I average about 150K+ butt in seat (BIS) miles a year for a while now and have had a few minor scares over the years. Majority of my flights are long hauls so those will (thankfully) tend to be more boring.
The most memorable moment was in a wicked snowstorm arriving into DEN once from SFO and the plane got struck by lightning very close to where I was sitting. I remember that there was a strange buzzing/growling noise and the light coming inside the windows was all purple and bright colored for a moment. Made it look like the whole plane lit up in that area and you could almost see through the interior plastic of the plane. We landed without any problems but it happened on the final approach so it was a bit freaky.
Then after a layover and continued snow we boarded the connecting flight - all you could see out the window was huge snowflakes. We taxied for a while and then ramped up and took off. When the landing gear was retracting you could tell it got caught up on something and then the pilot immediately hard banked and started to turn around. People started shitting their pants and the pilot cycled the gear a couple times and then it apparently retracted properly and then he started to cut back to the original course. He got on the intercom after and explained what happened - apparently there was so much snow on the runway we were driving through that it iced up the mechanicals and froze something up for a minute.
Once when I was living in Alaska and flying on a small prop plane from FAI to SCC, must have been about 10-12 passengers max, we were cruising in some light chop and then it fell out of the sky without warning for what felt like 25-50 feet and then caught air again really hard. Felt a little bit sore from that for a couple days afterword and it definitely raised the blood pressure.
Been on several flights where the flight attendant got on the intercom and asked for a doctor. Always wondered what was going on in there, it's never happened around me and I sure wouldn't want to be in a position to need a doctor at 30K+ feet...
Had some pretty severe and extended turbulence before but never saw anyone thrown out of their seat and into the overhead bins.
Once flying out of PIA into a major headwind the pilot climbed up so hard that the G forces were pretty incredible, much beyond anything I had ever felt in a plane before or since. Was pretty cool, wasn't able to lift my feet off the floor of the plane for about 5-10 seconds.
All things considered I am glad I don't have any more memorable stories than those ones.
