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Scary windshear airplane experience - thought we were going to crash :(

V

VTrider

Golden Member
I don't know which I was happier about, the 3' fresh powder we got to ride in at Lake Tahoe, or the sub $250.00 round trip tickets we got from California to Burlington, Vermont! (expedia.com). Needless to say, however all this excitement can quickly be stiffled when being bounced around in a pressurized tin can @ 200mph, alarms blaring thinking this is what people experience right before their plane crashes! 🙁

So we get that phat internet airline ticket deal, at first i'm thinking 'yeah, smart shopper...me save money' - what I didn't realize right away though is that this means that you'll be spending 12 hours flying across the country stopping/layover at every major airport along the way!! So yes, this means that we had to get on many of those, what do you call them?...'puddle jumpers'? Those small, 40 passenger carrying propeller or jet commuter flights - you know the ones which you could almost stand up and touch both sides of the jet by extending your arms? 😛 Well anyway, wer'e flying home from cincinnati in one of these small jets just 10 minutes from landing when the pilot gets on the system and says that there are 35mph winds, it's going to be a bumpy ride so buckle up. I'm thinking, 'no problem' - I've been flying for 32 years, been through dozens of bumpy/hairy/exciting turblence, landings, ect. - not too worry (oh, wer'e landing at night too!). So we start the standard descent, no problem, going through the clouds the plane starts to jump up and down, still no problem, I start seeing the lake, rooftops of houses, headlights from cars on highway below, then finally the end of the airport!! By now the plane is really starting to jump up/down like a rollercoaster giving me that hollow stomach feeling, but we are now probably only 1,000 feet and less than 10 seconds from landing when.....

HELLO! The plane starts wildly shifting in all directions! It's going UP, it's going DOWN, the back of the plane starts sliding LEFT, the RIGHT, then the nose of the plane it's pointing UP, then DOWN!! :Q All the while you can hear the jet engine screaming full throttle, backing down, back to full throttle. I'm looking out the window and everything seems like it's spinning, then I figure i'll see what the one airplane steward attendent guy is doing, I figure if he starts freaking out, then it's all over. Well, he's trying to keep his cool (he's buckled in facing the cabin), all of a sudden I hear all these loud alarms going of in the cockpit behind him, then his eyes start rolling around like 'this is it!' - now by this time, I can't feel anything in my left arm because my girlfriend cut off the blood circulation because she has this death grip on my hand! This all lasts for about 5 or 6 seconds until the pilot just gunned the throttle and shot seemingly straight out of there to abort the landing, at the last second - PHEW! We had to land 100 miles away in New Hampshire and the airline paid for 40+ people to take taxis back to Vermont. The pilot explained that we were the last plane to attempt to land before they diverted everybody because of windshear warnings. I don't scare easily, but I was scared this time - I don't want to fly again for a while.

If anybody has other similair or scary flying stories, please post them to this thread.

-VTrider
 
No scary experiences save that I simply do not like flying. My first (and only) time on a plane was spent with my brain steadily reporting that I was moving backwards. My common sense told me otherwise, however. I was dizzy too. Not a happy feeling.
 
Whoa! I'm not a big fan of flying, and if I went through something like that, it would take a lot to get me up in a plane again.
 
Once you board that plane, its pretty much out of your hands whatever happens next. Another reason why I prefer to drive, unless absolutely necessary.
 
Something like that happened to me in New York, i was coming home and we hit some turbulance and the lights flickered on and off and the plane dropped a lot and was then recovered. It was mega scary
 
Turbulence is the best part.....Windshear is scary, but it's usually recoverable....just firewall the throttles and pull back to the stickshaker! oh yea, praying helps 😀
 
Wow! just be thankful you had a smart, quick-thinking pilot flying that plane or else you might not be posting right now :Q glad you're ok!
 
Yeah, I'm glad I'm here to post it too! Didn't mean to scare anybody, guess it's still statistically safer than driving right? Guess it's just that you can't just pull over and fix something wrong with an airplane, when they break or fail, it's pretty much disastrous 🙁

Since were on the same note here, perhaps bad luck flying runs in the family becuase: My mother back in the early 70's was on a flight from Puerto Rico back to New York, when the pilot told everybody to prepare for an emergency landing. It was one of those BIG 747 type planes, 2 foot snowstorm - landing on a closed runway - airport was closed. The plane landed and did a full 360!, everybody was safe, and had to walk from the airplane through 2' of snow to the airport and break in!

-VTrider
 
Vermont's a crazy place in terms of weather, esp up near Burlington. Wind direction changes all the time, snows come out of nowhere, temperatures change from tropics to sub-zero in hours. My cousin, who works at Plattsburg AFB (across the lake from Burlington), tells me about all the crazy stuff the AF pilots talk about (he repairs aircraft for them). There have never been any accidents but big bombers and fighters have nearly crashed during high winds and when the wind changes direction rapidly. Scarey stuff, glad to hear you're ok.
 
Someone asked if anyone survived a crash, well lucky me I have had 2 crashes and I think I survived. One of them was in a Tri-Pacer that my buddie was flying and the stupid ass stalled it out and we pancaked it in, the other was in my Pitts Special at a airshow Broken back. both legs broken and a total loss of the airplane. I was extremely lucky. I was on a commercial flight (United) streached 737, out of Denver going to Little Rock when about 35 minutes out one of the Engines blew up, we made it back to Denver but there was a lot of nervous people on board. I was one of them. I still think flying is the best and safest way to travel.

Bleep
 
Blinderbomber: Yeah, Burlington area always seems to have their own little, unique weather system - guess it's just the location, much like many other localized places w/crazy weather. Just never thought I'd be caught up in one!

-VTrider
 
I had a similar flight from Salt Lake City to BWI a week before the Olympics. I was not willing to bet that we would make it on the ground in one piece either. At least nobody got sick on that flight since it was only the last 35 minutes being choppy.
To let you know how bad the crosswinds were, my car was blown off the highway on the way home. I drive a little outback sport. I got home at 8 and went straight to bed and didn't even feel like eating supper. 7 years of heavy travel for a living and I never had such a bad flight/drive day.
 
I have to get up early and fly tomorrow 🙁 I had a bad flight on the return to Atlanta one time, it was a bad storm and my flight was about 2 hours late. We got on and everything was fine nice smooth flight. then out of the blue the plane just DROPS if not for my seatbelt I would have hit the top of the plane. It did this 2 times and both times I thought we were done for. People on the plane were crying and screaming, I just tried to talk to the people around me to keep calm. I still fly about 3 times a onth, never had another flight like that one
 
Narse77: Heh, that reminds me of another story, back in High School a friend of mine was flying to the Bahamas when the plane did that same thing. He was in his seatbelt as was most of the passengers. The plane hit one of those really bad turblence/air pockets and people came out of their seats and hit the walls and ceiling, including the flight attendent which was giving out drinks at the time, doh! Many people broke arms and legs and the such, nothing life threatning though thank god. Okay, I'm going to stop posting these stories, (sorry Sarah 🙁 ) I don't want to be freaking anymore people out here, ya know come to think of it, this kind of thread is just a bummer, kick you in the butt and give you a bad day thread - sorry everyone, don't want to be the negative AT member on this community.

-VTrider
 
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