Your worst experience flying!

[personal5579 10]

About 4 years ago my wife and I returned from a Holiday in Tenerife landing back in the UK at Leeds/Bradford Airport.

 

The flight had gone very well until we started the descent, through thunder, lightning, heavy wind and rain. Outside the cabin it was impossible to see anything at all, as it was pitch black.

 

The turbulence was the worst i've ever experienced (and I consider myself well travelled!), the plane literally dropping about 10 feet at a time, and violently shaking from left to right.

 

After what seemed like an eternity we cleared the clouds to see the airport, which looked essentially flooded. Coming into the final approach the captain came on the tannoy and said "Ladies and Gentlemen this is a do or die situation so hold on to your butts, its gonna be a rough landing" - the humour was lost on most of the passengers. I should say at this point around 80% of the passengers had their heads buried in sick bags and the stench of puke filled the cabin (causing more sickness).

 

As we were coming down toward the runaway it all seemed fairly normal then the nose dropped sharply and we came down and hit the deck so fast and heavy everyone was flung forward, and the plane banked to the left, the tip of the wing was scraping along the runway with sparks flying off it! The luggage fell from the right hand side overhead lockers onto the walkway. The plane then seemed to balance itself and we managed to taxi to the terminal without a problem.

 

I have to say, it was one of the scariest experiences of my life, and the faces of everyone as they got off the plane was chilling. Everyone was totally pale.

 

It was the first time that I have been on a plane when it came to a complete stop that everyone didnt start scrapping for their luggage to rush off the plane! Ironically everyone was sat in a stunned silence (with the exception of those still being sick). Till the captain came on the tannoy with "Ladies and Gentlemen, thankyou for flying with [i forget which airline], we hope the landing wasn't too uncomfortable for you. We hope you will travel with us again soon!" The passengers then left the plane very slowly, and politely with no rush!

 

I just wondered what other experiences people had of flying!

[poppins 10]

I'm always afraid when I fly, a mid air collision is always on my mind, people always tell me not to worry as when it's your time to go you'll go, but then I worry I might be on the same plane when it's someone elses time to go, then I'll have to go with them dosen't right, does it ?

[HappyHoosier 10]

Is the commercial flight training advert to the left of this thread just a coincidence? Oooh, never mind. It changed!

[BaybeeSkitzo 10]

we had turbulance and then the plane just dropped, oh how i **** myself that moment,traumatised i tell thi

[Stormy 10]

I'm always afraid when I fly, a mid air collision is always on my mind, people always tell me not to worry as when it's your time to go you'll go, but then I worry I might be on the same plane when it's someone elses time to go, then I'll have to go with them dosen't right, does it ?

 

At least it would be a quick way to go.

[max 13]

We flew from Nadi to Suva (both on Fiji) in a DC3 when aeroplanes still had propellers, the weather was awful with a lot of turbulence and poor visibility. The pilot kept circling round until there was a break in the clouds at which point he told us he was "going to have a look". After dropping for several minutes (or lifetimes) the pilot came back to tell us "I think that's it". At which my father, ex-RAF, said "that's handy, these crates don't hold enough fuel to get us back".

 

Not a pleasant experience.

[artisan 10]

I once was held at gunpoint by soldiers at Tehran Airport, in the days of the Shah.

We were delayed overnight, the airport was closed and I went for a wander round.

I was looking at an airoplanes undercarriage, and heard guns being cocked behind me, I turned round and two soldiers shouted at me to go back inside.

They took me back to the transit area, and made it clear we were all to stay put until our aircraft was ready.

 

These days I would probably have been shot immediatly.

[Unisol 12]

On a flight back from Ibiza we saw a rather large hole in the rear tail thingy.

 

We pointed this out to the flight attendant who said "yeah, the pilot knows about it, but he said it 'should' be ok"

 

We're still alive so obviously he was right.

 

[Bago 10]

I've never experienced anything that bad. Touch wood. My friend did go through a bad experience of turbulance one Christmas to somewhere in Europe with her mom too. It shook her that much that she didn't want to fly for a long time. It was similar to the OP's.

 

The only thing I experienced were bad turbulances during the night always through the Himalaya areas. The other thing I hate is when the plane tries to descend, and it drops very quickly, so much so it feels like your heart just jumps out of your body. That's quite scary. I hope I won't go through anything worst than that.

[purdyamos 10]

Not my story, I'm glad to say...

[andco 10]

Worst I ever did was in one of those 12-seater thingies which pass off for a plane which took a sharp left or right turn straight in to the cliff-face in order to get access to the runway - I really thought my number was up.

[Guest Mod_Man]

Worst experience of flying? The pigeon that flew into my window earlier, it's not as if he couldn't see my flat. Feathers everywhere.