Post Your Most Harrowing Flying Stories
- Thread starter Mike K
- Start date
love that guy
Me: coming home from Mexico I was feeling nasaus the whole cab ride to the air port. My wife and I didn't sit next to eachother because we were on a boat for check in time. 45mins into the flight my stomach has had enough. I discretely (sitting next to two strangers) unleashed a bulemics wet dream into the barf bag. I tried to be casual and make it to the bathroom with my bag. I barely make it in there before the puke dam opened. I wasn't able to get the toilet seat up so I threw up all over it.
My reaction was throwing my arms up in shock, at which point I dropped the puke bag in my hand. Which (in slow motion) fell and it the ground ejecting the vomit all the way to the ceiling of the lavatory. Now I'm pinned against the door with puke running at my feet and falling from the ceiling. I projectile vomited one more time all over the bathroom.
I then walked out and went to tell a flight attendant. The poor women was eating her lunch. It was sushi. As I'm telling her the vomit starts running out from under the door down the aisle. I grabbed a roll of paper towels to stop it from seeping out. The flight attendent then gave me a ginger ale and just locked the bathroom door. I could do nothing but say sorry. She said "don't worry Hun I'm not the one who has to clean it." The rest of the flight was ok
My reaction was throwing my arms up in shock, at which point I dropped the puke bag in my hand. Which (in slow motion) fell and it the ground ejecting the vomit all the way to the ceiling of the lavatory. Now I'm pinned against the door with puke running at my feet and falling from the ceiling. I projectile vomited one more time all over the bathroom.
I then walked out and went to tell a flight attendant. The poor women was eating her lunch. It was sushi. As I'm telling her the vomit starts running out from under the door down the aisle. I grabbed a roll of paper towels to stop it from seeping out. The flight attendent then gave me a ginger ale and just locked the bathroom door. I could do nothing but say sorry. She said "don't worry Hun I'm not the one who has to clean it." The rest of the flight was ok
Any flight from Miami to Key West probably. You take this shitty prop airplane that is so small the gate doesn't even connect to it. The whole thing shakes and the interior panels vibrate. It also seems like your not really that high off the ground.
My parents went to St Marten one year and at the same time put me on a flight to my grandparents in Arkansas. I was 18 and flew down there with a horrible hangover. On the way back it was my 19th Birthday and I had the flu. About half an hour into the flight I felt like I was going to puke. It was a pretty small plane so it only had 2 seats on either side. I was in the window seat, and the lady next to me was brought on the plane in a wheelchair. I asked her if she could move so I could go to the bathroom. She then in a very condescending tone informed me she was unable to move her legs. I pretty much spent the short flight from Springfield Missouri to Chicago with that stupid paper barf bag between my legs, and the handicapped lady would press the flight attendant call button to complain about being next to a sick person. And that was how I spent my golden birthday.
I once agreed to go flying with this guy I knew in a single prop learner plane. He had rich parents who paid for his flying lessons to get his license. We flew from Aurora to Dekalb and he smoked weed in the plane and would stall it out and make it go into free fall so the loose contents in the cockpit would just float in the air. Not my finest moment of judgement, but we lived and it was a pretty good time.
My parents went to St Marten one year and at the same time put me on a flight to my grandparents in Arkansas. I was 18 and flew down there with a horrible hangover. On the way back it was my 19th Birthday and I had the flu. About half an hour into the flight I felt like I was going to puke. It was a pretty small plane so it only had 2 seats on either side. I was in the window seat, and the lady next to me was brought on the plane in a wheelchair. I asked her if she could move so I could go to the bathroom. She then in a very condescending tone informed me she was unable to move her legs. I pretty much spent the short flight from Springfield Missouri to Chicago with that stupid paper barf bag between my legs, and the handicapped lady would press the flight attendant call button to complain about being next to a sick person. And that was how I spent my golden birthday.
I once agreed to go flying with this guy I knew in a single prop learner plane. He had rich parents who paid for his flying lessons to get his license. We flew from Aurora to Dekalb and he smoked weed in the plane and would stall it out and make it go into free fall so the loose contents in the cockpit would just float in the air. Not my finest moment of judgement, but we lived and it was a pretty good time.
Was just talking about this to some guys that have been in the air a while, some scary stories for sure. Bird strikes, severe icing, tire blowouts on takeoff and landing, random brake locking up, losing an engine, landing gear failing to lower/lock in, people walking into moving props, hard landings causing seat frame failure and broken legs, etc.
Just changed careers at the start of the year so I'll be in the air 4-5 days a week now, will easily hit at least 120k air miles this year so I'll have some stories for sure after a short time.
So far had a flight where the pilots warned of severe turbulence, so I buckled my shoulder belt. No one else did and when we hit these air pockets one guy slammed into the ceiling pretty good, enough to have an upholstery burn on his head. I had bruising on my waist and collar bone from the belts. We got thrown around a lot on that one, I'm lucky I didn't get bashed too bad from the random bags slamming around the cabin.
Also woke up on descent/landing to multiple alarms and negative g's at an odd angle and looked out the window to see the ground directly below, we were pitched over so severely. If there was ever a time to shit myself that would've been it.
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Just changed careers at the start of the year so I'll be in the air 4-5 days a week now, will easily hit at least 120k air miles this year so I'll have some stories for sure after a short time.
So far had a flight where the pilots warned of severe turbulence, so I buckled my shoulder belt. No one else did and when we hit these air pockets one guy slammed into the ceiling pretty good, enough to have an upholstery burn on his head. I had bruising on my waist and collar bone from the belts. We got thrown around a lot on that one, I'm lucky I didn't get bashed too bad from the random bags slamming around the cabin.
Also woke up on descent/landing to multiple alarms and negative g's at an odd angle and looked out the window to see the ground directly below, we were pitched over so severely. If there was ever a time to shit myself that would've been it.
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fyi if you are nerdy about tracking your flights there are a few sites that are good for it. i know stuff is missing from this one as i got lazy, particularly 2015 i think, but skyhops is one i put all my stuff into.
https://skyhops.com/map/?t=EWifZINl1FRta6xAZOg8
https://skyhops.com/map/?t=EWifZINl1FRta6xAZOg8
Was just in Vegas this past summer during that record heat wave everyone was having. Real time temps of 110-116 degrees.
I get a text from my dad the day I'm supposed to leave, apparently jets have a max temp they can take off in. Like 118 degrees or something, anything more and they cannot cut through the air and gain enough speed. Planes were actually delayed due to heat that day.
I wonder if that is what you experienced
A friend of mine is one of those people that got their pilots license before his drivers license and his entire family are pilots and between them they have a fleet of planes and helicopters. He took me up in HIS Cessna (his because it was a gift for his 16th birthday) and decided to have some fun by going inverted, hard banking and fucking with me and shutting off the engine and doing a negative G dive while he's chanting "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!!" then he leveled off at the exact same point I was about to literally pee in my pants. It's funny now but in the moment I thought I was going to die. What I didn't know then was that he was then and is now a stunt pilot and I was in safe hands. Still a cruel fucking joke though.
My worst unintentional flight experience was on a puddle jumper flight from Cancun to Cozumel. For those who haven't had the "luxury" of this 15-20 minute flight let me explain why you should take a direct flight from Chicago to Cozumel. Granted things have changed in the 16 years since this happened but not by much. I got on a twin engine over wing prop plane on the tarmac in Cancun like I've done many times. This time however what appears to be the offensive line for the Jacksonville Jaguars is getting on the plane in front of me while they're loading bags into the hill towards the rear of the plane. Enormous sized football players entering from the rear of the plane combined with luggage all going to the back of the plane means science happens when the weight of the rear of the plane exceeds the weight of the plane forward of the wheels.....I realize basic physics is happening when I placed my foot on the step to get into the plane and end up kneeing myself in the chin when the planes entry door went up with my right foot on the door/stairs and the other on the tarmac. Everyone laughs it off, giant athletic human beings climb the seats to the front of the plane to bring the nose wheel back down laughing the whole time while I back away from the plane while pulling my friends girlfriend away from the plane because there is now fuel leaking from the starboard engine, hydraulic fluid leaking from the rear of the fuselage and some odd looking liquid leaking from the nose gear compartment. The pilot Javier looks at the leak, tightens a cap with one hand and says "Ez all hokay!" then boards the plane and starts the engines. Me being half drunk at the time accepts the challenge of actually getting on the plane since at the time I didn't care if I lived or died, I just wanted to have fun. We finally take off and level off and I hear the starboard landing gear SCREAMING while trying to go up. Javier (his real name, I'll never forget it) comes on the speakers and says "Dees ez jor captain Javier speaking, we are having prolems wit de landing gears going hup. All is hokay." At this point I realized that he didn't need to go on the speakers because this is a tiny 25-30 person plane the door to the flight cabin is wide open and swinging open and shut because there is no door handle on it. Then I hear him say (without the aid of the speakers) "I try dees!" and the plane shakes violently while dipping and he's doing a wing wag trying to shake the gear up. That's also when I realized that while the starboard gear was stuck down THE PORT SIDE GEAR WAS UP and I start thinking "Well......I'm gonna fucking die!" I hear more whirring, clicking, screaming and groaning while Javier is trying to shake the rivets out of the plane to get the gear up. Finally the gear starts to come up to the cheers of the cabin and I scream at the top of my lungs "LEAVE THE FUCKING GEAR DOWN!!!! WE LAND IN 5 FUCKING MINUTES!!!!" I guess Javier heard me because no sooner did the gear go up and immediately came back down since we were on approach. The thing about Cozumel airport is that at the time the runway was short, VERY SHORT and planted in the middle of a tiny island but when on approach you can see the island. This time we're getting lower and lower and I see no island thru the windows on either side or thru the front windows since the door to the flight cabin is still open. That's when the wing dipped 90* to the ground and Javier was apparently trying to tear the wings off the plane in a hard G turn. To my left - ocean. To my right - clouds and the sun....I still don't see Mother Earth. We level out, I see the island thru the front windows and thank my lucky stars until Javier starts descending and leveling off like he's falling down stairs. Level, dive, level, dive and I mean hard dives.....like 100's of feet at a time dives and the whole time I'm looking thru the front windows and I'm thinking "WHERE THE FUCK IS THE GROUND?!?! WHERE'S THE FUCKING ISLAND?!?! WHAT IS THIS FUCKER AIMING AT?!?!" All of a sudden I hear a large boom as the gear slams into locked position and 3 seconds after that I hear and feel a larger boom with a crash and I'm being flung forward and immediately think "So this is what a plane crash feels like." NOPE, no crash just Javier smashing into the runway at full throttle and hitting the brakes, reverse thrust and throwing out the fucking boat anchor to stop the plane before we hit the palm trees at the other end of the runway because Captain Javier overshot half the fucking runway. The plane finally gets to the terminal with smoke coming out of not only the engine but the landing gear and brakes as well and people are cheering like crazy because we're alive and we made it.
That was the last time I took a connecting flight to Cozumel outside the U.S. and I will never do that shit again.
My worst unintentional flight experience was on a puddle jumper flight from Cancun to Cozumel. For those who haven't had the "luxury" of this 15-20 minute flight let me explain why you should take a direct flight from Chicago to Cozumel. Granted things have changed in the 16 years since this happened but not by much. I got on a twin engine over wing prop plane on the tarmac in Cancun like I've done many times. This time however what appears to be the offensive line for the Jacksonville Jaguars is getting on the plane in front of me while they're loading bags into the hill towards the rear of the plane. Enormous sized football players entering from the rear of the plane combined with luggage all going to the back of the plane means science happens when the weight of the rear of the plane exceeds the weight of the plane forward of the wheels.....I realize basic physics is happening when I placed my foot on the step to get into the plane and end up kneeing myself in the chin when the planes entry door went up with my right foot on the door/stairs and the other on the tarmac. Everyone laughs it off, giant athletic human beings climb the seats to the front of the plane to bring the nose wheel back down laughing the whole time while I back away from the plane while pulling my friends girlfriend away from the plane because there is now fuel leaking from the starboard engine, hydraulic fluid leaking from the rear of the fuselage and some odd looking liquid leaking from the nose gear compartment. The pilot Javier looks at the leak, tightens a cap with one hand and says "Ez all hokay!" then boards the plane and starts the engines. Me being half drunk at the time accepts the challenge of actually getting on the plane since at the time I didn't care if I lived or died, I just wanted to have fun. We finally take off and level off and I hear the starboard landing gear SCREAMING while trying to go up. Javier (his real name, I'll never forget it) comes on the speakers and says "Dees ez jor captain Javier speaking, we are having prolems wit de landing gears going hup. All is hokay." At this point I realized that he didn't need to go on the speakers because this is a tiny 25-30 person plane the door to the flight cabin is wide open and swinging open and shut because there is no door handle on it. Then I hear him say (without the aid of the speakers) "I try dees!" and the plane shakes violently while dipping and he's doing a wing wag trying to shake the gear up. That's also when I realized that while the starboard gear was stuck down THE PORT SIDE GEAR WAS UP and I start thinking "Well......I'm gonna fucking die!" I hear more whirring, clicking, screaming and groaning while Javier is trying to shake the rivets out of the plane to get the gear up. Finally the gear starts to come up to the cheers of the cabin and I scream at the top of my lungs "LEAVE THE FUCKING GEAR DOWN!!!! WE LAND IN 5 FUCKING MINUTES!!!!" I guess Javier heard me because no sooner did the gear go up and immediately came back down since we were on approach. The thing about Cozumel airport is that at the time the runway was short, VERY SHORT and planted in the middle of a tiny island but when on approach you can see the island. This time we're getting lower and lower and I see no island thru the windows on either side or thru the front windows since the door to the flight cabin is still open. That's when the wing dipped 90* to the ground and Javier was apparently trying to tear the wings off the plane in a hard G turn. To my left - ocean. To my right - clouds and the sun....I still don't see Mother Earth. We level out, I see the island thru the front windows and thank my lucky stars until Javier starts descending and leveling off like he's falling down stairs. Level, dive, level, dive and I mean hard dives.....like 100's of feet at a time dives and the whole time I'm looking thru the front windows and I'm thinking "WHERE THE FUCK IS THE GROUND?!?! WHERE'S THE FUCKING ISLAND?!?! WHAT IS THIS FUCKER AIMING AT?!?!" All of a sudden I hear a large boom as the gear slams into locked position and 3 seconds after that I hear and feel a larger boom with a crash and I'm being flung forward and immediately think "So this is what a plane crash feels like." NOPE, no crash just Javier smashing into the runway at full throttle and hitting the brakes, reverse thrust and throwing out the fucking boat anchor to stop the plane before we hit the palm trees at the other end of the runway because Captain Javier overshot half the fucking runway. The plane finally gets to the terminal with smoke coming out of not only the engine but the landing gear and brakes as well and people are cheering like crazy because we're alive and we made it.
That was the last time I took a connecting flight to Cozumel outside the U.S. and I will never do that shit again.
I fly usually around 100,000 - 115,000 miles a year for the past 5 years (before that maybe only 30,000-50,000 a year). Honestly I don't have that many stories so maybe I'm an anomaly or just really lucky.
I'm getting close to 1,000,000 miles on Delta but they've treated me well and besides your usual cancelled flights, rolling MX and WX delays, and flight crew switches nothing too big to note. Couple of times I've had my luggage lost for 24-36 hours, usually I get reimbursed for all that time and vouchers so no big deal. Most airlines will toss you amenity kits as well when they lose your stuff.
I've had a few pretty bad turbulent flights but as someone that's flown a bit in the USAF and pulled upwards of 6-7 G's, it doesn't bother me. Other people on the plane literally thought we were going to crash and die though. Most people don't understand how much commercial airline aircraft wings can flex, and what would really have to happen to bring a plane to the ground. Got struck by lightning once on approach into Atlanta. The left wing on a MD-88 looked like a strobe light went off, but plane landed happily anyway.
Couple of good bounce landings in the winter had me a littler worried where crosswinds had us come in sideways with an icy runway... that can be a little nerve racking when you can tell only one set of tires is on the ground and the nose of the plane is still 20 degrees off from center haha.
My friend however had an entire engine go out on his plan about 15 years ago and that sounded much more scary. But some of these stories are good. All I can say is have a few drinks and enjoy the ride...everything (for the most part) is out of your control once the door closes.
I'm getting close to 1,000,000 miles on Delta but they've treated me well and besides your usual cancelled flights, rolling MX and WX delays, and flight crew switches nothing too big to note. Couple of times I've had my luggage lost for 24-36 hours, usually I get reimbursed for all that time and vouchers so no big deal. Most airlines will toss you amenity kits as well when they lose your stuff.
I've had a few pretty bad turbulent flights but as someone that's flown a bit in the USAF and pulled upwards of 6-7 G's, it doesn't bother me. Other people on the plane literally thought we were going to crash and die though. Most people don't understand how much commercial airline aircraft wings can flex, and what would really have to happen to bring a plane to the ground. Got struck by lightning once on approach into Atlanta. The left wing on a MD-88 looked like a strobe light went off, but plane landed happily anyway.
Couple of good bounce landings in the winter had me a littler worried where crosswinds had us come in sideways with an icy runway... that can be a little nerve racking when you can tell only one set of tires is on the ground and the nose of the plane is still 20 degrees off from center haha.
My friend however had an entire engine go out on his plan about 15 years ago and that sounded much more scary. But some of these stories are good. All I can say is have a few drinks and enjoy the ride...everything (for the most part) is out of your control once the door closes.
Multiply your CRJ-700 tossing by 10x if you're on one of those puddle jumping prop planes... holy crap.
I've had that before, had an actual burn on my thighs. Airline tossed me $200 bucks and 5,000 miles plus new pants. That can go really bad though.
i (actually) spent 100 on shiz
turkish gave me 250
48 for bags to get to my city then 72 more to get to my place (which is 5 miles from airport)
what have you been reimbursed? i had to send in receipts. i didn't keep all i bought.
Nothing too crazy. We came back from San Diego during that snowfall we had in mid-December. Landed in a crosswind on an icy runway and the plane skated around right after touchdown. it was sketch enough that everyone started clapping after he got it straightened out and slowed down.
Other than that, probably my first time landing a Cessna in a bad crosswind. Just about to flare when a strong gust hit and caused the plane to roll pretty quickly.
Other than that, probably my first time landing a Cessna in a bad crosswind. Just about to flare when a strong gust hit and caused the plane to roll pretty quickly.
Can you guess which airline had a stream of fuel coming from the wing?
http://www.wftv.com/news/9-investig...fety-issues-revealed-in-faa-reports/402203329
http://www.wftv.com/news/9-investig...fety-issues-revealed-in-faa-reports/402203329
Pretty sure it was AA. I was somewhat distracted by some of the people in the lobby of the jet center with me. The 1% crowd is an odd bunch.
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