What was your worst Flight Experience ever?
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If you’ve ever flown on an airliner, there’s a good chance that you’ve had at least one flight that didn’t go well, the kind of flight that leaves you wishing you’d stayed home or caught the train instead. Some of us are unfortunate enough to have had many of them. From tarmac strandings to lost luggage, from screaming kids to lousy service, these are the nightmares that haunt you after you’ve finally arrived at your destination.
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Stranded on the tarmac
My worst flight was my first ever Qantas flight! There was a 2 hour delay in departure due to a baggage handler strike in Melbourne. The take-off was aborted because a gentlemen in business class decided that he needed his book right away and seat belts weren’t really ‘necessary’ during take-off. The aisle passenger managed to knock a can of coke onto my book and jeans! The events that on their own are OK but all together on the one late evening made for a BAD day of flying.
My worst ever flight experience was on the way to Singapore.
We were circling Singapore Airport due to heavy traffic, and in the middle of a massive storm.
While circling we were hit by lightening, I swear we all lit up like we were in a cartoon.
The plane jumped, rocked, dipped, but the pilot told us they are often hit and the electricity is dispersed and not a problem.
The scary part was we had to keep circling through the same storm for about 30 minutes, which had everyone on tender hooks waiting for another lightening bolt to hit.
I have flown many times since, had some scary turbulence, but this Singapore flight took the medal for the scariest I have ever had.
Just settling in to a crowded flight, when boofhead passenger decided it was his life’s mission to fit all his takeon luggage in the locker above. After pushing and shoving, a suitcase fell out, landed on my head and knocked me out!
I managed to stay on the plane and got to inhale oxygen all the way home. I was escorted off the plane by a nice wheelchair pusher, who it turned out had just had a hip operation so she needed the chair more than me!
I actually had a few but, they where all on different flights…this is the story: on my second flight in Aus we landed on a wet runway in Sydney which ended up being the worst landing ever, just touching the runway we had a “little slip” and all the passengers on the flight shook around like a box of lose chocolates.I had also experienced a 30 min circling around Sydney airport…the first time ever i thought we are going to crash ’cause all a sudden the engines sounded as if they weren’t working anymore when it was actually slowing down, o and yes the first time i told my mum about auto pilot on the plane…she cracked….and of course horrible turbulence….
My worst experience was on a Qantas flight which had all ready been delayed about an hour. The family was initially going to drive up to Brisbane, but flying was cheaper and the quickest option. We boarded our lovely B737-800, well what we thought was lovely. We pushed back mid after noon in Melbourne, after start..the captain announced over the P.A that we had to await for weather to move on. After some talking with the hostie, it wasnt weather we had been waiting…it was a fault not picked up on the walk around done by the first officer. After waiting 20 minutes, we were taxing to the runway (runway 27). We had a successful departure, enroute the captain apoligised for the delays and that we would have an enjoyable flight. During enroute we experienced some moderate turbulance. Coming into Brisbane, we experienced some more delays…more because of traffic and some weather north of the airfield. This time, the flight attendants notified us what to expect etc. On finals, we thought it was going to be a good landing…we were landing runway 01 obviously the ILS as we established somewhere around Archerfield area. I could see the international terminal coming closer as we suddenly heard the 2 engines crank up, and the plane was climbing. It ws a go-around, with us being heaps late and weather north and all the fuss…we should of driven or flown VIRGIN BLUE! I have flown Virgin Blue ever since, never had any problems. After the go around, we joined the circuit and landed a couple hours late.
Thats my rumble, our return flight home with QANTAS was no fuss…on time and the landing was a breeze.
Cheers guys,
James
My worst experience was on a short flight from Melbourne to Launceston, or should I say what was supposed to be a short flight… We boarded on time and had a pretty smooth ride. As we approached Launceston we were advised that there was quite a lot of fog and we would need to circle until it cleared. After circling for 15 minutes we came into approach. I had a window seat and was hoping the pilot could see more than I could as I couldn’t see the ground at all. At the last moment the plane started climbing at an alarming rate. The pilot had decided to abort the landing. We flew above the fog and that is where we stayed for the next 45 minutes in a holding pattern. (This was almost as long as the flight back to Melbourne). It was a great view with only the Tasmania mountain tops visible above the fog. After 45 minutes the pilot advised that we would need to be diverted to Devonport and we were then put on busses back to Launceston Airport. My 50 minute flight to Launceston ended up being a 4 hour journey.
In the 70’s PanAm 1 and 2 circled the globe each way, I wonder if they ever serviced them? It never looked like they did. At the time I was a regular into / out of Hong Kong and still am for that matter!
Anyway, at the old Kai Tak on a wonderful hot steamy raining night, (we all know the type). We were max loaded, not a seat to spare and to the roof with every imaginable piece of carry on C**p stuffed in lockers, as they do, particularly west bound to Europe (I was on the way to Iran.)
At Kai Tak, for anyone that’s been there they would know just how crowded the ramp used to be. We got to near the holding point and we were then passed by several other flights etc, (wing under over stuff) .. we pointed out on the runway and then the crew advised we will need tug for a push back! IE tail over the freeway blast fence! OK Wow
Several more flights pushed past us, all very close to contact, after a long wait (perhaps to burn off fuel :)? we started a full power – brakes on- run up, as the captain proudly announced in a long southern accent, “good evening ladies and gentlemen, we’re going flying”.. ( Perhaps reading “The Right Stuff” [book by Tom Wolfe about the U.S. manned space program] about now would help).. ha.. we will make this baby fly.. this will be good I think.. NOT!
This rotten, overloaded PanAm 747 slowly rumbled down the hot, wet runway, forever, and ever, as lockers popped open, stuff fell out, but clearly having a real struggle to reach any kind of rotate speed that would result in ongoing flight. This continued until I swear he bumped it off enough to get the gear up, it clearly was not a useful rotate, and it sure felt like we dropped as we passed the end of available land! man those lights were close, it was just enough to clear them. Those big old GE’s don’t like too much water..
The “flight” continued at about 20 knots above stall as we floundered around between the islands and the fishing boats, there was complete silence in the cabin, the crew were white as! And everyone knew this was all about 10 seconds from a swim. At least it would be relatively low speed ditching! More like a flop.. It took forever to get any speed and height. We were clearly out in the South China Sea before we even commenced a climb. We did make it eventually.
Including several Typhoons on arrival, this sure was one of the more ”memorable” Hong Kong arrivals or departures I ever had.
Good old Kai Tak.. what a wonderful place.
Our worst experience was on a PAL flight 2 years ago with my family, having two toddler kids.It is not the kids was the worst part, It is their first flight, ofcourse they both excited and nervous. The sad part is, it is cold inside the plane and with the used of the blanket my wife and I are warmed enough but with the kids they are still cold with the thin layer of blanket that they gave, we ask for an extra blanket for the kids and they said they are no extra blankets they are only 1 blanket for each passenger.. so my wife and i decided to give our blankets to the kids instead, so were cold on that flight and doesnt want to take a PAL flight ever again.
There have only been two times in my life that I’ve been scared in an airliner (the other time will be told in a later posting :)
We were returning to Boston on United Airlines (from memory a 757) in the mid-90’s. It was coming up on winter and the weather was grey, windy and lots of rain. The pilot came on the PA to advise that due to weather, Boston Logan airport (our destination) was going to be closing. We were to be the last aircraft that would be allowed to attempt a landing and that the crew would give it their best shot to try and get everyone where they were going on this dark & stormy evening.
He also told us all to ensure we buckled up tight and stowed all loose gear because it was probably going to be a bit of a ride. Oh joy.
All cabin crew were strapped in, lights were off and window shades were open as we descended further into the soupy clouds. I had a window seat behind the wing on the right hand side and was watching the outside world as we descended.
The turbulence started to kick in as we got lower and then we broke through the overcast, coming in over the grey, seething waters of Massachusetts Bay. Now the thumps and rattles which had us all shaking about in our seats were “enhanced” by rocking & rolling as we got closer to the surface.
Looking out the window, I was seeing alternate dark grey sky and then very dark grey sea. The aircraft was rolling with the engines surging while the ailerons & spoilers were deflecting madly as the crew fought the variable & gusty winds down the approach path.
Soon we were over the inner harbour and I was starting to see some of the navigation equipment that’s anchored in the water. We were still having quite the roller coaster ride but it eased off as we got over the tarmac, although the crew were still working hard to keep us aligned.
Finally we thumped it onto the deck, the spoilers deployed and almost immediately the thrust reversers were applied. Through the rain on the window you could see the airport buildings and aircraft looking very windswept and miserable.
As we taxied off the runway, the lead flight attendant came on and in a slightly shaky voice said “Welcome to Boston, folks.” There was some laughter but it was mostly a quiet cabin as we all breathed a huge sigh of relief.
On the way off the plane I stopped to chat with the captain as he stood at the cockpit door (remember when they used to do that?). I congratulated him on the landing and said it was the hairiest ride I’d ever had. He agreed it was a pretty good one but noted that he was ex-US Navy, at which point we both agreed that night landings on a carrier are the most intense experience of all (I think there’s a joke about that, right? :)
Hello,.
I’ve had a couple of encounters, though when all the drama settles – there’s always a funny tale to tell in most cases!!
I was on a flight from Dublin to London, normally flight time is 50-55 minutes and on arrival to check-in, the flight was still scheduled to run even though Dublin was being covered by a thunderstorm.. However in the departure lounge, a late departure was annouced with a 30 minute delay. I somewhat expected the delay to be prolonged even further but to their promise the airline loaded us all on the plane after 30 mins. I found myself on the back row – with the toilets directly behind me and stuck in the middle seat between A and C.. With all passengers settled, the pilot then comes on annouces the fact – they had not refuelled the plane and with thunder persisting above they couldn’t begin refuelling until thunder stopped. Everyone was completely up in arms about being loaded onto the plane – whilst departure lounges aren’t the cosiest of places, it sure beats been squashed between two large business men, with their oversized Irish Times newspaper full opened out giving me absolutely zero room to even breath.. Anyway, 1 hr later we’re all still sat on the plane with the pilot announcing every 15 mins, that it shouldn’t be long.. As the hour passed, passengers then began to use the tiolet facilities and to my horror, because of zero flight noise I could hear absolutely every gasp, sqeeze and forgive me but passing of wind and other toilet business load and clear.. It was horrific – this carried on for 3hrs and 15mins before refuelling finally went underway and my regular Dub – Lon flight of 55 mins took a total of 4hrs 10mins whilst been caged between at this stage sweaty business men, oversized newspapers taking over my enter personal space and the glory of overhearing the toilet business of the whole plane…!
My other “scary flight moment” was when flying from Buenos Aires to Australia back in the late 90’s. At that time Aerolineas Argentinas had exclusive rights to the trans-polar route between Auckland & Buenos Aires and were using their 747-200 aircraft.
With the prevailing winds behind them, they were able to go from Auckland to Buenos Aires non-stop but couldn’t make it in the other direction with those same winds slowing them down. To make the flight to Auckland, the aircraft would fly south from Buenos Aires to Rio Gallegos way down at the bottom of Argentina. From here they would load up with fuel and continue their journey to Auckland. Due to being full of fuel, they couldn’t take on a full passenger load so you sometimes got some extra space. That was about the only benefit to the flight.
The first time I ever flew back to Australia from Argentina, I had a window seat and was watching the stark, rugged approach as we neared the airport. The screen on the wall was showing our progress and as I looked out the window, I saw a runway that looked a bit short for a 747. Sure enough, we turned final and landed on it. Oh great.
After an hour or two hanging out in the terminal waiting for fueling to be completed, we trooped back aboard and the real fun began. I couldn’t get the image of the runway out of my mind. It really did appear rather short.
Being too big & heavy to use the taxiway, we went onto the runway, turned right and headed to the end where we did a 180 and lined up to take off. The pilots stood on the brakes and ran up the engines, first to check they were running OK then beyond to much higher thrust levels. The aircraft was straining against the brakes with the engines howling when, finally, the pilots released and applied full power.
Rumbling down the runway, I split my attention between the view outside and the screen on the wall at the front of the cabin that was showing speed, altitude, temperature, etc. With the aircraft shaking along the runway, we’d gone past the mid-point where the terminal was and still weren’t near what I figured was VR.
Oh crap :(
Subconsciously my hands went to the arm rests of my seat and began pulling up on them as I thought “Come on you fat pig, lift! Fly!”
I was really starting to get concerned when I felt the nose lift and then the rumbling ceased as the mains left the ground. WHEW!
When you take off from a major runway in most large airports, the gear is probably already retracted before you’ve passed the end of the runway. Not this time. I’d only had a second to start relaxing when the end of the runway flashed by and the gear started to retract. Wow!
Once we were in the air and on our way I started breathing again and realised I was still holding the arm rests. Letting go I looked out the window, wondering how they ever got approval to operate fully loaded 747’s from Rio Gallegos. I wished I could have experienced it from the cockpit – the view would have been incredible.
I only did the Buenos Aires -> Rio Gallegos -> Auckland trip twice and both times I was stressing about getting off the ground before the runway ran out. Eventually QANTAS started flying the route and their 747-400’s could go non-stop between Buenos Aires & Auckland. Aerolineas Argentinas soon upgraded to A340s and Rio Gallegos was no longer required on the trans-polar route. These days QANTAS are using their 747-400ERs which can make it non-stop from Buenos Aires to Sydney so you don’t even have to stop in Auckland if you don’t want to.
I’ve got to say, there are some things from the “good old days” of flying that I really just don’t miss :)
I’ve had a couple of interesting experiences in my times.
One was a return from LAX to Auckland on the old UA841 flight then onto Melbourne. Out of LAX, being a young plane nerd, I was well aware of the enormous amount of fuel we were carrying to get us to Auckland on the 14 odd hour flight ahead against the winds. I had even been up front and chatted to the crew prior to door close about all things aviation, they even got me an ACARS printout of the weather in Melbourne! Anyway we were about 2hours late in pushing due to a late connection of the UA841 service from JFK (operated by a 757). However we weren’t overly full and out we taxied to 25R and started to take off… everything was progressing normally until I started to get the feeling that this was taking far too long! Sure we had heaps of gas on, but this was taking a long time. After what seemed like a lifetime the nose came off the ground and then we just seemed to sit there slowly rotating off the ground. The big shock then came when you could feel the barrettes of the touchdown lights (for the opposite end!) go under the mains. I knew what that meant, we were above V1 (had to be, the nose was off the ground) and fast running out of runway to get airborne! Eventually she (all aircraft are female right?) got going upwards. It wasn’t until 14 hours later talking to the new crew that was taking us to Melbourne that I overheard a conversation with an engineer about oil levels in the number 3 engine that I figured out what had happened. I guess we got an oil pressure warning on takeoff above V1 (so committed to go) but the crew reduced thrust to prevent anything untoward (making the run longer) then it corrected itself once airborne and under way. I would think the crew would have been happy to continue and see what happens since they’d have to dump gas anyway if they came back, so may as well fly for an hour and see if it’s just an indication problem!
Another was a routine flight Melbourne to Sydney on a B737-300 with Ansett. Which was all routine until we got to about 12,000ft on descent, then we dropped into some storms… it was rough for the remainder of the trip (not to the liking of the girl I met across the aisle who was not a fan of flying to start with!). Then while we were getting vectored for final we had a late runway change from 07 to 34L… so from the top of the ILS we clean up and go around. Then we get visual on downwind for 34L, turn base, keep descending… then during the turn to final we get a huge bump and the left wing drops, sending the 25-30 degree bank to something more like 45! It was all water out the left side, a split second later I see the aileron drop down with all it’s got! I look right and see the crew has reefed the yoke right, with everything hanging out trying to get the wing down. Needless to say my new found friend is now as white as a sheet, holding onto the armrests with a death grip, looking at me (resident plane nerd) for some inkling of reassurance! I did my best, but even I wasn’t keen for that to happen again, not in a 737 that was nearly fully configured for landing! But other than a few wing waggles on the way in nothing overly dramatic happened again.
Other things I’ve had happen:
- The touchdown tango in Calgary in testing conditions
- Gear failure in a Rockwell 112 (during my RG training, right after practicing gear failures no less!), But it manually extended and other than a slow trip back wasn’t a drama.
- Alternator drop offline (but it reset OK after we noticed the radio was ‘very quiet’!).
A friend of mine who flies in GA professionally has had much more colourful things, like engine failures whilst on the ILS at Essendon, gear handles coming off in the circuit and other such fun!
My worst flight experience was on a 747 flight from Honalulu to Sydney. The flight was meant to depart at midnight. Half an hour after the scheduled departure time we haven’t boarded the plane and are politely informed there was a delay! An hour later we are advised that there is still a delay (no reason given)although we could see out the window that one of the engine cowels on ourplane was open. At 3.30am we were advised that there was a faulty fuel valve in the engine and they had no spare parts, however there was an incoming flight that they believed had a spare and we would be delayed another 2 hours. At 5.30am we were advised that the fuel valve had not been on the incoming flight. At 6.30am they decided to send us back to hotels because there would be a significant delay ! We were told to go to the hotel lobby at midday and there would be a noticeboard updating us on the situation. So after a couple of hours sleep and very hungry we went down to the hotel restaurant at midday only to see people from our flight getting on a bus. So we had to race back, get our bags, check out and get on the bus. So, 2 hours sleep and nothing to eat for 18 hours. Our new flight is scheduled for 4.30pm departure, boarding time 3.30pm. Boarding time comes and goes, no announcements. Advised of a short delay (no reason given) and will be boarding at 4.30pm, which we did. Departure time 5.30pm . The departure time came and went. At 6.00pm we were advised by the captain that they were trying to locate a missing passenger. After another half an hour, we were advised that the passenger had been located (hooray) but had decided not to join the flight. As airline policy is not to carry unacompanied baggage, they had to locate the bags and remove them from the plane. This took another 45 mins. So at 7.15pm we finally took off. The captain announced that they had taken on more fuel, so they could fly faster and make up some time. About 3 hours into the flight there was another announcement. We were flying towards a severe thunderstorm cell and that we were going to have to do a dog-leg around it, resulting in losing half an hour of flight time. After that, all went well till we landed at Sydney airport. We touched down and pulled off the runway to head towards the terminal, when we came to a stop. We sat there for 15 mins. when the captain announced that we could not go to the terminal, because the aircraft at our gate had mechanical problems and could not push back and that there were no other gates available. So we waited …….. for another half an hour and finally got to the gate but we had missed our connecting flight to Melbourne because of the delays in boarding and the loss of time in flight!
What a saga !!