What’s been your worst flying experience ?

[Pinchy]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

of little consolation but its impossible to open a door mid flight the door opens out first and the cabin air pressure keeps it firmly shut & they are mechanically locked by the pilot anyway hence 'doors to manual' when you land so the stewards can then open them

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The Boeing 727 used to have a rear air stairs that could be lowered in flight although they changed that after a hijacker used them to escape through wearing a parachute.

My worse flight was when the guy next to me decided to chuck up in my lap right after take off. Cheers mate!

[holidaysaver75]

We were coming back from Orlando and I think we were on an Airtours plane. Everything was pretty calm and we were in the middle of the first drinks service when we hit unexpected turbulence. The drinks trolley was in the aisle and started to roll towards a member of the cabin crew who had fallen over. Drinks and snacks went flying everywhere - it was manic. It didn’t last long but I gripped the armrests all the way home. On reflection, I don’t think the turbulence was that bad (we’ve had worse) but the timing made it all so dramatic.
We had our first go-around with Norwegian flying into Tampa last time we went to WDW. A little hairy, but more because you could feel the power of the plane and were more acutely aware of the rushing air outside.
One trip proves the power of a combo of gentian and valerian. I’d had a fair bit (because I don’t like flying) and it worked like a charm, to the extent I felt a bit heady and reckless. It was pretty bumpy on the way down and people were nervy and there was some screaming. I had my hands in the air whooping like I was on the Rock n Rollercoaster!

[Purplefrog]

The worst for us, was when we took our daughter when she was seven months old.
The flight out was great, but coming home she wouldn't settle and cried constantly.
When, after at least a couple of hours I finally managed to get her to sleep in the sky cot, we hit turbulence and had to wake her up again.
She then screamed continuously until we landed.
It was horrendous, not only for us, but all the poor people sat near us.
I remember apologizing to everyone as we got off.

[Disney Jo]

Flight home from Orlando with Thomas Cook - a lady sat next to my husband (middle 4 seats) and was drunk. After a few more drinks cabin crew refused to serve her alcohol, she started walking up and down the plane threatening to punch the air stewardess, ranting in her seat, having a row with her boyfriend. Starting shouting at my husband as she didn’t see why she should sit next to a stranger and why was he allowed a gin but she wasn’t. It was scary. Police took her off the plane when we landed.
Another was flying home from Dominican Republic. The plane was at the gate with its nose undone. A person was running up a ladder, banging the inside of the nose with a hammer and running back down whilst the pilots checked if that had fixed the problem... everyone was scared waiting to get on! Luckily it didn’t fix it and we had another night in a hotel and flew home the next day.

[duchy]

Worst was Virgin to Vegas , fifty strong stag group made up mainly of men old enough to know better.
Half of them staggered onto the plane already drunk (my feeling was some of them should have been refused at the gate) . They obviously all booked separately as they were scattered through the plane so were yelling down the aisles to each other when not staggering down them visiting. The language was awful , I felt really sorry for people with kids.
It was a very young crew (the purser hid out in upper the entire flight) . The plane finally “ran out” of alcohol about five hours out , at which point they mostly passed out.
The fact that Virgin didn’t have the wit to seat them together so at least reduce their disruption and didn’t cut off those already off their faces earlier was ridiculous. Awful flight, any US carrier would have refused boarding for some of them and certainly wouldn’t have kept serving them. Virgin’s lack of concern for their other passengers was awful , it was like Wetherspoons on a Saturday night with no option to leave (no exaggeration I’ve worked there)
I’ve pretty much avoided Virgin ever since .

[sarahmarie173]

the worst for us was a BA flight from LGW to MCO now you know you have a problem when the stewardesses are screaming for their lives, the turbulence was so bad that the woman serving tea and coffee flung her tray in sheer terror!
people were pulling out sick bags left right and centre, my mum who was next to me was saying her Hail Marys and at that moment I thought I was going to die!
we literally dropped out of the sky it was horrendous by the time I got off the plane it stunk of sick, my legs were like jelly and I convinced myself I was going to become an illegal in America as I refused to get on the plane home!

there was also a time when I was so scared of turbulence that had hit that they had one of the pilots come meet me at the back of the plane to explain to me what turbulence was, upon coming into landing he explained over the tannoy that I was a nervous passenger and apologised for the bumpy landing - after the flight he came to check on me and make sure I was okay - bless him that made me feel so much better, just a little act of kindness can go along way!

I now have to take diazepam when I fly but has this stopped me - hell no !

[Disneyfreaks]

My worst flight was with monarch taking off in a tropical storm from the Maldives back to gatwick - it was like being on a roller coaster (the plane was dropping, rocking & shaking) i was so scared I honestly thought we were going down - all i kept thinking was that my sister & brother in law were about half hour behind us on a flight with airtours, we’d booked separately but holidayed together

The plane stank of sick & it was the longest 12hr flight ever - I swore to my DH I’d never get back on a plane after that, but thankfully I overcame that fear, this flight was 2001 & I still remember it like it was yesterday !

I still don’t like flying but I’m getting better with every time we fly !

[Guest]

Compared to some of these experiences, the ones I’ve had seem very tame. 😁

Coming back from Amsterdam in a hurricane was pretty interesting. It felt like we never flew straight and level, I thought we’d do a go around but the pilot managed to land. By which time complete silence had descended...

And a seaplane trip to the resort island in the Maldives, mid 1980’s. You had to get on a set of big scales with your luggage. Barefoot pilots, no seat belts and the seats were like the ones on old buses with a metal rail on the back that we nearly lost our teeth on when we bounced across the turquoise sea on landing. And it went so high...

[littlelish0544]

Luckily, nothing horrendous as I need gin and diazipam to get me in a plane-ive not even read this thread so with a possible need to lighten the stories... We had some bad turbulence on the way to florida on our second trip, folk screaming like on a coaster with the drop, a child was sick (thankfully caught in a bag) but worse than all that was the terrible wind someone had... we suspect from a group of older men on thier way for a golfing holiday across the aisle from us... oh my god... it was eyeburning,nostirl hair dissolving levels of bad... making my stomach turn just thinking about it... 🤮

[planecrazi3778]

Originally Posted by Invisible Man

Was on a flight from Düsseldorf to Edinburgh a few years ago when a drunken football fan refused to sit down when coming in to land.
The air stewards tried until the last minute jeopardising their own safety but had to give up in the end and sat down and put their seatbelts on for their own safety.
The plane landed with the man stood up and he bounced all over the place on landing.
The plane was met with police and medics, and the guy was taken away on a stretcher.
Always wondered if the captain was aware and why he didn’t do a go round, but easily the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen on a flight.

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Often included in cabin crew training. We wouldn't contact the flight deck under those circumstances as they are busy concentrating on more important Matters. We would only contact for things like fire etc.