Bad flying experiences?

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: ThePresence
I landed in Newark once in terrible crosswinds. The plane was jinking up and downm left and right really hard. People were throwing up all over the place. The pilot did warn us beforehand that it was gonna be rough, so we did have some time to get ready, but man, it was a rough landing.

What I would have loved is for the pilot to come on and tell everyone to atleast relax, even if it was 20 minutes after everything happened. I know they are busy, but it is so disconcerting when there is no word from the flight deck, whereas if they give you the heads up or come on after, it really helps!

 

[marvdmartian]

Worst I ever had was a couple years ago, flying from DFW back up to Wichita Falls on a Saab 340 turboprop (American Eagle).

First, we had some sort of generic (vague) mechanical problem, which delayed the flight about an hour. Then we had a storm front moving down from the panhandle area, which they figured would be right over WF just as we were going to be landing there. Instead of making us wait on the ground any longer, some brilliant person comes up with a "better" idea.

We took off, toward Abilene, and went through the storm front at a "weak point", got behind it, then followed it in to Wichita Falls, sorta doing lazy turns behind it as it moved across Texas. Needless to say, the air behind a storm front isn't much less turbulent than the air at the leading edge, and we bounced our way across the skies of Texas! Trust me, Six Flags over Texas wishes it had a ride like that one!!

Bottom line was, what's normally a fairly smooth 45 minute flight turned into 2 hours of turbulent HELL. I served in the navy, on a fast frigate (read CORK, especially in rough water), and never felt like I did during that flight! It didn't help any that the A/C in the plane quit, so all we had to keep us cool (and less likely to get sick) was the little tiny air vents above our seats! :frown:

I felt really sorry for the gal sitting next to me, who was from Wisconsin, and had a son going to technical school at the local air force base. She was flying down that day (Friday) for a weekend visit, and was planning on flying back on Monday morning. Once we got on the ground, this poor soul (who spent the entire flight with her white-knuckled hands locked onto the seat arm rests, fighting nausea) looked as relieved as anyone I've ever seen. I patted her on her hand, and said, "Welcome to Texas, ma'am. Enjoy your stay!" :roll:

 

[Descartes]

My neighbor is a captain for AirTran, and he's described some pretty wild flights in his career. He told me that he's had a few like you described, and most of the time it was due to a "near miss."

 

[StinkyPinky]

Flying from Suva, Fiji to Auckland, NZ in 1990 on a two engine plane (737?...not sure what model) and it had a bird strike straight after takeoff on the right engine. Made a god awful grinding noise and the plane lurched big time to the side. People were screaming and I remember my mother holding on really tightly to me at the time. After a bit the pilot must have cut power to the engine and we did a slow lumbering turn and re-landed back on runway with a full cohort of emergency firetrucks etc.

I was 11 at the time - so didn't really grasp how bad it was.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Personally I'm always more afraid of my plane hitting another plane when we land than I am of turbulence in the air
-AE

 

[glenn1]

Remember the ValuJet flight that crashed in the Florida everglades about a decade ago? Well, I was on that aircraft from the morning flight from Atlanta to Miami. I had just finished a training exercise at Fort Benning, GA and was on my way to see my wife in Naples, FL. The weirdest part of it was that I stopped somewhere to get a late lunch, and I was eating an alligator-meat burger when news of the crash came on CNN.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Originally posted by: Ns1
I was flying back from Australia when we hit some bad turbulence. Next thing you know the whole goddamn plane cracked wide open. We landed next to an island where I was stuck for a few months. I'm back now but shhhhh, don't tell anybody.

Kate? Is that you?


We need to go back!

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Air Florida flight on the runway at Washington National as the plane in front of you.

Does not give you a good feeling when you find out what happened to them.

No it doesn't. Wasn't that the flight that crashed into the Potomac?

Correct.

News was showing the soloete of a 737 - originally it was not identified as Air Florida.

My flight was a delayed departure and the family was worried because I had not checked in.

 

[dud]

Originally posted by: Sabot
I arrived in Orlando today, but not before we hit brutal turbulance about half an hour out.

All of a sudden the pilot starts decending, so rapidly everyone is looking around nervously at each other, the plane levels and then BAM it drops like a rock, everyone's hands go flying, people not buckled in are half way up the cabin and then fall back down. Then it does it again about 20 seconds later, all while still descending very rapidly. More turbulence but then it evens out and we land a little while later, to much relief.

I just tried to laugh at it, but people were screaming and crying, some were praying, I've never been in a situation like that before. I know these planes are built for it, but man is that shit scary.

I have to fly back on Friday, not looking forward too it now, despite common sense

Anyone else have any brutal flight stories?

That will teach you to come here in the summer. This is a common occurance in the summertime and I have encountered it as well. Avoid flying to central Florida in the summer as it is the storm/lightening capital of the planet. We live on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water. In the summer the water gets REALLY warm, causing a lot of unpleasant phenomenon including numerous thunderstorms and the occasional hurricane. Avoid Orlando (including the theme parks) as much as possible. Those damn flights home are crammed full of you tourists talking about going to Mickey World. You have been warned.

As for excitement on an airplane ... how about an explosion on a Delta L-1011 on final approach over Hartsfield. Now that was an adventure!

 

[buck]

My sister in Orlando said it was storming pretty good tonight. Have fun in Merritt Island, say hello to my family and old stomping grounds.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: buck
My sister in Orlando said it was storming pretty good tonight. Have fun in Merritt Island, say hello to my family and old stomping grounds.

Hah! Will do, we went to a bar on the beach and just took it easy tonight with new co-workers, great time, this place is beautiful!

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: dud

Originally posted by: Sabot
I arrived in Orlando today, but not before we hit brutal turbulance about half an hour out.

All of a sudden the pilot starts decending, so rapidly everyone is looking around nervously at each other, the plane levels and then BAM it drops like a rock, everyone's hands go flying, people not buckled in are half way up the cabin and then fall back down. Then it does it again about 20 seconds later, all while still descending very rapidly. More turbulence but then it evens out and we land a little while later, to much relief.

I just tried to laugh at it, but people were screaming and crying, some were praying, I've never been in a situation like that before. I know these planes are built for it, but man is that shit scary.

I have to fly back on Friday, not looking forward too it now, despite common sense

Anyone else have any brutal flight stories?

That will teach you to come here in the summer. This is a common occurance in the summertime and I have encountered it as well. Avoid flying to central Florida in the summer as it is the storm/lightening capital of the planet. We live on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water. In the summer the water gets REALLY warm, causing a lot of unpleasant phenomenon including numerous thunderstorms and the occasional hurricane. Avoid Orlando (including the theme parks) as much as possible. Those damn flights home are crammed full of you tourists talking about going to Mickey World. You have been warned.

As for excitement on an airplane ... how about an explosion on a Delta L-1011 on final approach over Hartsfield. Now that was an adventure!

Unfortunetly I'm here for work, so no mickey

 

[GasX]

My horror stories are all related to travel mishaps rather than mother nature. Let me repost a gem from last summer...

A little tale of vacation travel gone awry?

My brother-in-law rented a house on Martha's Vineyard for the week and
invited us to join them. It was a beautiful house on Chappaquidick Island
and we had a great time and Hayden got to play a lot with his cousins
which was great. Sadly, getting to the damn place was a truly epic saga...

First of all, I don't know Cape Cod from Nantucket from Martha's Vineyard
from Mexico. It turns out they are all different places... Deirdre and I
had been using Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard interchangeably when
referring to this trip and I ended up buying plane tickets to Nantucket -
OOPS! Second of all, Deirdre is 8 months pregnant and Hayden is 16 months
old - travel is consequently an exponentially more difficult thing that it
would be if it were just the wife and I.

Since changing the plane tickets would have cost us $1000, we looked at
our options and decided to go to Nantucket and take the ferry to Martha's
Vineyard. Clearly, our flight would arrive after the only ferry of the day
had left. Once again change fees were grossly excessive, so I went ahead
and booked two dummy seats on the earlier flight to Nantucket so we could
go stand by on that flight. We get to the airport, check in and get on the
stand by list. I then cancel the dummy reservations and we are sitting
pretty. We go to the gate and it turns out they over sold the flight by
two seats and we got screwed...

I now make arrangements for us to stay at a hotel in Nantucket at great
expense. and we while away four more hours at Newark airport. <cue
Jeopardy music> Fortunately, Hayden took his nap for most of this time, so
it was more an issue of abject boredome and discomfort than exhausting
stress and entertainment. He was, of course, awake and squirming
throughtout the 1 hour flight in my lap.

We arrive in Nantucket and call for the hotel shuttle. After driving right
past us and leaving the airport, the van circles back and picks us up. The
ride to the hotel was 30 seconds as it was accross the street (they
neglected to mention that...) We check into the room and the little guy
has all sorts of pent up energy which he immediately starts buring off by
rampaging around the hotel room. One of his favorite toys is the telephone
and he plays with the hotel phone for a while and manages to call 911.
Shortly thereafter, the police show up and demand to be let into the room
and talk to Deirdre with me not there to make sure I am not smacking her
around. I offer up my son as the culprit but they find no humor in it and
go back to making sure I am not a wife beater and that Deirdre is okay.

After that interlude we go for a walk, have dinner and while away the rest
of our evening watching a movie in the hotel room. The next day, we get up
and head into downtown Nantucket to while away the hours until the 3pm
ferry. It was July 4th and we had a wonderful day as they have a ton of
holiday festivities including a moment at noon when main street is turned
into a giant water gun fight including firetrucks hosing down the crowd
(although not at riot control flow rates!!) We stayed away from that, but
it was a festive mood about town to be sure. We also went into the whaling
museum which was really cool and had some great clam chowder in a locals
only type tavern. We then head get some ice cream and head to the ferry.

They check our two suitcases and we get onto the giant motor-cat ferry
with a kid on a wicked suger high. Deirdre sleeps for most of the trip
and I chase Hayden around who has gone bonkers from the ice cream. When we
finally get to Martha's Vineyard, we breathe a sigh of relief until we
find that our bags went on the wrong ferry to Hyannis. Eventually they
promise to get the two bags to the island that night and drive them out
via cab to our house at about 9pm. We get in a cab and head out to
Edgartown to catch the ferry over to Chappaquiddick. We learn on the way
there that Edgartown is having a 4th of July parade and that we can't get
near the ferry via car. The cabbie takes us as far as we can and we are
told by a cop that the ferry is not even running.

At this point, Deirdre is reduced to tears as I assess our current
circumstances. After talking to a sargeant, I learn that we have a mile
walk and that the ferry will probably be running. 1 mile walks are not fun
if you are 8 months pregnant, in case you were unaware... About 10 yards
into our walk it began to rain.

Eventually we get to the ferry, cross the 100 yard channel and get picked
up by my brother-in-law and head out to the house. We left our house at
10:30am on the 3rd and got to our destination at 6pm on the 4th. The bags
showed up at 11pm as the cabbie was delayed at the ferry for over an hour
by the fireworks...

Our trip back was less eventful, but definitely painful. We reversed
course and took the ferry to Edgartown, a cab to the ferry, the ferry to
Nantucket. The we spent a couple of hours at "Children's Beach" to while
away the time until our scheduled departure. After a minor ordeal locating
an available cab we ride to the airport to find the flight has been
delayed by 3 1/2 hours?
Eventually, we got home 10 hours after leaving Chappaquiddick.

We decided that however beautiful Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard might
be, we are not going back any time soon...

 

[Pacfanweb]

The old story goes:

After a particularly rough flight and landing, the stewardess came on the PA just before time to leave the plane.

"Thank you for flying the Friendly Skies. If you enjoyed your flight, please tell a friend. If not, tell 'em you flew Continental".

 

[AVAFREAK182]

Do airplanes have horns to honk at other planes? lol

 

[TraumaRN]

Worse experience two times was flying back from Australia, once in 2002 and once again last year in 2007.

Apparently trade winds somewhere between Fiji and New Zealand. I'll tell you when you are on a 747, the 2nd largest commercial plane in existence and you see the wings flexing all over the damn place and the plane shaking and dropping like a massive stone it scares the piss out of you. It went on like that for about an hour of that 14 hour flight. Sucked the big one, after that I couldn't sleep at all despite being exhausted.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Worse experience two times was flying back from Australia, once in 2002 and once again last year in 2007.

Apparently trade winds somewhere between Fiji and New Zealand. I'll tell you when you are on a 747, the 2nd largest commercial plane in existence and you see the wings flexing all over the damn place and the plane shaking and dropping like a massive stone it scares the piss out of you. It went on like that for about an hour of that 14 hour flight. Sucked the big one, after that I couldn't sleep at all despite being exhausted.

What's scarier is knowing that there are guidelines about acceptable crack sizes in those wings that are flexing all over the place where they still allow them to fly. Aluminum fatigue is a scary thing.

 

[0roo0roo]

well theres national geographic air crash investigations.... so many things can go wrong... but its interesting, like real life csi.
plenty on the torrents if you feel like having nightmares

 

[Scarpozzi]

In Florida, you're subject to wind from any direction....

In the afternoons, you can always get hit with thunderstorms and unexpected pockets of air.

In my experience, watch the flight attendents. If they look scared, you have a right to be scared. Since I've flown a little, I've actually been in some rough stuff too while I was hte one flying the plane....it happens. Just remember that the wings are made to generate enough lift to keep the plane up. If you drop like a rock, it's no big deal since the pilot can change the pitch and power and climb back up.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
In Florida, you're subject to wind from any direction....

In the afternoons, you can always get hit with thunderstorms and unexpected pockets of air.

In my experience, watch the flight attendents. If they look scared, you have a right to be scared. Since I've flown a little, I've actually been in some rough stuff too while I was hte one flying the plane....it happens. Just remember that the wings are made to generate enough lift to keep the plane up. If you drop like a rock, it's no big deal since the pilot can change the pitch and power and climb back up.

Yes very true.

I'm thinking now what happened was they began hitting bad turbulence, and the pilot was descending quickly to get away from it, and we still caught some of it. Normally they tell you when they begin their decent, this was all of a sudden and without warning.

 

[iamwiz82]

My worst flights have been in to Florida as well. I have felt some crazy windshear landing in FLL

 

[ClarkJF]

How much worse is just about every situation made by women crying? I can think of no reason in the world of how crying helps any panic/dangerous situation, that and screaming, all it does is cause more panic and cause everyone to freak the hell out. Guys just keep it in their head and hold on tight lol.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
My worst flights have been in to Florida as well. I have felt some crazy windshear landing in FLL

Looks like there's a bit of a pattern with Florida, I think I'll drive down next time.

 

[Genx87]

Would say I have run into anything as bad. Just your typicaly thunderstorm stuff where the plane goes in all directions.

But I have flown planes before and grew up around them. When they start getting rocked it doesnt bother me. My wife loses her mind however.

 

[Trey22]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
this is why i wear my seatbelt when seated, as instructed