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
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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 !!
It was February 1993, JFK airport, New York. My 9 year old daughter, my Dad and I were flying home after visiting family in NY, which we’d decided to do following my sister’s wedding in Ireland. The weather was bad outside. Very bad, with sleet battering the windows and a forecast blizzard on its way.
As we waited at the gate lounge to board the plane – a United Airlines Boeing 767, we listened to the PA as flights were cancelled, one after the other after the other. But not ours. Boarding was called and we grimaced at each other as we made our way to the plane with the wind battering and belting and howling across the airbridge. As we took our seats – my daughter and I were across the aisle from each other with Dad next to her in the middle seat – we could feel the plane shaking in the increasing winds. The blizzard was descending upon us very quickly.
Taxiing to the runway, the plane was shuddering and fighting the strong winds and there was an eerie silence as the plane load of passengers waited for what was expected to be a bumpy takeoff. At the end of the tarmac, we turned and could feel the engines begin to roar into life.
Wow … the plane could hardly stay on the runway with the force of the side winds. We were swaying all over the place, but kept on going, powering up for take off. It seemed that determination was the only thing that would get this baby off the ground! Passengers were crossing themselves and flight crew were looking worried. Ugh. Deep breaths. It’ll be fine …
The nose lifted. We’d barely cleared the ground and were being pushed from side to side and up and down and then, just milliseconds after leaving the ground, a huge gust of wind caught the right wing of that 767 and she tilted what must have been 60%. Left wing down, right wing up – a huge gasp the only sound above the roaring engines. The force lifted my behind from the seat and hips strained against the seat belt. My right arm, with white-knuckled hand gripping the armrest, was forced upwards and almost tore the armrest off (well it felt like that). My left hand was holding my daughter’s tightly across the aisle. I was certain we were about to crash. The force was violent!
To our relief, the gust passed and the plane stabilised. One hurdle successfully jumped, so to speak. But the plane kept rocking and rolling and bumping and jerking in the high winds and all we could do was sit and breathe and wait. Very nervous glances were being cast between passengers, heads were down, eyes were closed, others were wide with fear. After about five minutes of the jolting along, the pilots made an announcement that flight crew were to remain seated until we were well clear of the New York weather. After another 10 or 15 minutes, as things began to quieten down and the flight became smoother, flight crew were allowed to move around and begin the flight’s trolley service.
Now, I’m a bit nervy when it comes to planes, so I wasn’t really quite sure whether it was me, or whether this take off had been particularly scarey, so I asked a flight attendant who was offering us airline snacks. At my question she went into full animation, complete with what I guessed to be something akin to a Brooklyn accent … “Oh my GAWD!” she began, “That was so BAD! I was supposed to be on a flight that was CANCELLED, but was bumped onto this one! Wish I’d stayed on the GROUND!”
(Note each word in capitals there was emphasised during the response and her colleague was nodding agreement.)
She continued. “The guys at the back of the plane were watching the wings FLAP! OOOOH, I’ve NEVER experienced a takeoff like that before! So no honey, it wasn’t just you, it was particularly scary.” At that, she smiled and resumed wheeling the trolley down the aisle.
It turned out we were the last flight to be given clearance to leave NY that day until the blizzard had passed. Everything else had been cancelled.
Thankfully the rest of the flight was smooth as silk, but as we came in to land at LA, passengers around us joined in conversation about that takeoff. Prayers had been said, wills had been written and fingers had been crossed during that hellish time. It was agreed that no one, not even the flight attendant or the guy who flew a few times a week for business, had ever experienced such a frightening flight experience. Hopefully none of us will ever have to again.
My wife and I boarded a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Perth. She prefers the aisle seat and I had the middle. During the climb the passenger in front of my wife needed to recline his seat fully and my wife responded by trying to recline her seat as well. The person behind her whinged loudly he had no room and pushed the back of my wife’s seat so she could not recline. My requests to both front and back passengers were met with indifference so I asked if we could be moved but as there was only one seat unoccupied my wife was moved. She was sat next to a man who repeatedly picked his nose, inspected the result before rolling it between his fore finger and thumb and then flicked it onto the carpet. The person on the other side was grossly over weight and took up a third of my wife’s space and suffered terrible halitosis. My wife was doing every thing not to throw up and requested another seat, but was rudely declined as “she had already been moved once”. She continued the flight to Perth in tears. I was blissfully unaware of her plight until we arrived. She disembarked under the glare of the flight attendant. Good flight for me, not so good for her.
One of my worst flights was with Singapore Airlines from Paris to Melbourne. After a short stopover at Singapore we were joined by a connecting flight from Bombay. Most meals were curry and I was seated on the aisle by the toilets. Asleep I was woken several times by huge farts a few centimeters from my face by the people waiting to use the toilets. Boy I wished the oxygen masks would fall from above.
Imagine if you will, that you are traveling with your wife and three daughters, aged 12, 10, and 7 years old. They are good girls, but the 10 year old does not travel well. Now this was in the days when you could smoke in a plane, and you see that the tickets that have been issued to you, tell you that you are in the smoking section of the plane. You inform the desk staff that you were to travel in the non smoking section of the plane. You insist, but they look at you with a very I don’t give a dam look, you continue to try and explain, but they look at you and with anger in their voice they say. Move away from the counter or I will call the police. This has the affect of stopping you dead in your tracks. So what do you do, YES move away from the desk. Go back to your wife and tell her that there is no joy.
The plane trip was hell, a 10 year old daughter vomiting, and she has a blood nose as well. To cap it off, the woman sitting next to her, is an off duty Flight attendant, who complains to the other Flight attendants ( see know them). So what happens, while the planes flight attendants, ask you to stop your 10 year old daughter from vomiting. As there have been complaints. Needless to say we have never flown with them again. That was 20 years ago, and we now fly 4 times a year and in business class.
My father was not much of a traveller so I took my mother for a trip to the UK. On the long haul from Singapore to London they turned off the lights so we could all go to sleep. The also turn down the oxygen. After a few hours, I awoke feeling light-headed and sweating. For the first time in my life, I had felt very claustrophobic. I called the flight attendant who gave me an oxygen mask. After about 15 minutes, I came good.
That wasn’t the worst part. After about half an hour, my mother woke me up saying “I think I’ve got what you had”. I called for a flight attendant, but by the time she arrived, my 65 year old mother had passed out. Fortunately, we had a doctor sitting behind us who was woken by the commotion. The first thing she did was check my mother’s pulse. The worst sentence I have ever heard was a doctor saying “I can’t find her pulse”. Thankfully, with a bit of oxygen, my mother came around.
All thist so the airline could save a few dollars, and it wasn’t a budget airline either.
Th
I am a private pilot and anm NOW studying a Comand Instrument rating. Why? Well the following story will explain why I never want to repeat a mistake that could have cost our lives. My wife and I were on a trip from country Victoria to SA in a Cessna and had already had 8 wonderful days of flying across this great land; mainly at low altitude as in May 2009 the weather was the usual low scud cloud which meant the vast bulk of the trip was at 1000-1500 feet. No problem there as it was reasonable visibility. The worst part occured as a result of my own actions. I have to say at this point I am a VERY cautious pilot and take planning very seriously. We had arrived across St Vincent Gulf from Port Lincoln into Aldinga in SA, and the next morning were planning along the Coorong and into Portland Victoria. I planned for 3 hours endurance + reserves whicjh was righ on the maximum. Weather was crap, but still VMC. I had planned to divert to Mt Gambier if things looked too bad but as we arrived abeam Mt Gambier I looked ahead and saw that the low cloud continued to Portland and I had calculated that I had suffuicient fuel to return if that was not the case. As we got closer to Portland the cloud base was lowering and I my original plan was to go out over the sea to the west then come in to land. There was another pilot operating who advised me the base was 1000′ so it was at this I made a massive error of judgement. I tried to beat the cluad and went striaght ahead thinking I could sneak under the cloud. I was very quickly IN CLOUD with zero vizibility. Luckily I had a night VMC rating and had recently been checked out and this is what saved our lives. I relied on the GPS to track to the airport and luckily at 800′ saw the runway. Did a circuit and got down just as the cloud hit the runway level. Note the runway elevation at Portland is 400′ so that makes it a 400′ circuit. Next morning I calculated I had 18 minutes of fuel remaining. This was as close as I ever want to be to dying and it proved to me the following – Plan it, then FLY IT. Do NOT ever deviate and fly by the seat of your pants. People can die.
Coming home on an overnight flight from Singapore to Melbourne, it quickly became clear that my seat had an issue & wanted to constantly lay back onto the person behind me. Cabin staff were not that interested before takeoff even though I was asked three times to put my seat forward for takeoff!!!
Once in the air I continued to advise the cabin staff, who said that they could not do anything as the flight was full. This however did not stop them asking me to move my seat forward when meals were served etc. The man behind me was upset, because I almost had my head on his chest, he tried talking to the staff but this did no good, so the flight went on with no fewer than a dozen requests for put my seat forward.
As we started to come into Melbourne & after AGAIN being asked to move my seat, they said that I would need to move to another seat as my one was “UNSAFE” too bad for the previous 7 hours!!
I was then moved to a seat in business class (so much for a full flight) & seated alongside what seemed to be a fairly nervous man, who went on to explain that it was his fist flight & felt quite ill. On landing the man alongside me then managed to vomit all down one of my legs. Now filling fantastic & after a bit of a clean up I had to get through the airport & a one hour drive home smelling less that great!!!
It had been a routine flight from Bali flying Garuda Air to Java. We could see the volcanoes in the distance as we approached Yogjakarta, some spewing traces of smoke. As we got closer and were required to fly between the volcanoes we suddenly encountered severe turbulance. When I say severe I mean damn severe. The plane bounced all over the place and the nervous laugh that people make when scared out of their wits was quite audible above the rattles and bangs inside the plane. Having flown many times before and not usually prone to air-sickness, on this occasion, however, I could feel the ghastly wave of nausea welling at the base of my throat. Suddenly, all was calm, we were through it. We all relaxed as the plane prepared to land at Yogjakarta airport. As the plane touched down, full reverse thrust, airbrakes, in fact even (I suspect) an old rusty ship anchor were employed to pull up the plane in the shortest possible distance. On disembarking the plane we could see why. The end of the runway was marked by a fast flowing river. We were all tempted to do a Pope John Paul 2 trick and kiss the ground.
Maylaysian Airlines from Schipol to Kuala Lumpa. Settled in, favourite seat in aisle in middle of plane. Husband and wife sitting next to me, first time travellers, not sure where to put things, headsets on head, no maybe in pocket in front, oops, sorry dropped them under my feet so he rummaged like a good husband and retrieved them, knocking my legs all over the place in the meantime. oops, spilled the coffee sorry, that’s o.k., I will just wipe down the my hoodie, no problems. After a few more incidents all went quiet until husband picked up his book to read. It was lights out so he fossicked around looking for the light, I helped him out there. He can’t find his glasses, well it started. he was up fishing in all his pockets, knocking me each time then he went down on hands and knees to the floor under my legs, tangling in my blanket, he stood up and found his glasses on the seat, he had sat on them. The trouble really started when he discovered there was a lens missing and his wife became agitated as they were very expensive glasses as she announced to the plane, they must find the lens. Both of them now on the floor, under my legs, all over me searching in the dark. I offered to untangle myself and get out of my seat but they didn’t give me a chance he climbed right over me and under my legs from the aisle. It never ended until he back climbed over me without asking and began crawling on hands and knees along the aisle searching for the lens whilst his wife continued under my legs and seat. I finally got out of my seat but no sooner had I done that than the seat belt sign came on for turbulance and the steward came and asked him and me and wife to sit and belt up but they were too consumed with grief over the lens. I finally got to my seat and belted up.
Husband asked for a torch so the process started all over again with torch this time, up the aisle, torch in my eyes as he clambered back over me. I didn’t have time to get out of my seat again (seat belt sign still on and plane doing a little rock and roll)to allow them to look as they were on top of me most of the time. The asked the steward to empty the rubbish bin by the toilet just in case but they said no and firmly told him to go back to his seat. Back down the aisle then after an hour of comical but frustrating behaviour, miracle of miracles…he found the lens. The rest of the night was spent listening to them chatter on about how lucky they were to get that very expensive lens back and how they will have to think about flying again. Let’s hope they either, get used to it or give it up or maybe glue the lens in to husband’s expensive glasses.
My worst flight experience ever occured in China. I as working in Jinan and after 2 months away it was time to come home via Hong Kong. There was only 1 flight a day and we were waiting at the terminal, the plane came to the bridge and sat there, our departure time came and went, in fact three hours past and the plane pulled away from the bridge and disappeared, no notice to the passengers. A bunch of us stormed the attendant at the counter and said what now? They said there will be no flight today and you need to come back tomorrow. That was fine for the locals so after some complaining they offered us a free night in their airline hotel, if you could call it that. We got to reception and they said that you need to find three friends as their are two double beds per room and you need to sleep next to someone from the flight. I decided to buy a room for my self as I really did not want new friends. Went down for breakfast in the morning and I could not recognize any of the food on offer, not even rice was on the menu. We made our way back the the airport and they gave us a replacement service which was an old beat up MD80, yep still flying strong in China. We had just begun our ascent when something went bang loudly and then the dreaded silence and the plane leveled out and the awaited announcement, we have to return for repairs which we did safely only to be told, there is not replacement service come back tomorrow and spent another night with three friends. Being a little ground hog day, I got an economy train to Beijing, if anyone has ever been on an economy train in China think 5-6 people per square meter…. I managed to get a flight home 3 days after I was suppose to leave. Kind oxf funny now looking back.
My worst flight experience was when i was comming home from england after christmas, and our flight was due to leave at 7:00am. We got to the airport at 3:00am, and waited in the check-in line. When it was time to check in, we got our tickets and headed off to the gate, where a flight attendant told us that the flight was full and that we couldn’t get on. So we got all angry, she then said that there was a direct flight to melbourne waiting downstairs. So we went to get our bags, which took at least 1 hour. When we finaly got our bags we went back to the check-in desk andgot tickets for the next flight, which was at 7:00pm. We complained and they sent us to a hotel for the day. In the evening we returned to the airport and got on our flight, which wasn’t direct, and stopped at Tokyo. When the plane got to Tokyo, we had to circle around for half an hour because of the snow. when we finally landed we had to wait another hour to get to the gate. When we got in the airport we had to wait 24 hours for the snow to clear. We finally got back 24 hours late.
Is this where you submit!
Try this. Booked Air France Florence to London. Paid $1400 for a return flight, not allowed tom buy a one way. Arrived at Airport 4.30am to book in. I booked in. When I tried to check my wife in there was a message contact Flight desk. Walked over, was told I would need to wait for the Supervisor. Super arrived 30 mins later & told me my wife was off loaded. Argued to no avail. Along w 10 other passengers we stood round for an hour, excuse was there was a large group booking. 40 mins b4 takeoff we were told everything OK. Boarded to find many seats vacant & thus no need for the initial offloading which causeda lot of stress & anger.
Arrived at Charles De Gaulle to find that the plane landed at the wrong terminal due to traffic. We missed connection as not enough time to get to the other terminal & could not get any assistance from Air France. Subsequently missed our transfer privately booked from Heathrow to our accommodation.
Air France gave us a ten euro phone card that we could not use & rebooked us. 2 hours late we left for London. Went to Baggage terminal, waited, waited, needless to say Baggage in Paris even though we had been assured it was in London.We were told that they would arrange for baggage to come on the 7.30pm flight & they would transfer it to our Hotel. Rang the concierge at 9pm who contacted Air France Baggage. No Answer I asked Concierge to ring another number. He made contact. No Baggage until morning was the response. I was very angry by this stage.
We went to bed.
At 12.15am there was a knock on the door & surprise, surprise our luggage had arrived. C’est la vie!!!
We planned to go skiing in Switzerland. Flying Melbourne to Hong Kong and picking up Swissair to Zurich. We checked in and boarded the plane in the early morning without incident and sat waiting to take off. We waited and waited. No information was forthcoming from Qantas as to why there was a delay. After more than an hour we were told we needed to disembark. The plane we were on was needed to fly to London. Mechanical issues with the plane that had been going to London were cited. We were told another plane was being readied for us and we would be flown to Sydney where we could catch up with a plane going to Hong Kong. Like cattle we moved from one plane to the other. Arrived in Sydney a bit grumpy some 3 hours after our original departure time. Disembarked to the transit lounge where we sat waiting, waiting, waiting. No-one seemed interested in us and we could not get any information. We eventually learned that there was a maintenance workers strike. Qantas could not fly planes that had not been cleared. They kept citing mechanical safety issues, no mention of a strike. Apparently there is a difference in compensation expectations depended on the reason for delay. Midday came and went, the afternoon rolled on. We were very conscious of the time window we had to catch the Swissair in Hong Kong. Nobody seemed to care. The just kept fobbing us off. The window closed.They offered to put us on a plane back to Melbourne where we may be able to catch a plane to Europe via a different route. I was struggling to keep my cool. I declined but then decided I had had enough and started ‘venting my spleen”. Amazing how a lot of noise and anger can get people to reconsider their approach to a problem. It was now evening and there were fewer planes flying as we got closer to the Sydney Airport curfew. They were starting to give people vouchers to stay overnight in Sydney. We had a prepaid, expensive hotel in Zurich. We did not want to stay in Sydney. eventually my vociferous protestations invoked the presence of more senior staff. We were ushered into the business class lounge to placate us and assured they would try to get us out that night. We got out on the last plane for the night flying to London via Singapore. Our luggage had gone to Hong Kong. we were told that British air would fly us to Zurich as soon as possible after our arrival in London. By now we had been travelling since 5.30am and got as far as Sydney. on arrival in London we were able to fly with BA to Zurich. Arrived in Zurich and it was around zero degrees. We had left in very hot February weather, dressed in light summer clothes and sandals.We were freezing! All our warm clothes and gone to Hong Kong. People on the train into Zurich city looked at us as if we had come from Mars..freezing conditions and us in summer clothes. When we had raised our predicament with BA staff, they washed there hands of the matter, offering us some toiletries etc but nothing else, telling us that there is a Qantas office in Zurich and we would need to talk to them. We bought some essential gear, like closed toe shoes and with great determination lobbied the Qantas office next morning. They initially tried to fob us off with a claim that it is the responsibility of the last carrier (BA) to deal with any of these issues. I was just about ready to kill someone. Our hotel had been phoning Australia trying to locate us, our travel agent couldn’t find out where we were in the world, our luggage was apparently in HK and Qantas were denying any responsibility?? Not likely! We were not moving until we were paid!We were paid!Our luggage arrived the next morning via Singapore Airlines. The skiing was ultimately great and the rest of the holiday a really good experience, the ongoing disputation with the airline took some time to be resolved satisfactorily after we arrived home.
In August last year booked flight to Sydney from Melbourne at 12pm. Arrived at Tullamarine to be told flight cancelled and that next available was 6.30pm. As I had tickets to a show in Sydney at 7.30pm I requested to be put on a flight. Un-named airline finally put us on a flight to Canberra with connecting flight to Sydney, weather was bad so food was not served. Flight to Canberra by 2 hours was delayed and therefore we missed flight to Sydney. All flights from Canberra were booked out due to the Polies going home for the weekend. We finally got flight at 7.30pm to Sydney and weather was so bad the hosties were not allowed out of there seats. We finally arrived to our hotel in Sydney at 9.00pm to find our room had been re let and we also missed our show. Needless to say will not fly with that airline any time soon.
Several Years ago I was flying Melbourne to Las Vegas via LAX for a business convention. All started well with an ontime departure out of MEL in a heavily loaded 747-400. Six hours into the flight the captain made and announcement and all started to go very wrong. We had developed a fault and were turning around and flying two hours backwards to Auckland. On this flight back we got to experience and amazing daylight fuel dump – quite spectactular.
After a bit over 6 hours we land heavy in Auckland. Clearly we had not dumped enough fuel as we blew several tyres on landing. We were stopped at the end of the runway and got to watch out the window as what seemed like sixteen fire trucks came racing towards us with lights on. We were told to remove shoes in case the plane needed to evacuate via the slides. Luckily this was not needed but it was another 2 hours untul we got to the gate and off the plane.
We were then told it was an overnight stay in Auckland and were put up for the night without our baggage. We all had to survive on what was in our carry on. We got to see our flight land and the tyres blow on the late news! Next moring we were back at the airport and they had decided to combine our already full flight with the scheduled Auckland-LAX flight. After standing in line with very little movement for 3.5hrs it was clear there was no way everyone was to fit on this flight. Luckily a business college was at the top of the cue. He happened to ask what had happened to the original plane we were on as was told it was to depart in 3 hours for San Francisco (the maintainence base). He asked if he could get on this flight as was told no problem and his LAX connection was changed. We jumped the cue and followed his lead.
In all there ended up with 22 passangesrs on this flight. It was not worth bringing the plane to the terminal so we were bused out to it. We were personally greated by the captain as he did his walk around. Now you would think you could get at least a business class seat but no we were not allowed out of economy. This did not matter too much are we all had about 20 seats each!
On arrival to San Fran we are now at about 32 hours of travel and no change of clothes. We only have a very small window to get from the international terminal to the United flight. We run to get there and jump on board just as the doors close. As usual not a spare seat in sight and we are all middle seats all over the plane. We taxi out but I look out the window and see a LONG line of planes. I think we are about 8th in line and I see another 3 or 4 behind. Captain comes on – RADAR for California is down and all flights grounded. Unknown wait time. Engines are shut down. I was smelly from the longhaul, hot from the run and now stuck in a fully loaded plane with no air conn. We sat for 4 hours until we could get out of the line of planes and back to a gate.
Another four hours later and still no one can update when planes will fly again. It’s nearing dinner time and we start to ask about a hotel. Apparantly we are not international travellers and not entitled to this – we should go where we stayed last night. It did cross my mind if I jumped the counter to throttle this helpful person I may get a nights accomodation with the local Police? While waiting at the airport we watch the evening news and again see our flight in the tarmac cue from earlier. Twice on the TV news on one trip!
After 10 hours flights resume. As you can imagine the backlog is massive. After much negotiation we get a flight with AirAlaska from SanFran to Las Vegas. How this worked out out I will never know.
44 hours after laeving Melbourne I arrive in Las Vegas. I smell like I have just swam through a swamp. It comes as little surprise my bags have not made it with me. To be honest at this point I really don’t care. I gat a cab. Check in. Decide a shower is useless as I cannot bring myslef to but the same clothes on again. Back to a cab and out to the shops for new cloths. My bags turn up 12 hours later.
After all this I had missed the first 2 days of a 3 day conference. I was back on a plane for an uneventful trip home some 32 hours later……
“Ladies and gentlemen” the pilot called over the PA, “It’s late in the day, the sun is behind us, we’re coming in low…….and they don’t know we’re here”. And so we commenced a bombing run in a commercial airline DC 8 on Midway airport in Chicago on a trip there in the middle 80s. I worked for the ailine at the time and thought…..this is a bit weird. Approaching Midway, some 30 ks out, I thought it strange we were at about 500 feet and at full throttle, shortly we pitched up into a negative G manouver, for a “Bomb” release pattern. OK, that was weird, a bit of fun, but certainly not normal. Shortly afterwards there was shouting from the cockpit and an orderly return to pattern and a very smooth landing. Being staff I held back from debark to see what had happened, only to see the Pilot being helped off in a straight jacket.
Other than 3 other near death experiences from walk away emergency landings, this takes the cake.
I was boarding a QANTAS 747-400 bound for KLAX. 10 Minutes after boarding the plane i heard the captain come on and say, ‘Hello, this is your captain speaking, we have come across a problem with the aircraft and it is going to take around 4 hours to fly the spare part in”. so after four hours of confusion we started to Taxi to Runway 34 at YMML. then we held short of the runway and we were told we could not take of because of wind. we waited on the tarmac for 3 hours, then finally took off, on our 16 hour journey to Los Angeles. altogether i was in the same plane for 23 hours. did i mension i was sitting next to a six year old boy who was farting the whole time?