they come on and say they have found the problem, are fixing it, and should take 30 min. About an hour and a half later, we get in the air.
Then they ran out of food with about 50 people to go. Food that costs an additional $7 these days… on a flight that is now at least two hours longer than it should have been. The attendant offered us all the pretzels we could eat. My only reply was, “Pathetic.” I guess we are lucky we didn’t have to buy them at 1000% upcharge.
I guess what burns me is that any other customer service business has to go out of their way to keep the customer happy. These guys know that the govt is going to keep them afloat, so why bother taking care of the customer? Any other line of business will try to comp you something when they royally fuck up your experience. With air travel, if you are allowed on the plane, and arrive alive, then they have done you a tremendous favor. Dealing with somone who has me by the balls never leaves me a grateful customer.
I wish I had the option to travel by train, but my life/work does not allow me an extra week for transit when I typically have a couple days to visit my family. I even consider not visiting at all because I just hate evrything about flying so much.
One more thing … can I hijack this thread for drug recommendations? What is the absolute best sleeping pill or cold medicine sold OTC? I intend to be as close to unconscious as possible the next time I have to fly someplace. Preferably, someone will need to buckle my seatbelt for me.
[quote]
These guys know that the govt is going to keep them afloat, so why bother taking care of the customer?
[/quote
Braniff
TWA
Pan AM
Allaganey
Ozark
etc.
just shivers 