Before my trip to Indonesia, my worst turbulence trip was coming back from Chicago one time.
I fly quite a bit (about 3-4 times a year) and on the 4th visit to Chicago, coming back (to Arizona), it had gotten a little bad. It was shaking for a good fifteen minutes or so and at one point the plane hit what it would feel like if a car went over a speed bump at about 40 miles an hour. Overall, it wasn’t horrible, but it was a bit frightening at the time.
But man, I didn’t know anything. That was a day in the park compared to some of the turbulence we hit when I flew back to the US from Indonesia. It was actually on the Taipai to LA flight, not long after we left Taipai.
It lasted about an hour and I actually was scared for the first time while being on a plane. This plane was REALLY bucking about. It was shaking so hard at one point, that even if you were holding your drink in hand, the liquid was sloshing out the sides…and you couldn’t put it down on the tray either, because it’d tip over then. The guy next to me, who said he flew once a week for about a year, told me it was also the worst turbulence he ever experienced. At one point, there was this huge shaking of the whole plane and the guy next to me said “Oh yeah, this is bad…this is the worst.”… I was too scared to reply at that moment. It felt like I was on a bucking bull. I didn’t know an airplane could shake THAT much and still be okay.
After it calmed down, I said to my seatmate “I swear, all other turbulence will seem like nothing at all from here on now that I’ve been through that…”
The sickest I’ve been was flying back from New Orleans to Chicago in, let’s see…about 2000?
It was one of those up and down roller coasters through a storm that had people gasping and, well, not screaming but making, um, uncontrolled exclamations. At one point, the woman next to me grabbed my arm. I didn’t find it that scary but I was clutching the air sickness bag with white knuckles trying to keep it down. Victory was mine in this regard.
The most violent I’ve encountered was last year flying Swiss Air into Zurich. As we were approaching, it started to shake a bit, probably from the mountains. The flight attendants were doing their final rounds in their usual calm manner, one hand on the overhead rail but no big deal. One of them was right at my row handing out Swiss (I assume) chocolates from a large basket. Without warning, the plane dropped and her feet left the floor for a moment. She didn’t hit the ceiling or anything but the chocolate went everywhere and there were some shrieks from the passengers. The FA went positively white and quickly gathered the worst of the chocolate pile from the aisle and hustled back to her seat.
Flying through a thunderstorm in the midwest once, the plane did that drop out of the sky maneuver and then began to rock and roll. And then a drinks cart fell over in the galley. Let me tell you, most of us thought the tail had fallen off the plane.
Flying a Cessna 172 a couple winters ago in Northern Nevada. Winds were about 30kts and we were bouncing all over the place… so much so that I could barely hold onto the radio knobs to change frequencies. Oddly, once we got to the airport I made one of the best landings I have ever made.
A short flight out of Indianapolis on a small plane. We actually left 30 minutes early, because “If we wait, we won’t be able to fly”, and indeed, that thunderstorm shut down O’Hare for a day. No one ever tried to serve drinks. Because we left early, the plane hadn’t been fully serviced, and didn’t have barf bags, which was unfortunate.
It was before 9/11, and I was in the front row, so I had a good view into the pilots’ area. I found it comforting that they seemed calm. I found it less comforting that they often made sharp turns to avoid specific thunderheads, and they often couldn’t see at all. We bounced and dodged and wove through the clouds, and eventually landed at some other airport, from which I boarded a giant jet and flew the rest of the way home. The giant jet flew through clear skies, and I kept feeling phantom movement, like I’ve heard people do sometimes on land after being at sea for a long time.
USAir flight from Detroit to Pittsburgh, around '92 or so. Brief, but so sharp that when we got to our destination, about a dozen passengers, myself included, had to be issued new suitcases by the airline because ours had gotten smashed in the cargo hold.
Flying down the West Coast from Portland to Bay Area. During a winter storm with extremely high winds. Turbulence the entire flight. Everyone stayed seated the entire time. Engines were up full. Pilots came on periodically to tell us we were changing altitudes to look for better conditions.
You know those films where they show the planes flying into hurricanes? To take readings, or the disaster flights? Pretty much like that for a good 45 minutes. Up, then down. Bins opening, stuff coming out, but nothing to be done about it. I had no idea that Jets could get thrown sideways before that flight. A little buffeting, sure. But this was hardcore drop like a roller coaster, then slammed sideways hard several yards, then rise a little. Engines hard the whole time. The cabin silent, lights out, smell of sweat. I just held my husband’s hand and prayed.
End of the flight, the flight attendant, bless her heart said something like, “On Alaska the roller coaster rides are free.” Laughter and weak applause. I thought asking the pilot on deplaning about on dangerous it really was, but decided I didn’t want to know. They had already cancelled flights for anything smaller than the big jets (737s, etc). They cancelled all flights after ours.
I did that run every week at that time. It was usually about 1 hour 10 minutes. Give or take. With the engines up, I assume to fight the wind, we did it closer to 50 minutes.
I fly about 100k miles a year and have done for over 15 years. That was the worst. I would never knowingly get on a plane under those conditions again.
You people are not helping me with my intention to not spend the last hour before my upcoming flight at the bar.
Once in 1979 on the way back from BWI to SJU the 727 took some rough air that included an “air pocket” as it was called then that provided a few moments of astronaut training.
The plane stood up on it’s wing just as soon as we lifted off. I had the whole row to myself, which was good, because I had to grab the setback beside me. The whole plane shook like crazy. I was looking out the window and just saw ground, thinking for sure we were going to auger in.
And just like that, we leveled out and kept rising and the turbulence ended.
I like some turbulence for thrills but I was on a flight once that took it way too far. It was a New York to New Orleans flight that got closed in by a huge line of severe thunderstorms. The pilot kept announcing that we were diverting to alternate airports only to find those were closed off as well because of weather so we were stuck circling in violent weather for a good 45 minutes searching for a place to land - anywhere.
I was in the back of the plane so it was an especially violent ride. Nobody threw up in my row at least but people were crying and holding hands with their nearest neighbors. You would have thought everyone that was on that flight was a devout Catholic based on the prayers they were making.
We didn’t make it to New Orleans that night. We got low on fuel close to Houston and had to land there. That airport was also closed due to weather but the pilots didn’t have a choice at that point so an emergency landing it was. The airline was good about providing us all with hotel rooms and new flights to New Orleans the next morning.
