Your Scariest Flying Experience

[Acylum]

Week Zero games are pretty lame so trying to kill some time. I watch a lot of YT channels dealing with air disasters. I’ve flown a lot but have only had one really bad experience. Just wondering how bad mine was. I’ll wait to see if I should even talk about it.

 

[JP4CY]

Flew with Steve Leath once. Luckily he wasn't piloting but still scary as ****.

 

[demoncore1031]

Severe turbulence as the plane neared it's destination in Taiwan last year. That's the only time I have experienced turbulence and it was during a thunderstorm so it was a little scary.

 

[Acylum]

Flew with Steve Leath once. Luckily he wasn't piloting but still scary as ****.

Weren’t his problems all related to taxiing? I’d take that.

 

[cedarstrip]

Returning from Spring Break in Mazatlan Mexico 2001, we had also just lost to Hampton in round 1, landing in a blizzard in MSP we were about to touchdown when the jet rolled to the left what felt like 45 degrees and the engines roared to life. I don't think I screamed but 85% of the plane did and the woman (not age appropriate) next to me grabbed my arm and held on for dear life. I was sure we were going to go around but just as quickly as it rolled left it leveled out and we were on the ground. To this day I swear that wing tip had to be within a foot of the runway.

This spring in Honolulu we were feet off the ground and the pilot pulled up and we did do a go around. Not scary at all but makes you wonder what almost happened.

 

[August]

Flying out of Omaha. After take off the plane rotated to the right and then the left, and then just started to fall. We were weightless and helpless. After a few seconds, which seemed longer, the plane caught and started to climb again. Pilot came on later and explained that we followed our takeoff to close to a "heavy" plane which created dead air which we flew through.

 

[FarminCy]

I’ve flown all over the world and have had luckily no bad stories.

My mom however landed in Germany in the 70’s without the front landing gear. They circled the airport while they foamed the runway. Luckily nothing bad happened, just a bit rough as the nose slid once it came down.

 

[Acylum]

Returning from Spring Break in Mazatlan Mexico 2001, we had also just lost to Hampton in round 1, landing in a blizzard in MSP we were about to touchdown when the jet rolled to the left what felt like 45 degrees and the engines roared to life. I don't think I screamed but 85% of the plane did and the woman (not age appropriate) next to me grabbed my arm and held on for dear life. I was sure we were going to go around but just as quickly as it rolled left it leveled out and we were on the ground. To this day I swear that wing tip had to be within a foot of the runway.

This spring in Honolulu we were feet off the ground and the pilot pulled up and we did do a go around. Not scary at all but makes you wonder what almost happened.

This is eerily similar to my experience.

 

[Mr Janny]

Severe turbulence as the plane neared it's destination in Taiwan last year. That's the only time I have experienced turbulence and it was during a thunderstorm so it was a little scary.

My uncle spent his career as a crash investigator for Boeing. He worked PanAm 103, American 965, and many others. I asked him once, several years ago, about turbulence, because it was something that always made me nervous. He told me "How many times have you ever heard of a a plane crash being caused by turbulence?"
I couldn't think of any.
And he responded "That's because it's not something you have to worry about. The planes are built to withstand any turbulence they might encounter."
It made me feel a lot better.

And then he said "Now wind shear is a different story..."

 

[HititHard]

Not scary but miserable. Sat on the tarmac in Detroit during a blizzard for hours. The black water tank was full for three + hours before they finally let us taxi back to the terminal.
There was a plane from another airline that was left out there much longer.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I follow an Instagram account that pulls ATC audio of eventful (usually emergency) flights.

It’s eerie how much more frequently a plane has to declare an emergency compared to how often I thought it happened. Usually there is one a day or every couple of days.

Yet, at the same time, it makes me feel better with how routine the pilots handle it.

 

[Freebird]

Smoke in the cabin mid flight. Something electrical. Facemasks dropped and we put them on. Landed way out on some remote runway in Dallas. Got to use the blow up slide to evacuate so that was kinda cool.

 

[Pope]

Flew on the Iowa State plane to Michigan State for some meetings many years ago. We were flying through lots of clouds and out of nowhere came another smaller plane flying perpendicular to us and it crossed our path just under us.

The 2 ISU pilots looked at each other and said "Whew, that was close!". All I could think of is that if our plane crashes, I'm gonna be a minor footnote compared to the other persons on board.

 

[CascadeClone]

Aero E mandatory flight experience class.

They put us in a little bitty plane, "Piper 22 Juliet" iirc. Maybe one of the other Aeros from early 90s will remember. It was fun, flying thru the clouds, weaving around, riding in the back while your partner also flew. 3 short flights, and on the 3rd you were supposed to land the thing. Obviously there was an instructor there to talk you thru it and take over if needed. (possible exaggerations follow)

Well, we were perpendicular to the runway at like 2,000 feet and the guy says "let's land". I'm like, "don't we need to be farther away and lined up?" Turns out "NO". He pulls the flaps and throttle, and we drop like an elevator with the cable cut straight fking down. Then he turns it 90 degrees and we are lined up. I went white as a sheet and clammy sweats.

Tried to finish the landing, but holding on to the yoke so tight I might have dented it. Just floating over the runway at like 10 feet, but I can't stall it. He took over and we landed fine. I didn't puke, but you know how you feel after you puke? Cold sweats, guts roiled, weak? Yeah I had all of that. I'm sure we were not really in danger, the instructor knew what he was doing. I suspect he enjoyed intentionally terrifying students like a psychopath as well, but if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life...

That was the day I decided I had no interest in being a pilot. No problem flying commercial to this day though.

 

[Acylum]

If you work for the Fed you basically spend half your time in training. So I flew from DM to DFW, Atlanta, Phoenix, New Orleans quite often but mostly DFW. I was returning from DFW and had to connect at MSP and then switch planes to DM. Weather was horrible at MSP and we circled for like 45 minutes before landing. To make us feel better, the flight crew came around and told us to give our connecting flight and they’d make sure to hold them for us. Lol. No joke- I had the furthest trip possible from our arrival gate to my departure gate. Literally sprinted. The plane was still at the concourse when I got to the gate but they obviously wouldn’t let me on. I actually didn’t have to wait that long for the next DM flight. If you’ve ever flown from MSP to DM you never really level off. Anyway, a very attractive but ~ 15 years older woman next to me and I started to converse. She flew from DM to DFW every Sunday and back every Friday. For several years. We start descending and if you’ve flown much you could tell things were going to be interesting. Probably about 300 ft from touchdown or so we started see-sawing I’m guessing 15-20° both directions. People screaming “Pull up! Abort, Abort!” The woman next to me had a death grip on my arm. I’m thinking this is bad if you’re scared. We porpoised probably 2-3 times but I’m still alive.

 

[Pope]

Aero E mandatory flight experience class.

They put us in a little bitty plane, "Piper 22 Juliet" iirc. Maybe one of the other Aeros from early 90s will remember. It was fun, flying thru the clouds, weaving around, riding in the back while your partner also flew. 3 short flights, and on the 3rd you were supposed to land the thing. Obviously there was an instructor there to talk you thru it and take over if needed. (possible exaggerations follow)

Well, we were perpendicular to the runway at like 2,000 feet and the guy says "let's land". I'm like, "don't we need to be farther away and lined up?" Turns out "NO". He pulls the flaps and throttle, and we drop like an elevator with the cable cut straight fking down. Then he turns it 90 degrees and we are lined up. I went white as a sheet and clammy sweats.

Tried to finish the landing, but holding on to the yoke so tight I might have dented it. Just floating over the runway at like 10 feet, but I can't stall it. He took over and we landed fine. I didn't puke, but you know how you feel after you puke? Cold sweats, guts roiled, weak? Yeah I had all of that. I'm sure we were not really in danger, the instructor knew what he was doing. I suspect he enjoyed intentionally terrifying students like a psychopath as well, but if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life...

That was the day I decided I had no interest in being a pilot. No problem flying commercial to this day though.

Not nearly as severe but it reminds me of a flight I took from Denver to Aspen. Because the plane has to drop quickly to land between mountain ranges, they have to pull the flaps in mid flight. I'm kind of a nervous Nelly anyway when I fly and I did not enjoy that little maneuver.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Not nearly as severe but it reminds me of a flight I took from Denver to Aspen. Because the plane has to drop quickly to land between mountain ranges, they have to pull the flaps in mid flight. I'm kind of a nervous Nelly anyway when I fly and I did not enjoy that little maneuver.

That’s a bumpy ass flight and a tough landing too. I think Aspen is rated one of the most difficult airports to land in.

 

[Acylum]

That’s a bumpy ass flight and a tough landing too. I think Aspen is rated one of the most difficult airports to land in.

It is. Just watched a YT video about it this week.

 

[IASTATE07]

Nothing too scary, but one time landing in Des Moines after midnight when it was pretty windy. Landing is the worst part for me when flying, but this particular time felt pretty wobbly landing.

 

[ISUser]

I've got a couple. I was flying into Milwaukee once around Christmas and the plane landed during a snowstorm. I'd flown enough by this point to know about how long it takes the plane to decelerate on the runway and alarms started going off in my head as we were well past that point. The plane finally slows enough to taxi to the tarmac and as it does I noticed we were at the very end of the runway. Like the very end. Zero runway left. Got off the plane and my ride informed me we had to get out of there ASAP as we were literally the last flight it before they shut down the airport. Harrowing drive to my destination too.

The other instance I was waiting in the plane for takeoff and when they started the engines smoke started filling the cabin. The stewardesses were very calm as they reopened the doors and ordered everyone to quickly get off the plane. Didn't end up leaving until the next day.