Worst Plane Ride Ever! - Has anyone had a really bad experience like this?

[NaughtyAce]

Has anyone had a really bad experience like this? or worse than this?

Monday I flew back from Arizona to San Diego on my worst plane experience ever. Between the shitty service and the possibility of dying, definitely the worst yet.

It started by my morning flight at 7:40 closing the boarding doors 10 minutes early on Southwest. Mind you I had been up at 6am Arizona time, which is 5am San Diego time.
So I had to catch the next flight out on US Airways at 8:30 am, so I would arrive in San Diego for some appointments at 9am.

I walk through 3 terminals to pick up my reserved tickets with US Air.
When I get there I give the ticket counter guy my ID and he drops it into the counter by mistake.
So they take 15 minutes looking for it until they tell me my plane is boarding in 5 minutes and I'm shit out of luck.
Their supervisor then shows up and also tells me tough shit, no refund, no compensation for loosing my license, and my plane is now shutting the doors in 1 minute.
So I rush over to the gate, as I?m boarding the dick supervisor gives me my ID, he had found it while I was walking to the gate.

That's not the best part......

We were about to touch down in San Diego when they tell us we MAY have to re route to LA. Apparently the Aeronautical flaps on the wings were broken and we needed a longer runway to land on.
It turns out Aeronautical flaps are the flaps on the plane that slow the plane down when landing, which we did not have. Glad I know that now so I can freak out more next time.

To make a long story short, they landed the plane going very fast. As we approached it was fun to see 8 fire trucks and 6 police cars waiting for us on the runway, it really lifts your spirits when you know that they know you may crash and die.
The landing however ended up being surprisingly smooth, and I'm just happy to be alive.

To top it off, I then got to take a 3 hour bus ride through LA Traffic back down to San Diego to finally arrive around 1pm.

What's your story?

[Juicy D. Links]

man that blows , I have always been very against flying.... Ii am usually knocked out the whole flight....

worst was 2 summers ago , me and izzz were delayed at JFK for like 8 hours on the way to summer internext , this was when the 3 hurricanes were hitting florida....

We grabbed beers from the bar and made friends , we were all blasted by the time "the plane finally was ready"

another time was when i was in ottawa and the customs asswipes pulled me into interrogation mode and such....

[Juicy D. Links]

oh btw we missed the GFY party that year cause of the fucking delay n shit...

i think we finally landed in florida at like 2 am or something...all these airlines are like russian roulette....you never know wtf you are headed for

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by Juicy D. Links

man that blows , I have always been very against flying.... Ii am usually knocked out the whole flight....

worst was 2 summers ago , me and izzz were delayed at JFK for like 8 hours on the way to summer internext , this was when the 3 hurricanes were hitting florida....

We grabbed beers from the bar and made friends , we were all blasted by the time "the plane finally was ready"

another time was when i was in ottawa and the customs asswipes pulled me into interrogation mode and such....

Haha been on the wasted tip before while waiting for delayed flights, it blows.

customs hit you with interrogation on the way in? how come?

[kristin]

I puke in limos everytime I get off planes?

Seriously ... I'm always sick when I get off planes and you've actually witnessed it. ; )

[NaughtyAce]

LOL, that I have, in a limo on the way to the hotel no less.

On the same fun trip that Izz and Juicy got their flights delayed

[quiet]

my worst experience was sitting in customs for hours and hours while some dumbfuck went through my laptop looking for cp.

[Evil1]

I once was flying on a piper malibu (think luxury cessna) back when I worked in the real world. long story short there was fog, the pilot was my boss and an idiot who wasnt too good with the gps apparently, he brought it down for a landing pretty much blind and about 100 yards from the goddamn runway. i went from looking at fog to looking at tree tops about 10 feet from me.

Thats the last time I was or ever will be on a plane.

[Juicy D. Links]

Originally Posted by NaughtyAce

customs hit you with interrogation on the way in? how come?

was going from NY to Winnepeg to visit Sleazy.... now you need to layover at one point.... AirFuckYouCanada cancelled my orignal flight which was gonna stop in torronto and only option i had was ottawa ...i didnt know ottawa was the capital... reaon they fucked with me was cause i have a weird name.... they asked me 101 questions till they let me through offical answer was "you are a US national on canadian soil and we needed more info on why you are here" ..... keep in mind i went to Toronto and Montreal many times b4 with no issues and the dickwads saw the visa's already on my passport... it was racial discrimination

[viki]

Coming back from Costa Rica in December was a nightmare. We flew back a week early because our place in the States got broken into, so we were off on a bad foot already.

The flight from CR to Atlanta was flawless. They let us on the plane on time from Atlanta to Philly which turned out to be awful. It was foggy in Philly and everything was backed up so we waited 2 hours on the plane before taking off.

Once we got to Philly, we circled because there wasn't enough room to land. We ended up nearly running out of gas and diverting to Baltimore.

Once in Baltimore, we took atleast another hour to fuel up. Back in the air, back to Philly - we couldn't land again because it was too foggy.

They flew us to Dullas where we couldn't even get to a gate so we were on the runway somewhere. They tried to get us some transportation from there to the airport and by the time they did, 2 hours had passed. They then told us that they were going to try to fly to Philly again and our bags were staying on the plane.

So, we flew to Philly for the third time - it was too foggy again - but the pilot refused to go back and landed the plane in essentially a wall of white. We ended up on that plane for 8 extra hours.

[Phoenix]

noting too scary yet..just stuck on a runway once forever and ever

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by Evil1

I once was flying on a piper malibu (think luxury cessna) back when I worked in the real world. long story short there was fog, the pilot was my boss and an idiot who wasnt too good with the gps apparently, he brought it down for a landing pretty much blind and about 100 yards from the goddamn runway. i went from looking at fog to looking at tree tops about 10 feet from me.

Thats the last time I was or ever will be on a plane.

Now that's F'n Scary!

I don't know if any experience will stop me from flying, I'm pretty resiliant and the way I drive I'll probably die in a car accident.
I think if you are going to die, it will happen, protect yourself as much as you can without going overboard till you do.

[Juicy D. Links]

Originally Posted by quiet

my worst experience was sitting in customs for hours and hours while some dumbfuck went through my laptop looking for cp.

i had the fuckers always "swab" my laptop and Ii am like please please please dont set off any alarms....

i always keep the laptop "clean" n stuff

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by viki

Coming back from Costa Rica in December was a nightmare. We flew back a week early because our place in the States got broken into, so we were off on a bad foot already.

The flight from CR to Atlanta was flawless. They let us on the plane on time from Atlanta to Philly which turned out to be awful. It was foggy in Philly and everything was backed up so we waited 2 hours on the plane before taking off.

Once we got to Philly, we circled because there wasn't enough room to land. We ended up nearly running out of gas and diverting to Baltimore.

Once in Baltimore, we took atleast another hour to fuel up. Back in the air, back to Philly - we couldn't land again because it was too foggy.

They flew us to Dullas where we couldn't even get to a gate so we were on the runway somewhere. They tried to get us some transportation from there to the airport and by the time they did, 2 hours had passed. They then told us that they were going to try to fly to Philly again and our bags were staying on the plane.

So, we flew to Philly for the third time - it was too foggy again - but the pilot refused to go back and landed the plane in essentially a wall of white. We ended up on that plane for 8 extra hours.

Haha, sorry to laugh, but you can only do that after the fact, now that's a story....Sorry you had to go through all that.

[_Rush_]

Originally Posted by NaughtyAce

We were about to touch down in San Diego when they tell us we MAY have to re route to LA. Apparently the Aeronautical flaps on the wings were broken and we needed a longer runway to land on.
It turns out Aeronautical flaps are the flaps on the plane that slow the plane down when landing, which we did not have. Glad I know that now so I can freak out more next time.

Flaps are designed to allow the plane to fly at lower speeds by creating more lift with the air that passes through the wings. Even though they do slow the plane down because there is more drag, the main reason they're there is because the plane needs to be able to stay in the air while going at speeds that would cause it to stall without them. They're used for takeoff and landing, but they're especially important for landing because otherwise the plane will not be able to lose all it's speed before the runway is over, since the brakes and spoilers can only do so much.

Anyway, I had one of the worst airport experiences in San Diego. That's one airport I don't want to ever see again.

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by Juicy D. Links

i had the fuckers always "swab" my laptop and Ii am like please please please dont set off any alarms....

i always keep the laptop "clean" n stuff

Damn racial profiling.

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by Ghost Rush

Flaps are designed to allow the plane to fly at lower speeds by creating more lift with the air that passes through the wings. Even though they do slow the plane down because there is more drag, the main reason they're there is because the plane needs to be able to stay in the air while going at speeds that would cause it to stall without them. They're used for takeoff and landing, but they're especially important for landing because otherwise the plane will not be able to lose all it's speed before the runway is over, since the brakes and spoilers can only do so much.

Anyway, I had one of the worst airport experiences in San Diego. That's one airport I don't want to ever see again.

OIC, thank you, I'm glad i didn't know all this while in the air LOL.


I also later found out that San Diego is known as the worst airport to land in because you have to take such a steep approach at the airport (Lindbergh Field).
That's probably another reason we'd be going way too fast.

[KRosh]

that sucks man .. let me throw in a thank you for dinner in vegas LOL



I was on the way back from Hawaii with some friends. The plane is completely full. I get to my seat, isle over the wing, and get settled in. We take off and all seems well. As soon as we reach 10K feet, the 2nd officer comes out walks down the isle and stands directly next to me and then returns to the cockpit. A few minutes later the 1st officer comes over to my seat, and starts looking around the ground by my feet. He also leaves and walks back to the cockpit. A few minutes later, the 2nd officer comes back out again but this time in coveralls. He walks over to where I am seated takes a look at me, then gets on the ground and opens a compartment in the isle and slips under the plane. A few more minutes he comes out from the floor, closes the panel and he is off to the cockpit again. I think this is strange, but whatever. We go on about our flight until we are half an hour prior to landing. At this time the Pilot says over the intercom, "there is no need to worry, however we blew out a tire in the landing gear when we left Hawaii". No need to panic? Well everyone on the plane is FREAKING out, people are crying, passing out, and turning pale. I am thinking the whole time who can i save and help carry out with me. LOL
We begin our approach and it is about 10:30PM. The entire runway is lit up with police, fire and ambulance vehicles. The pilot says that this is a precaution in case we do not land properly.
The funniest part of this was a couple next to me freaking out. The guy was crying his head off instead of consoling the girl. She was more calm than he was. It was definitely shocking to see this man cry like this.

Needless to say we landed without incident, but the whole plane erupted with screams of Joy, hugs and kisses.

[Sambo]

I travel a lot between Europe and NZ and Austalia and and have had a few interesting flights - landing in Qatar and having our passports taken away and locked in a shed with 200+ other people with no food or water for 24 hours was 'interesting'.

Having a pee and dropping about 10k feet was fun - I have never managed to piss on the ceiling before.

There are more - vultures in the engine and landing in a tropical storm in KL are just a few.

If you ever find yourself on the same flight as me - do yourself a favour and get off....

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by KRosh

that sucks man .. let me throw in a thank you for dinner in vegas LOL



I was on the way back from Hawaii with some friends. The plane is completely full. I get to my seat, isle over the wing, and get settled in. We take off and all seems well. As soon as we reach 10K feet, the 2nd officer comes out walks down the isle and stands directly next to me and then returns to the cockpit. A few minutes later the 1st officer comes over to my seat, and starts looking around the ground by my feet. He also leaves and walks back to the cockpit. A few minutes later, the 2nd officer comes back out again but this time in coveralls. He walks over to where I am seated takes a look at me, then gets on the ground and opens a compartment in the isle and slips under the plane. A few more minutes he comes out from the floor, closes the panel and he is off to the cockpit again. I think this is strange, but whatever. We go on about our flight until we are half an hour prior to landing. At this time the Pilot says over the intercom, "there is no need to worry, however we blew out a tire in the landing gear when we left Hawaii". No need to panic? Well everyone on the plane is FREAKING out, people are crying, passing out, and turning pale. I am thinking the whole time who can i save and help carry out with me. LOL
We begin our approach and it is about 10:30PM. The entire runway is lit up with police, fire and ambulance vehicles. The pilot says that this is a precaution in case we do not land properly.
The funniest part of this was a couple next to me freaking out. The guy was crying his head off instead of consoling the girl. She was more calm than he was. It was definitely shocking to see this man cry like this.

Needless to say we landed without incident, but the whole plane erupted with screams of Joy, hugs and kisses.

Wow, now that sucks!
If anything a tire blowing out is probably the worst story yet.

did they replace the tire mid air?

[KRosh]

Originally Posted by NaughtyAce

Wow, now that sucks!
If anything a tire blowing out is probably the worst story yet.

did they replace the tire mid air?

haha no.. we had 6 or 7 more tires left on the one landing gear so it was all good.

[J.R.]

Atleast it wasn't Alaska Air, you would be swimming off the Coast of San Diego instead.

[Juicy D. Links]

Originally Posted by KRosh

haha no.. we had 6 or 7 more tires left on the one landing gear so it was all good.

i would have shot a load into the bad tire and patched it up yo

[Sly]

Not as bad as yours, but not fun.

Christmas this year, flying back to Iowa through Chicago. This was right in the middle of the huge Denver storms. All Denver traffic was rerouted to Chicago. For those of you who have never flown through Chicago, on a "light day" the place is a total mad house and delays are quite common due to too much traffic.

My flight is at 1. I get there at 11. They say my flight is delayed, I won't be able to get to Iowa til after Christmas, but I can get to Chicago that night. Thats fine, I can arrange for transportation. Estimated take-off, around 5pm. So I'm thinking I'll be sitting there all day. Call my dad, arrange for transportation (he would have to drive 3 hours to pick me up).

About 2 the agents make an announcement that we could leave that minute. With that timing, I was going to make my connecting flight just fine. So I call my dad, cancel transportation. Get on plane, I'm happy.

Finally arrive in Chicago around 8 and the place is PACKED. People are over everywhere sleeping, yelling, crying, in their PJs, it was crazy. Turns out over 200 flights were canceled. So I get to my gate, wait 15 minutes to talk to the agent because some drunk woman was going crazy, agent tells me "I'm sorry, flight canceled, we can't get you a flight til the 26th", 4 days later. I smiled, said "thanks, but I'm leaving tonight, have a good Christmas".

Call my dad, he starts the 3 hr. drive. Meanwhile, time to track down my luggage. Over 300 people had lost luggage. There were several lines full of people waiting for help. After searching for 90 minutes, we find out my luggage was put in one of the back rooms.

All set. Spent another 2 hours waiting for my ride and watching everyone run around trying to find their luggage and family, it was actually kind of entertaining. Ride shows up. Get on the road, it was like driving through a cloud, I've never seen fog so thick. Finally around 5AM I'm in bed sleeping.

Fun times. The return trip was even worse but I'll save that for another day, haha.

[J.R.]

Here was a good one, I was landing a Cessna 172 with a 25 knot crosswind.. and just after touchdown, the right side of the plane lifted up and I nearly nosed the plane over.

I need more rudder and aileron deflection to resolve this properly.

Atleast I learned something during my training lesson

[_Rush_]

Originally Posted by J.R.

Here was a good one, I was landing a Cessna 172 with a 25 knot crosswind.. and just after touchdown, the right side of the plane lifted up and I nearly nosed the plane over.

I need more rudder and aileron deflection to resolve this properly.

Atleast I learned something during my training lesson

Wing to the wind while on the ground!

[_Rush_]

Originally Posted by NaughtyAce

OIC, thank you, I'm glad i didn't know all this while in the air LOL.


I also later found out that San Diego is known as the worst airport to land in because you have to take such a steep approach at the airport (Lindbergh Field).
That's probably another reason we'd be going way too fast.

They have spoilers which can slow down the plane. Additionally, they can leave the engines idle and pull the nose up a bit to brake even more. The only reason you were going fast is because since you didn't have flaps, going slow would cause the aircraft to stall and fall like a rock to the ground.

[Sly]

Haha these are some great stories. I think KRosh and viki take the cake.

[RyuLion]

shit! I don't want to ever experience that..

[escorpio]

I hate flying so much I got queasy just reading some of these stories. Unfortunately I have to travel from Indiana to Seattle this June for my son's graduation. I'm thinking about taking the train. Anybody traveled Amtrak lately?

[The Adult Broker]

the most recent horror story is flying to Vegas this month when the tiny little fucking American Eagle plane gets hijacked by major cross winds that knock us around so much I thought the wing of the plane was below me.

We dropped like 5 thousand feet ina second. The landing was a horror story, enough that the everyone was silent, people were whiteknuckled hanging on to their armrests, including me, and I can see the ground next to me vs below me.

when we finally landed everyone clapped and it took a good 30 minutes for my heart to go back to a normal beating pattern.

NEVER again on a tiny plane through the desert mountains. NEVER

[Sambo]

I have learned that you dont worry until even the trolly dollies stop trying to put on a fake smile....

[WiredGuy]

Wow, some of you have had horrid stories! I think my worst incident was doing an up and down, we're about to land and we suddenly take off again. They wouldn't say "why", but one can guess the runway wasn't clear.

Other than that, some turbulant landings and this one time where we hit an air pocket that caused a major dip in altitude very quickly. But nothing too major.
WG

[BigBen]

The flight to Cancun for Webmaster Access a couple years back was my first flight and was terrible. I thought the little tin can we were on was going to break apart in the air. 4 hours straight of the worst turbulence ever. That flight scarred me for life.

[DateDoc]

Probably the worst flight i was on was from Montpeilier, VT to Chicago and then onto Atlanta. The plane was late leaving Montpelier so when we got to Chicago we had to circle forever and it was sleeting which was starting to freeze on the wings. I was fortunate to have a seat to be able to see this and the plane felt sluggish in the air. Finally landed and you saw chucks of ice fly of the wings as we touched down but that wasn't the worst part.

On the flight from Chicago to Atlanta we flew through huge storms all the way down. Worst turbulence I have ever experienced. The pilot tried flying higher, lower more to the east and more to the west but nothing worked. At one point the plane dropped 5000+ feet and ppl were screaming. The pilot came on the intercom and told us everything was safe, that it was just going to be a bumby ride and to tighten our seatbelts. It literally felt like being in a 4x4 on a badly rutted, pot holed road going 100 mph then dropping off a cliff here and there only to get bumpy again.

About 20 minutes after that the flight finally smoothed out. 5 minutes past and it was still smooth. The pilot came on the intercom and said, "looks like things have smoothed out. I am going to turn off the seat......" the plane dropped another few thousand feet in mid sentence. Once leveled off he came back on and said, "Stay buckled in we'll be in Atlanta in about 30 minutes."

Probable the wackiest flight I was on was from Charlotte to Dulles. As the plane taxied out to the runway the captain came on and introduced himself as Captain Crunch and the stewardesses as the Cocoa Puffs!!!

[Rochard]

The worst thing that happened to me flying was my trip from Atlanta where I had spent two days working with National Net. I had a connecting flight to Vegas, and from Vegas to Phoenix. Our plane was delayed by about an hour on the ground in Atlanta and once we took off I doubted I would be able to catch my connecting flight. I figured at worse I'll just call up some industry folks I know in Vegas and have a little party and crash there.

Much to my surprise as we landed in Vegas I was called up to the front of the plane before we hit the gate. I was told that the gate we were pulling up to was next to the gate of my departing flight - and that they were holding the door open for me. I was the first one off the plane and a few seconds later they were closing the door behind me on the other plane.

I thought it was great.

[rowan]

Originally Posted by viki

Coming back from Costa Rica in December was a nightmare. We flew back a week early because our place in the States got broken into, so we were off on a bad foot already.

The flight from CR to Atlanta was flawless. They let us on the plane on time from Atlanta to Philly which turned out to be awful. It was foggy in Philly and everything was backed up so we waited 2 hours on the plane before taking off.

Once we got to Philly, we circled because there wasn't enough room to land. We ended up nearly running out of gas and diverting to Baltimore.

Once in Baltimore, we took atleast another hour to fuel up. Back in the air, back to Philly - we couldn't land again because it was too foggy.

They flew us to Dullas where we couldn't even get to a gate so we were on the runway somewhere. They tried to get us some transportation from there to the airport and by the time they did, 2 hours had passed. They then told us that they were going to try to fly to Philly again and our bags were staying on the plane.

So, we flew to Philly for the third time - it was too foggy again - but the pilot refused to go back and landed the plane in essentially a wall of white. We ended up on that plane for 8 extra hours.

That last "pilot refused to go back" bit sounds like the sort of thing you hear about on air crash investigation programs. The crash in Tenerife where two 747s collided on the runway and killed 500+ people was caused by pilot frustration, and also arrogance. He took off without clearance and collected the other aircraft taxiing down the runway.

[Snake Doctor]

This one time I was on a riverboat cruise in Vegas trying to enjoy my dinner and this really drunk dude kept coming over to hit on my waitress.

Oh wait...N/M

[Snake Doctor]

Originally Posted by Lenny2

This one time I was on a riverboat cruise in Vegas trying to enjoy my dinner and this really drunk dude kept coming over to hit on my waitress.

Oh wait...N/M

Holy shit, that's funny!

[split_joel]

i was on my way to Chicago years ago and the first two hours went by fine, then my ears had to pop and wouldn't pop and it hurt so bad then they popped like a big bang and all of sudden the plan drops and then rises fast again, then this repeats 3 or 4 times and the flight attendants run to there seats 'which means you know shit hit the fan' then the plane shakes and drops even harder then the face mask drop, everyone is screaming and then back to normal.

[BV]

fuck a plane

[AaronM]

Originally Posted by NaughtyAce

Has anyone had a really bad experience like this? or worse than this?

Monday I flew back from Arizona to San Diego on my worst plane experience ever. Between the shitty service and the possibility of dying, definitely the worst yet.

It started by my morning flight at 7:40 closing the boarding doors 10 minutes early on Southwest. Mind you I had been up at 6am Arizona time, which is 5am San Diego time.
So I had to catch the next flight out on US Airways at 8:30 am, so I would arrive in San Diego for some appointments at 9am.

I walk through 3 terminals to pick up my reserved tickets with US Air.
When I get there I give the ticket counter guy my ID and he drops it into the counter by mistake.
So they take 15 minutes looking for it until they tell me my plane is boarding in 5 minutes and I'm shit out of luck.
Their supervisor then shows up and also tells me tough shit, no refund, no compensation for loosing my license, and my plane is now shutting the doors in 1 minute.
So I rush over to the gate, as I?m boarding the dick supervisor gives me my ID, he had found it while I was walking to the gate.

That's not the best part......

We were about to touch down in San Diego when they tell us we MAY have to re route to LA. Apparently the Aeronautical flaps on the wings were broken and we needed a longer runway to land on.
It turns out Aeronautical flaps are the flaps on the plane that slow the plane down when landing, which we did not have. Glad I know that now so I can freak out more next time.

To make a long story short, they landed the plane going very fast. As we approached it was fun to see 8 fire trucks and 6 police cars waiting for us on the runway, it really lifts your spirits when you know that they know you may crash and die.
The landing however ended up being surprisingly smooth, and I'm just happy to be alive.

To top it off, I then got to take a 3 hour bus ride through LA Traffic back down to San Diego to finally arrive around 1pm.

What's your story?

I've got lots of airline stories but to be honest, yours takes the cake.

Glad you made it out alive though.

[NaughtyAce]

Originally Posted by Lenny2

Holy shit, that's funny!

Who let this guy on here?

[NaughtyAce]

Viki, your flight was probably the most Dangerous, that sounds horrible that the pilot would do that.
But Buster, that turbulence story sounds like it was pretty bad if you were there. I went through 20 minutes of that on my flight to Florida last year, but nothing that bad.

[Bryan G]

Fuck that shit.....I would of had a heart attack

[Mr. Romance]

I am just glad you are here my freind to share this with us..


Mr. Romance

[_Richard_]

Originally Posted by Juicy D. Links

was going from NY to Winnepeg to visit Sleazy.... now you need to layover at one point.... AirFuckYouCanada cancelled my orignal flight which was gonna stop in torronto and only option i had was ottawa ...i didnt know ottawa was the capital... reaon they fucked with me was cause i have a weird name.... they asked me 101 questions till they let me through offical answer was "you are a US national on canadian soil and we needed more info on why you are here" ..... keep in mind i went to Toronto and Montreal many times b4 with no issues and the dickwads saw the visa's already on my passport... it was racial discrimination

at least we didn't ship you to syria

R

[DateDoc]

There was another flight from West Palm Beach to Atlanta a few years back. Delta Lockhead Tristar jumbo jet. Taxied out towards the runway and the pilot comes on the intercom telling us they can't get the third (tail) engine to fire that he is going to have to pull over and maintenance will come take a look.

About 15 minutes later you here drilling, banging, all kinds of noise. Was pretty freaky - really like being in a tin can. After about 30 minutes pilot announces the engine is fixed and about 300 nervous ppl look around as if they were wishing they were on another flight. Finally time to take off and he took every inch of that runway to get that big bird in the air!!

[Jakke PNG]

My worst experience isn't due to a bad plane/crew/malfunction or whatever..
..but as I got back from my honeymoon this past july I had a horrible ear infection, and I lost balance half-way thru a 4 hour flight and it was the worst experience of my life, it felt like the plane was continuously tilting to the right. You know when you're REALLY drunk and go to bed and the room spins, it felt like that but way way way way worse. I puked my guts out..and when we landed it felt like someone was stabbing my eardrums with a knife...

This was great especially since we flew from Milan to Berlin..so I got to experince all of this AGAIN as we flew from Berlin to Helsinki.I even went to the airport doctor in berlin and all he said "Well, you can either just try to endure the flight, but I recommend that you take a hotel at your own expense until you no longer have the ear infection". He couldn't do anything about it, which sucked. I have never been afraid of flying, but I was trembling and I had cold sweat on my entire skin as we waited to board the second flight in Berlin.

There's been some other 'horror' stories that caused my relatives to get fear of flying. As a kid when we flew to Hawaii we took a 747 from LA to Honolulu, and as the plane took off it immediately took a very very sharp turn, and it honestly looked like the wingtip would crash to the ground. We were probably dozens of meters in the air, but my aunt still started to fear flying after that.

Another fun deal was when me and my wife returned from a new years party in Amsterdam in 2003 the plane had to circle Helsinki airport for a while because one of the tires was stuck and we were told to prepare for an emergency landing. Luckily the tire popped out after a while.

[KingK7]

Wow, that sucks...

My worst flight story is from September 11th 2001, London to Dallas.
We were in the air just off the US east coast when the towers were hit. The plane turned around, and we landed in Gander, Newfoundland, where I slept on a church bench for 3 days, before they flew us back to London.