Worst Airplane Ride Stories

[CraigSca]

Well...in keeping with the breakup thread, I thought I'd start this one. Now...I'm not a big fan of flying, but I unfortunately have to do a lot of it for work. Tonight...I had a uh...not good experience....

Now, I've never had a flight with the turbulence was so bad that a flight attendant hit the roof of the plane or anything (I think I'd probably let the urine flow freely if that ever occurred), but tonight, on a flight from Boston to Philadelphia, I did have a scary moment.

The flight usually takes about 45-50 mins, but Philadelphia seemed a little backed up (typical of Philadelphia) so we weren't cleared to land until 1:15 into the flight (the three dings means we're cleared). We had complete overcast weather (no rain as of yet) due to TS Cindy, so I had no concept of where we were. Finally, we break through the clouds as we begin our descent. Since I fly into Philadelphia a lot, I knew exactly where we were, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. We continue to head down, and I know we're getting close to the runway, because there's a tanker in the Delaware river and we're below the height of the ship (< 100 feet?). As the runway comes under us, all of a sudden the pilot guns it and the engines begin to whine and we begin to take off again. I was sitting there thinking, "wtf?" as we begin to increase our altitude...waiting for something to happen (do we hit another plane?). I'm looking at other people and they are bored out of their mind?! After an interminable amount of time, our captain chimes in that we'll be taking another view of the Pennsylvania countryside because the plane that landed before us took all 9000 feet of the runway and hadn't moved off of it yet. Therefore, the need to "re"-takeoff. Fortunately, 15 mins later we were on the ground without incident. I told the flight attendants to personally thank the pilots as I left the plane.

So...I've talked to many people about flying and they've told me they've experienced this before. I was always quick to add to the discussion that I never had and was quite happy to maintain this "flight virginity" So...what's your WORST AIRPLANE story?

[Lathum]

You are lucky you got into Philly. I flew out of DFW today and all the flights to Philly were cancled.

I've been lucky, the worst expierience I had was we were getting ready to take off, gaining speed, and all of a sudden the pilot slams on the breaks, this aweful smell of burnt rubber goes through the cabin and 3 seconds later a plane comes flying across us. If the pilot hadn't been alert the other plane could have T-boned us.

[Draft Dodger]

does sharing a plane with Jaromir Jagr count?

[Eaglesfan27]

My mother has hated driving into Philly all of my life and avoids it at almost all costs. As a result, when I was going to college at USC, I almost always flew from Atlantic City to Philly and then out to Los Angeles and of course I reversed this path coming home.

In any case, it was December of 1994 and I was flying home for Chrismas break in the little puddle jumper from Philly to Atlantic City that I always flew in when coming home and I was the only passenger on the plane. The pilot kept the cockpit door/panel open since it was just me on the plane. Anyway, there was some significant storms in the area (to the point where I thought they might cancel the flight but they didn't.) I hear on the radio some message about rough weather ahead, and suddenly a big burst of lightning hit very close to us. For reasons that I'm still not sure, we went into a dive at that point! Knowing that were only cruising at 9-10,000 feet I absolutely freaked out. The dive seemed like it was forever, but it was probably only a few seconds, but I've never been on any plane that has descended so fast.

The other story wasn't scary, but I was on a DC90 I believe (or maybe it was 80?) and we had "an engine problem" that led to at least a hundred people being stuck on a plane with no working AC for about 2 hours. That was unpleasant.

[BYU 14]

When I was in the Army I took an Army chartered Jet from Atlanta to Columbia SC late at night. The entire trip the engines would rev real high then fade out until you could hardly hear them. It was turbulent, the Plane flew at a bizarre nose up angle the entire way, and to top it off the Cabin lost all electricity about halfway into the flight. There were guys loudly praying, some near tears and as this was 1980 and you could still smoke on most flights, a whole lot of chain smoking going on.

You hear of people saying they feel like Kissing the ground after a bad flight, but after this beauty we were looking for cracks in the runway to slip Mother Earth the tongue!!! It bothered me so much that I did not fly again until 2001 when I had to because of my job.

[Ksyrup]

I've never had a truly bad plane ride. A few tense moments during bumpy landings in bad weather, but I suspect that was more me than any actual danger we might have been in.

I did have a stewardess drop a chocolate cake on my head, though. This was back in high school, 20 years ago, when they served food. That sucked.

[Julio Riddols]

I just wanted to say that I have always thought slipping mother earth the tongue would be like licking the face of a cheap street walker with a trampling fetish.

Always.

[sachmo71]

So I turn to the guy next to me, and he looks familiar. I look out the window, trying to figure out where I've seen this aging hipster before, when suddenly I hear him scream, "You've unleashed the fucking fury!!!!"

[JeeberD]

I've never really had a bad flight, but I was kinda worried on the flight I took into Moscow on Aeroflot. This was around 1991 or 1992, so the Soviet Union was starting to crumble. Anyways, half the damn Aeroflot plane was covered in duct tape! The carpet was covered in it, you could see some of it out on the wing, it was on the overhead paneling...kinda scary.

There was also a time that I flew into Denver in the middle of a blizzard. It was fun, though, because I was sitting next to this cute girl and she was all freaked out about the storm, so I got to hold her hand and comfort her the last half of the flight. And the plane landed with no problems at all, even though I couldn't see more than five feet out of my window...

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

I've never really had a bad flight, but I was kinda worried on the flight I took into Moscow on Aeroflot. This was around 1991 or 1992, so the Soviet Union was starting to crumble. Anyways, half the damn Aeroflot plane was covered in duct tape! The carpet was covered in it, you could see some of it out on the wing, it was on the overhead paneling...kinda scary.

I was going to tell the exact same story. I took Aeroflot from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1993. It wasn't that scary of a flight, but the exposed wiring and vapor of an uncertain nature spraying into the passenger cabin did not inspire confidence. The flight was okay, but the Soviet-style 3-point landing was a bit rough...

[Mustang]

My worst experience on a plane never happened..

I got on the plane, saw John Travolta was the pilot and promptly turned around. Something just didn't feel right . . .

[flere-imsaho]

Story 1: Flying into Washington National (before it was Reagan) one blustery January morning in a puddle jumper. The entire approach the plane was getting tossed around like a ball of paper. Just before landing, an enormous gust knocks the plane sideways, completely off the path of the runway. Pilot guns the engine, and we go around for a 2nd try.

Story 2: Flying out of Portland, Maine, in a blizzard. Waiting in the terminal, we hear that Delta has given up and cancelled their flights. United (who I'm flying) haven't yet. We get on the plane and they de-ice us. We taxi through the snow to the runway. You can't see the asphalt, as the snow is falling so fast. In front of us on the runway is a line of plows. They de-ice us again (on the runway). Plows take off. About a minute later, the pilot guns the engine (but with the brakes on, as we didn't go anywhere immediately), releases the brakes, and we shoot down the runway, getting airborne just at the end.

Story 3: This is from my Dad, from a flight he took in the '70s. He's flying from Dulles to O'Hare. Chicago's socked in with T-storms, so they divert to St. Louis and sit on the ground for a while. Then they get back up in the air and fly towards Chicago. Once to the Chicago area, they get into a holding pattern. Then, 3 times in 3 minutes, the pilot comes on and says: "You're not going to believe this, but...". Meanwhile, Dad's been talking to the guy in the seat next to him, who sells aircraft instrumentation and thus knows (or seems to know) a good amount about aviation. All of a sudden the pilot executes a very hard turn and climb. My Dad describes it like he planted the right wing and pivoted around it. The guy next to Dad, who was in mid-sentence at the time, completes his thought in gobbledy-gook and immediately starts drinking. He'll say nothing for the rest of the trip.

Pilot finally comes back on and says they've been diverted to Midway, where they land. At Midway, Pilot comes back to the cabin and tells passengers that he has no idea when/if they'll get clearance to go to O'Hare. So, if they want to get off the plane, they can, and the airline will pay for them to cab it to O'Hare. Dad, who's got to get a connection to Madison anyway, decides to stay on the plane. The plane lowers its back ramp and opens the front hatch to the ladder (no jetway), and the pilot gets out some baggage for those who are giving up.

Thirty minutes later, the remaining passengers & the flight attendants are all talking and drinking on the tarmac when the pilot comes running out of the plane and says they've got clearance to go to O'Hare, but need to get in the air ASAP. Everyone runs into the plane, the pilot taxis and takes off without slowing down, and they head to O'Hare. Plane flies over residential Chicago without gaining any real altitude. Plane lands at O'Hare without further incident, Dad finds a connection to Madison, and the rest of the trip works out OK.

[mhass]

The Philly story reminds me of one:
I was living there at the time and very used to landing there. We're on approach and I see the usual things pass under the plane - Jersey, Bucks County, the city, the river, the cargo hangers. Then the runway appears, but seems to be very far away. Then the skid marks on the runway from plane tires show up. Then the skid marks stop. And we still aren't on the ground... more flying...more flying... then the engines fire up and we shoot back up in the air.

There is a long period of confused discussion among the passengers. The flight attendants, of course, are still strapped into their jump seats so no one has any information. We circle around a bit and finally one of the pilots comes on and begins to say something when in the background another voice screams "You're such a prick! I fuc.." and the mic goes dead. More silence and more silence. Then they come back on and say "We've misjudged our rate of descent and had to" and the background voice again "Not WE you asshole. You!"

Anyway, we finally got back on the ground but unlike normal deplanings, no one from the cockpit is standing at the door to wish us well. Never heard what the deal was.

[MJ4H]

I had two funky incidents when I was in college and travelling with the Razorback basketball team on pep band trips.

The first incident wasn't so bad, but we were coming home from Atlanta and the SEC tournament. It was the most heinous turbulence I've ever experienced. The plane would routinely feel like it dropped straight down for 5-6 seconds over and over again. People were lining up to go to the bathroom and puke. I made it ok. Then we had to land in Tulsa instead of Fayetteville because it was snowing or something. Had to charter busses to get us home. THat whole trip sucked, but wasn't really scary.

The other time is when we were coming home from New York when we made the NIT Final Four. Our pilot landed at the wrong airport. Now, the airport in Fayetteville isn't very big, but the one we landed at, 10 minutes north in Springdale is very small. We were in a very large plance. As the plane touched down, he hit the brakes so hard I almost joined Ali Thompson in the seat in front of us (I really don't know if that's who was up there, but that's what my vague recollection says). So we start trying to turn the plane around on the run way. The plane starts backing up a little then inching forward, and repeating. Then I look out the window and see a McDonald's that has a big plastic airplane on its roof out the window. I told my friend I thought that McDonald's was in Springdale. He looks out and starts laughing. Pretty soon the pilot comes walking through the cabin and goes out the back somehow. He has a very oh shit look on his face. Then he goes back up to the front. It is becoming obvious to everyone we landed at the wrong airport. This runway is tiny. Everyone realizes that it was a miracle we got the plane stopped in time.

So he continues to try to get turned around. As I'm sitting there looking out the window (I'm in the very back seat on the right side of the plane) I suddenly see a BLUE FLAME SHOOT FROM THE ENGINE (EDIT-forgot to explain this part, apparently when the runway cracked a piece of the concrete got sucked up into the jet engine, causing the flame--I found this part out later).

Well that did it, the pilot shut it down. He comes stormning through the cabin again and out the back. We unload and have to get our luggage off the plane there at the far end of the airport all the way at the end of the runway. As we get out, we notice the plane has CRACKED the runway because it was too heavy, and the front wheels were off the runway and in the grass.

Nolan Richardson had to pull some strings to get busses stirred up at midnight or one in the morning to take us back to Fayetteville. Loads of fun.

[sportsfan13]

My only bad incident was a flight back from Orlando to Cleveland, when a kid behind me couldn't hold his lunch and projectile vomited the entire trip. Thank God the flight was pretty empty, so the flight attendents moved us to another seat. Gross. I wouldn't have been bad if he threw up and got it out of his system. He literally threw up ALL 4 HOURS! Miserable...

[Logan]

My cousin Walter jerked off in public once. True story. He was on a plane to New Mexico, when all of a sudden the hydraulics went. The plane started spinning around, going out of control. So he decides it's all over and whips it out and starts beating it right there. So all the other passengers take a cue from him and they start beating like mad. So all the passengers are beating off, plummeting to their certain doom...when all the sudden, the hydraulics kick back in and the plane rights itself. It lands safely. And everyone puts their pieces or whatever away and deboards. And nobody mentions the phenomenon to anyone else.

[Mr. Wednesday]

I've had some fun landings due to cross-winds, most of them involving puddle-jumpers from South Bend to Cleveland but one recently on a regional jet from South Bend to Detroit.

Other than that, one time when I flew American through Dallas, there were thunderstorms in the area. I think it was a near thing for us to get a go-ahead to take off. We were a good ways up when we hit a bit of heavy turbulence; the plane felt like it dropped pretty significantly, but it didn't overly concern me because I knew we were pretty high by that point.

[Karlifornia]

When I was about 4 years old, my mother and I went to visit my grandparents in Dayton. Our flight took off in San Francisco, and we had a connecting flight to catch in O'Hare. Well, the United flight in front of us ended up doing a bunch of flaming cartwheels on the runway..and they had us circle around until all of the other flights that were supposed to go to Des Moines re-directed to O'Hare (or something like that..I was 4) So, we finally got clearance to land, but our connecting flight had already come and gone. So we had to wait in O'Hare for about 8 hours until another flight to Dayton had 2 seats available. Well, we flew threw a humdinger of a thunderstorm, and my mom freaked out at the heavy turbulence. When we got off of the airplane, a little pointed to my mom and said "There's the lady that screamed!" I was one embarrassed kid.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

I was on a flight once that was going very smoothly. I had my drink in hand, reading the sporting news and was drunk (as always when I'm on a plane.) All of a sudden, my hand and drink slam into the overhead compartment. At the same time a stewardess who was walking in the aisle was suddenly suspended in midair. She flew about 10 feet and landed right by me. Some guy comes out of the john and she's yelling at him to sit down... "But my seat" "I SAID SIT DOWN!!!" He sat down in an empty seat. When the plane stablized she looks at me. I felt fine, but must have looked pretty bad because she asked me if I was OK. "You're asking ME if I"M ok? I just saw you flying!!! Are you ok???"

As for why a flight would be delayed in the air and then another plane on the runway would keep a plane from landing... I think that we need to build high speed rail and end short-distance flights. The fuel used to get the average jet off the ground is more than enough to take a bullet train back and forth several times between Boston & Philly. If on a train you could get from Boston to Philly in two hoours there would be no reason to have any flights on the same route. Safer and more efficient. That's why it'll never work.

[korme]

My cousin Walter jerked off in public once. True story. He was on a plane to New Mexico when all of the sudden the hydraulics went. The plane started spinning around, going out of control, so he decides it's all over and whips it out and starts beating it right there. So all the other passengers take a cue from him and they start whipping it out and beating like mad. So all the passengers are beating off, plummeting to their certain doom, when all of the sudden, *Snap* the hydraulics kick back in. The plane rights itself and it land safely and everyone puts their pieces or, whatever, you know, away and deboard. No one mentions the phenomenon to anyone else.

[SnowMan]

I'm a commercial pilot. It's not near as exciting in the cockpit as it feels from the back. Usually I don't even have to put my newspaper and cocktail...I mean, pepsi, down.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by mhass

We circle around a bit and finally one of the pilots comes on and begins to say something when in the background another voice screams "You're such a prick! I fuc.." and the mic goes dead. More silence and more silence. Then they come back on and say "We've misjudged our rate of descent and had to" and the background voice again "Not WE you asshole. You!"

Awesome

SI

[Eaglesfan27]

Agreed. That is my favorite story so far.

[PilotMan]

This thread is great! I have laughed all the way through it. I practically have tears in my eyes. Hilarious!

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

My cousin Walter jerked off in public once. True story. He was on a plane to New Mexico when all of the sudden the hydraulics went. The plane started spinning around, going out of control, so he decides it's all over and whips it out and starts beating it right there. So all the other passengers take a cue from him and they start whipping it out and beating like mad. So all the passengers are beating off, plummeting to their certain doom, when all of the sudden, *Snap* the hydraulics kick back in. The plane rights itself and it land safely and everyone puts their pieces or, whatever, you know, away and deboard. No one mentions the phenomenon to anyone else.

You were only about 3 and a half hours late.