Your Scariest Flying Experience
- Thread starter Acylum
- Start date
Totally saw one do that somewhere in the middle of Nebraska just a few weeks ago........Nearly drove off I-80 watching him.....
about 10 years ago took a flight from Portland to Pendleton in a small 6 passenger prop. It was open cockpit so I took opportunity to sit behind the pilots and chatted during the flight. It was cold and rainy but pilots initially didn't seem concerned. Pendleton is an uncontrolled airport so as we approached they turned on the runway lights and started the descent. All of the sudden it sounded like hail hitting the wings and body; pilots very quickly "pulled up" and turned back to Portland. When we were cruising, I asked if the hail was that serious. He said consider yourselves very lucky; that wasn't hail, that was ice breaking off the wings and that was the closest he's been in 25 years of flying to crashing. Very quiet flight back to Portland
There's a stretch around central WI where they tend to be real prevalent and about every time I drive back from up north I think I'm about to see a small plane crash before realizing I'm driving through that zone.
Was in an emergency landing in a Cessna when I was a kid. Engine stopped and we had to glide to the airport. Cabin was full of smoke .
Also every time I flew in a helicopter or Osprey we n the Marines
Also every time I flew in a helicopter or Osprey we n the Marines
My scariest flying experience was a 5am chopper ride to Mayo/Rochester. Surreal.
I have a few from my travels.
1.) Madrid to Newark one time. I'm in the aisle seat and the guy in the middle seat is sweating heavily, breathing hard, holding his legs just weird stuff. Window seat asks if he's OK and the middle seat guy nods. During take off the guy just collapses face first into the seat in front of him. Window seat guy is trying to shake him asking if he's OK. I'm pounding the call button. The guy across the aisle from me gets up and starts yelling for help. The flight attendants yell at us over the intercom. Pretty chaotic. We get to 10k feet and the attendants come back to see what's going on. Doctor requested, a few on board, and they call it like they see it. Middle seat in front of him was his friend says he's had 3 heart attacks before. We circle back and land and guy next to me gets carted off the plane with his friend. The guy that died relieved himself so there was quite the stench and they moved several of us to different seats.
2.) During descent from Atlanta to Dallas we hit a pocket of air or something and it felt like we were in free fall and we slam down stabilizing. Bags fall out and air masks were deployed. People's phones were everywhere. Landed fine.
3.) Chicago to Frankfurt. Pilot comes over the intercom and says to take your seat immediately and buckle up including the flight attendants. Business class flight attendant was rushing back with the cart and we hit turbulence and she went head over heels over the cart in a near perfect flip. Broke both her heels when she landed. Not sure if anything else happened but didn't see her get up from her jump seat the rest of the flight and she was wheelchaired off.
4.) Dallas to Los Angeles. Guy was drunk or something and proceeded to attempt to kick the cockpit door in. A couple of the flight attendants and a huge guy in first class wrestle him down and he's ziptied to his seat. He proceeds to yell the rest of the time including pissing himself to get them to untie him. Police were there when we landed.
5.) Dallas to Cleveland. Plane immediately got off the runway in one of the quickest turns I've ever had. Pilot said another plane was doing an emergency landing last second right behind us and apologized for the jerky turn.
6.) Louisville to Chicago. I don't know exactly what happened but there was several people becoming sick in the back of the plane. Then the smell was getting so bad on the plane other people started throwing up too and it was a crazy like chain reaction. Flight attendants came around and asked if there were any more air sickness bags and then went over the intercom and said to try our best to keep it contained because there was no more bags. I thought it was the next apocalypse happening and I was next.
Just what came to mind immediately. A few aborted landings/takeoffs but all got sorted out.
1.) Madrid to Newark one time. I'm in the aisle seat and the guy in the middle seat is sweating heavily, breathing hard, holding his legs just weird stuff. Window seat asks if he's OK and the middle seat guy nods. During take off the guy just collapses face first into the seat in front of him. Window seat guy is trying to shake him asking if he's OK. I'm pounding the call button. The guy across the aisle from me gets up and starts yelling for help. The flight attendants yell at us over the intercom. Pretty chaotic. We get to 10k feet and the attendants come back to see what's going on. Doctor requested, a few on board, and they call it like they see it. Middle seat in front of him was his friend says he's had 3 heart attacks before. We circle back and land and guy next to me gets carted off the plane with his friend. The guy that died relieved himself so there was quite the stench and they moved several of us to different seats.
2.) During descent from Atlanta to Dallas we hit a pocket of air or something and it felt like we were in free fall and we slam down stabilizing. Bags fall out and air masks were deployed. People's phones were everywhere. Landed fine.
3.) Chicago to Frankfurt. Pilot comes over the intercom and says to take your seat immediately and buckle up including the flight attendants. Business class flight attendant was rushing back with the cart and we hit turbulence and she went head over heels over the cart in a near perfect flip. Broke both her heels when she landed. Not sure if anything else happened but didn't see her get up from her jump seat the rest of the flight and she was wheelchaired off.
4.) Dallas to Los Angeles. Guy was drunk or something and proceeded to attempt to kick the cockpit door in. A couple of the flight attendants and a huge guy in first class wrestle him down and he's ziptied to his seat. He proceeds to yell the rest of the time including pissing himself to get them to untie him. Police were there when we landed.
5.) Dallas to Cleveland. Plane immediately got off the runway in one of the quickest turns I've ever had. Pilot said another plane was doing an emergency landing last second right behind us and apologized for the jerky turn.
6.) Louisville to Chicago. I don't know exactly what happened but there was several people becoming sick in the back of the plane. Then the smell was getting so bad on the plane other people started throwing up too and it was a crazy like chain reaction. Flight attendants came around and asked if there were any more air sickness bags and then went over the intercom and said to try our best to keep it contained because there was no more bags. I thought it was the next apocalypse happening and I was next.
Just what came to mind immediately. A few aborted landings/takeoffs but all got sorted out.
Judas Priest dude I hope I’m never on one of your flights. #6 reminds me of an episode of House MD.
Yikes! I’m pretty sure every one of these stories would be everyone else’s worst flight story. And you’ve had 6 of them.
Have you considered writing a book? Jesus man. Those are all terrible.
Never really scary as I love flying, crossed paths of a jumbo and dropped a bit while flying out to DC for a school spring break trip, the 4 of us in back all jokingly looked up from our GBs and yelled let's do that again. Or flying out of Algiers during a thunderstorm right on the coast was awesome too, pitching side to side and bumping around. Those are the two I always remember.
1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision - Wikipedia
Basically every person on two commercial flights died in a mid-air collision over a remote and nearly impossible area to access over the Grand Canyon.
I know a woman who was SUPPOSED to be on this flight. She was a college student from Ohio that was in California for some kind of Sorority event. Her chaperone talked her into staying an extra day to attend a banquet so was not on the plane that crashed.
She and her husband (who she was engaged to at the time) were good friends of our family. They were almost like second parents to me and I spent a lot of time with them. Holidays, traveling etc.
I did not learn about it until about 2 years ago. She's in her late 80s now. I try to imagine what life would have been like for me if I'd never met her.
I'll add another one- not really scary from a technical flying standpoint, but when we went to Key West for our honeymoon, we took a little tiny plane from Fort Myers to Key West (8-12 seater). It was my wife and I, one young dude, and the pilot.
I spent the whole time wondering how old the pilot was (I'd guess 60ish), judging his general health, watching all the gages and assessing the terrorist potential in the young dude that was sitting by the pilot. Was completely ready to choke him out if he went for the stick lol.
In summary, there should be a wall between me and whatever is going on in the cockpit.
I spent the whole time wondering how old the pilot was (I'd guess 60ish), judging his general health, watching all the gages and assessing the terrorist potential in the young dude that was sitting by the pilot. Was completely ready to choke him out if he went for the stick lol.
In summary, there should be a wall between me and whatever is going on in the cockpit.
Had to circle Chicago once for about an hour because there was a fire...in O'Hare's tower.
Also sat on the tarmac in Dulles once for three hours once because of thunderstorms. It was hot. No water. Bathrooms were restricted. And then they showed a Star Trek movie.
In the day when T-dub (TWA) still existed, flew into St. Louis several times. The plane would always drop like a pool table just before landing, and we once enjoyed a missed approach because another plane was still on the runway when it was our turn to land. Zoooom, bruh, felt like we were on a rocket launch.
Probably the most fun was a charter out of Des Moines to Paris. There were people smoking in the back of the plane and someone with oxygen a few rows ahead in non-smoking. One of the bathroom doors wouldn't shut and kept banging throughout the flight. A few hours in, some guy pulled out a harmonica. I guess he was planning to "entertain the troops". As I recall, a stewardess asked him to put it away before the other passengers mutinied.
Good times.
Also sat on the tarmac in Dulles once for three hours once because of thunderstorms. It was hot. No water. Bathrooms were restricted. And then they showed a Star Trek movie.
In the day when T-dub (TWA) still existed, flew into St. Louis several times. The plane would always drop like a pool table just before landing, and we once enjoyed a missed approach because another plane was still on the runway when it was our turn to land. Zoooom, bruh, felt like we were on a rocket launch.
Probably the most fun was a charter out of Des Moines to Paris. There were people smoking in the back of the plane and someone with oxygen a few rows ahead in non-smoking. One of the bathroom doors wouldn't shut and kept banging throughout the flight. A few hours in, some guy pulled out a harmonica. I guess he was planning to "entertain the troops". As I recall, a stewardess asked him to put it away before the other passengers mutinied.
Good times.
Mine is tame compared to others. My very first flight was for an interview arranged my a potential employee in Dallas. I flew from Des Moines to KC, then changed planes to go to DFW. The first leg was fine. I was kinda terrified since it was my first flight and it was before cell phones, but it was pretty straight forward.
We changed planes, left KC and were due to land in DFW around 8pm. Mid-flight, the captain announced that there was an electrical issue and we had to return to KC. They ended up having us sit on the tarmac for about 45 minutes before hitting a gate. Then we sat another half hour at the gate before being told to deplane. Then we sat another 2 hours while they found another plane for us.
We ended up leaving KC around 11:30PM and hitting DFM around 1230 AM. They guy that was supposed to pick me up had left when the plane was delayed and didn't get back to the airport until around 1 AM. Meanwhile, I was just sitting in the airport with my bag wondering what to do, since I wasn't given any hotel info and had no cell phone and very little money to my name at the time.
The guy eventually showed up, took me to the hotel around 1:30 AM, then returned at 6:30 to pick me up and take me to my interview.
Oh, and I totally bombed the interview and did not get the job.
We changed planes, left KC and were due to land in DFW around 8pm. Mid-flight, the captain announced that there was an electrical issue and we had to return to KC. They ended up having us sit on the tarmac for about 45 minutes before hitting a gate. Then we sat another half hour at the gate before being told to deplane. Then we sat another 2 hours while they found another plane for us.
We ended up leaving KC around 11:30PM and hitting DFM around 1230 AM. They guy that was supposed to pick me up had left when the plane was delayed and didn't get back to the airport until around 1 AM. Meanwhile, I was just sitting in the airport with my bag wondering what to do, since I wasn't given any hotel info and had no cell phone and very little money to my name at the time.
The guy eventually showed up, took me to the hotel around 1:30 AM, then returned at 6:30 to pick me up and take me to my interview.
Oh, and I totally bombed the interview and did not get the job.
SO many. Will touch on a few.
1. While watching the in flight movie "Meet Joe Black" in very heavy turbulence, we lost an engine, leaned heavy left, lost altitude fast, and diverted to MN where firetrucks were there to greet.
Irony: in the movie he was just about to say who he was. No kidding.
2. Private plane: landing on same runway at same time within 1/4 mile. 100ft separated us.
3. Private plane: until you've experienced 'icing' nothing else compares.
4. Private plane: VFR in direct flight path of O'Hare, forcing passenger jet to abort their approach. Nothing like that thing heading straight at you.
5. Landing at county line airport in Kansas city was always hair raising due to its short hilly runway. Poor trees. Clipped them more than we would have liked.
Side note: both parents were pilots. On way from Chicago to San Diego before I was born, they ran out of gas, landed on a highway in AZ, filled up at the local gas station (back then fuel grade wasn't as needed), waited for the local sheriff to stop traffic, and completed their trip.
1. While watching the in flight movie "Meet Joe Black" in very heavy turbulence, we lost an engine, leaned heavy left, lost altitude fast, and diverted to MN where firetrucks were there to greet.
Irony: in the movie he was just about to say who he was. No kidding.
2. Private plane: landing on same runway at same time within 1/4 mile. 100ft separated us.
3. Private plane: until you've experienced 'icing' nothing else compares.
4. Private plane: VFR in direct flight path of O'Hare, forcing passenger jet to abort their approach. Nothing like that thing heading straight at you.
5. Landing at county line airport in Kansas city was always hair raising due to its short hilly runway. Poor trees. Clipped them more than we would have liked.
Side note: both parents were pilots. On way from Chicago to San Diego before I was born, they ran out of gas, landed on a highway in AZ, filled up at the local gas station (back then fuel grade wasn't as needed), waited for the local sheriff to stop traffic, and completed their trip.
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