Post Your Most Harrowing Flying Stories

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,882
16,585
grayslake
my luggage was just lost, +48 hours to fly it to my city, +72 more to deliver it the 6.8 km to where i was refusing to buy more than 1 additional shirt gdammit you fuckers

worst turbulence was got some food and then just felt multiple points where the plane felt like it was sinking/free falling. i've felt turbulence before but not these long fun sustained drops. usually shakey shakey over, this was more like drop drrop drroopFUCKDROP while holding onto the foodstuffs. ah it's over. shakey shakey DRROOOOPO fawwwwk in reality i'm sure the whole thing didn't last that long but it was scareh.

my craziest intentional pain was booking 8 flights over 32 hours to make sure i'd get AA status and then get to work. it was when the dallas ice storm hit and ended up being 7 flights over 48 hours. the second of the master plan was canceled as i was driving to MKE at 5am to start the whole damn thing. i only got in/out of DFW, multiple times, because of having some status already and working other things i had access to. some people were in the airport for days during that storm.
 

Bru

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May 24, 2007
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I fly about 70,000 miles per year (pretty average I think among other business class frequent flyers) and haven't had any truly fearful experiences. Before the holidays I sat next to a lady whose husband ditched her for a seat further back and she started wailing crying on takeoff, during mid-flight turbulence and during landing. Noise-cancelling headphones couldn't even drown that out.

There have also been a few times where I see other planes in the air that look way too close for comfort, like an inch big in the window, but I'm sure it's just an illusion and they're within regulations.
 

Primalzer

TCG Elite Member
Sep 14, 2006
25,259
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Had some sketchy landings flying into Tampa when it's windy, side wheel down, power up and back off the ground, straighten out, hard off throttle and hard down.

Had to make an emergency medical landing in Canada, on the way back from London. Not really scary, was in business, and just reclined just about to full recline and kept watching my movie, while the ex was back in coach :hsughlol:
 

Dave M

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Aug 28, 2015
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I also do about 70k a year (and currently sitting at the United club in DFW waiting to head back to ORD), and the two worst experiences I've had was a flight out of Salt lake that had such bad turbulence for the first hour, the flight attendants never got out of their seats, and not only was it choppy, but the plane was moving side to side so hard people were nearly bumping heads. The other one was a flight from St. Louis to ORD where there were 60mph winds in STL, and 70mph gusts at ORD, and I was on a fucking CRJ-700 regional jet that got tossed around like a 3 dollar whore at a bachelor party. I was so stressed out after we landed, I proceeded to total my Suburban on the way home from the airport.
 

Great White Drake

You used to call me on my cell phone
Jun 23, 2010
6,094
8,246
My wife and I took our 1 1/2 yo daughter to Texas this summer. My kids first time flying. No problem on the way there, on the way back she shit her pants, it irritates her cuz we can't get out of our seat to change her, and ends up crying/screaming the 10-15 mins before landing. Last time I go on vacation with my wife.
 

nytebyte

Not Politically Correct
Mar 2, 2004
13,627
20,955
Was coming back from Vegas and was forced to sit in the middle seat right next to an unbelievably large female hippopotamus. This bitch had to be pushing 450 easy and was literally SPILLING over into my seat. Of course, the flight was "full" (aren't they always), so there was no escaping to another seat. For the entire four hour flight about 25% of the right side of my body was covered in warm hippo blubber. It was one of the most fucking disgusting things I've ever had to endure.

Something slightly more scary: I have a friend who was a flight instructor and was taking a flight to St. Louis in a little single engine Cessna 182. He asked me if I wanted to tag along. So we take off and not three minutes later, the oil pressure alarm goes off in the cockpit. Hole-e-fuck! So he puts that little plane in a 90 degree bank to head back to the airport, while declaring an emergency on the radio (this was out of Palwakee). We're cleared to land and on approach, but the engine ain't sounding so good. The RPM's keep dropping, so he keeps adding throttle. Finally we touch down safely and as soon as he backs off the throttle, the prop stopped dead. Didn't spin down, just *bam* - stopped. Fuckin engine seized solid.
 

FirstWorldProblems

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Sep 6, 2006
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Was coming back from Vegas and was forced to sit in the middle seat right next to an unbelievably large female hippopotamus. This bitch had to be pushing 450 easy and was literally SPILLING over into my seat. Of course, the flight was "full" (aren't they always), so there was no escaping to another seat. For the entire four hour flight about 25% of the right side of my body was covered in warm hippo blubber. It was one of the most fucking disgusting things I've ever had to endure.

Something slightly more scary: I have a friend who was a flight instructor and was taking a flight to St. Louis in a little single engine Cessna 182. He asked me if I wanted to tag along. So we take off and not three minutes later, the oil pressure alarm goes off in the cockpit. Hole-e-fuck! So he puts that little plane in a 90 degree bank to head back to the airport, while declaring an emergency on the radio (this was out of Palwakee). We're cleared to land and on approach, but the engine ain't sounding so good. The RPM's keep dropping, so he keeps adding throttle. Finally we touch down safely and as soon as he backs off the throttle, the prop stopped dead. Didn't spin down, just *bam* - stopped. Fuckin engine seized solid.

Obese people on planes are the worst...do they still make people buy two tickets if they're over a certain weight?

That second story is fucking nuts...no ty
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,882
16,585
grayslake
I also do about 70k a year (and currently sitting at the United club in DFW waiting to head back to ORD), and the two worst experiences I've had was a flight out of Salt lake that had such bad turbulence for the first hour, the flight attendants never got out of their seats, and not only was it choppy, but the plane was moving side to side so hard people were nearly bumping heads. The other one was a flight from St. Louis to ORD where there were 60mph winds in STL, and 70mph gusts at ORD, and I was on a fucking CRJ-700 regional jet that got tossed around like a 3 dollar whore at a bachelor party. I was so stressed out after we landed, I proceeded to total my Suburban on the way home from the airport.

if you go to dallas frequently you are missing out if not going to that amazeballs centurioun lounge yo

that does not sound like a fun experience
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,882
16,585
grayslake
Was coming back from Vegas and was forced to sit in the middle seat right next to an unbelievably large female hippopotamus. This bitch had to be pushing 450 easy and was literally SPILLING over into my seat. Of course, the flight was "full" (aren't they always), so there was no escaping to another seat. For the entire four hour flight about 25% of the right side of my body was covered in warm hippo blubber. It was one of the most fucking disgusting things I've ever had to endure.

Something slightly more scary: I have a friend who was a flight instructor and was taking a flight to St. Louis in a little single engine Cessna 182. He asked me if I wanted to tag along. So we take off and not three minutes later, the oil pressure alarm goes off in the cockpit. Hole-e-fuck! So he puts that little plane in a 90 degree bank to head back to the airport, while declaring an emergency on the radio (this was out of Palwakee). We're cleared to land and on approach, but the engine ain't sounding so good. The RPM's keep dropping, so he keeps adding throttle. Finally we touch down safely and as soon as he backs off the throttle, the prop stopped dead. Didn't spin down, just *bam* - stopped. Fuckin engine seized solid.

this thread is turning into what i thought it was going to be originally when i read the title, the mike k pass this to someone to scare the fuck all out of them about flying thread
 

radioguy6

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May 23, 2008
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Hit some NASTY turbulence on the decent coming into Denver, the free fall stomach drop turbulence. it was very sudden, many people gasped/screamed when it hit. Guy in front of me was not belted in (should have been for the decent) and nearly hit his head on the overhead. Not an easy feeling.
 

Dave M

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Aug 28, 2015
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Hit some NASTY turbulence on the decent coming into Denver, the free fall stomach drop turbulence. it was very sudden, many people gasped/screamed when it hit. Guy in front of me was not belted in (should have been for the decent) and nearly hit his head on the overhead. Not an easy feeling.


Flying into Denver is almost always like this. I was going into Denver once, and I saw the airport going by on my right at about 3,000', then the plane banked hard right, into a u-turn to make an immediate approach, that freaked me out hardcore.
 

ragingclue

What's a "Super Bowl"?
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Dec 19, 2013
2,476
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Do helicopters count?

My worst fixed wing experience was in a C-130. Middle of summer. Ali Al-Salem, Kuwait. I got fucked because I was in a seat over the gear so basically it meant I had to sit with my knees in the dudes' balls across from me and they had their knees in my balls. We bake on the tarmac, bake on the taxiway (btw they don't run some of the HVAC stuff for that period of time), then we get going down the runway and abort halfway. So we go back to baking on the tarmac. All systems off while they repair (something about engine 3 being down on power on takeoff). "Don't worry, it'll be 30 mins MAX so we're not going to disembark." 60 minutes later, they finally let us out the back. It was 110 or somewhere around there that day and getting out after all that felt like a cool breeze, and we were on the tarmac in the middle of the summer in the middle of the day in Kuwait. I lost ungodly amounts of water. Finally they fixed the piece of shit and we went to Iraq. I thought I was going to have a stroke and die for a while there. The end.
 

zenriddles

Guns don't kill people, 'vaccines' do
Aug 18, 2005
4,953
3,827
Holiday Inn
Early 90's, old 727 heading into Baltimore I believe.

Still high up but had begun decent to destination. About 9 rows up from me is a bright blue flash and a very loud bang.

Cabin goes dark, plane begins to flip over.

You know the Hollywood movies where people scream and run around the plane? Not this flight, you could have heard a pin drop - if you could hear at all after that bang.

Plane is now inverted, and half the overhead storage doors are open, spilling all of the briefcases onto the ceiling of the aircraft. Of course these cases spill open all over the roof, which is temporarily the floor.

Captain regains control, turns the plane back to right side up and proceeds to airport. All the papers that spilled out of all those bags are now floating down from the old floor, which has become a ceiling again. Cabin looks like a giant Snow-Globe inside.

Plane lands without a word from the cockpit. Getting off the plane I asked the Captain what kind of Cesna he hit. He said casually, 'Oh, that was just a lightning strike, happens a couple times a year to most commercial planes.'
 

Stink Star

Don’t Drive Angry!
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Jan 20, 2008
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Taking off from Las Vegas on a particularly warm day (110*+). I was with my buddy and there was this random guy in our 3 seat section. We rev up and start rolling down the runway like any time I fly and it seems like the plane really isn't getting up to speed. All of a sudden the front end of the plane dips hard and the engines start screaming. Turns out the pilot just ran out of runway and threw on the hooks and full reverse thrust. Well now we are having a problem slowing down by the end of the runway. The plane then yawed so hard I'm surprised it didn't tip over onto the wing as he was pulling a u-turn. We taxi back up the runway and turn around at a more sane speed. as we attempt takeoff again my buddy and I are trying to "out brave" each other and keep cool, but later find out we were both in a cold sweat. Well the plane feels like it barely wants to get off the ground and does that backwards slip thing every few seconds while we are climbing. We then VIOLENTLY bank to the left further than I've ever banked in a big plane, it had to be like a 70* bank. At this point I'm convinced we are going to die, and I notice the random guy in our isle is chewing his fingernails till they bleed and is farting so much that I actually questioned if he shit himself. Plane eventually leveled out and the rest of the flight was unremarkable.
 

LikeABauce302

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Aug 27, 2013
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I used to fly weekly for work so I've had a few rough ones.

One of my worst experiences wasn't really an airline issue, but more so the weather. I had an early morning flight from O'Hare to LaGuardia and the weather was awful all day. It was late January / early February and we were getting some nasty wind and thunderstorms. My flight got cancelled so I rebooked to a later one, that one got cancelled, rebooked, cancelled, rebooked, etc. I had my flight number changed 4 or 5 times. Finally around 8 PMish, the last flight headed to LaGuardia got the go ahead and luckily I was able to get a seat. The plane took off and the turbulence was rough for the whole flight, the flight attendants stayed strapped in and didn't attempt to do drink service. I checked a Pelican case with me stocked full of tools and of course it never made it on the right plane. I ended up getting my tools delivers to my hotel the next day. Anyhow, I landed in New York around 11 pm, got outside in the pouring rain and stood by the Avis shuttle bus stop so I can get a rental car. After awhile of waiting, no busses came, so I started walking towards the rental agencies. Walked through the pouring rain and actually ended up getting picked up by the Enterprise bus as I was about halfway. He made an exception for me and dropped me off at Avis where I had my reservation. Got there just as they were getting ready to shut the doors for the night, but luckily got a car. All in all just a miserable day and night.
 
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