Worst behaviour you have ever experienced on a flight? And any other interesting flight stories :)

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by Bladelia

Flying back from Miami to London with BA, early 90s, with my girlfriend , took off, I promptly feel asleep, awoke to loud screaming, apparently we lost power in all 4 engines and was plummeting to the sea, we descended 20000 feet very quickly, captain managed to get 2 engines restarted, and we returned to New York. Was put up in a hotel and returned home the next day, as an aside all the 1st class passengers got to fly home on Concorde.

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I think I'd have asked to cruise home and would never have flown again after that! Sounds horrific!

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Originally Posted by amy56

Do you mean no turbulence or just extreme turbulence?

I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight in 40 years of flying, where the seatbelt didn’t have to go on at all for turbulence.

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I mean turbulence where it’s really knocking about

I had never not been able to keep the drink in front of me and it stay in the cup if you see what I mean

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by floridasgirl

I'm assuming ket means something entirely different in Scotland than was my first thought?!

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Originally Posted by greekgranny

Yes, I did a double take.

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Ket here [NE] is how many refer to sweets, gobstoppers, crisps, none healthy stuff that fills kids/adults with diabetes producing levels of sugar and has bairns up aheight due to the rush

[gl20]

Originally Posted by kevin_cambs_uk

I mean turbulence where it’s really knocking about

I had never not been able to keep the drink in front of me and it stay in the cup if you see what I mean

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I suspect like me, you're a little sceptical about some of the stories on here about planes plummeting 1000s of feet. Made be do a bit of googling. An extract from a book 'cockpit confidential' by a US pilot:

I remember one night, headed to Europe, hitting some unusually rough air over the Atlantic. It was the kind of turbulence people tell their friends about. It came out of nowhere and lasted several minutes, and was bad enough to knock over carts in the galleys. During the worst of it, to the sound of crashing plates, I recalled an email. A reader had asked me about the displacement of altitude during times like this. How many feet is the plane actually moving up or down, and side to side. I kept a close watch on the altimeter. Fewer than 40 feet, either way, is what I saw. Ten or 20 feet, if that, most of the time. Any change in heading - the direction our nose was pointing - was all but undetectable. I imagine some passengers saw it differently: "We dropped like 3,000 feet in two seconds!"

In posting this I'm conscious this could sound like an attack on some posts that I'm sure we're just conveying how scary it can feel when being in heavy turbulence. But I know there are some nervous flyers on here so figured an alternative perspective may not be a bad thing.

Besides, I have nothing better to do as I'm stuck in T5... BA Dreamliner, sensor on door says door not shut properly despite it all looking ok to the engineers. Tried a 'software install' (I wonder if they also tried turning it off and back on again. I thought that was always the answer?) and no luck. So 3 hours on ground while they fetch another plane. To be fair, I've never had anything like this happen before so just one of those things.

Have a good evening all.

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by gl20

I suspect like me, you're a little sceptical about some of the stories on here about planes plummeting 1000s of feet. Made be do a bit of googling. An extract from a book 'cockpit confidential' by a US pilot:

I remember one night, headed to Europe, hitting some unusually rough air over the Atlantic. It was the kind of turbulence people tell their friends about. It came out of nowhere and lasted several minutes, and was bad enough to knock over carts in the galleys. During the worst of it, to the sound of crashing plates, I recalled an email. A reader had asked me about the displacement of altitude during times like this. How many feet is the plane actually moving up or down, and side to side. I kept a close watch on the altimeter. Fewer than 40 feet, either way, is what I saw. Ten or 20 feet, if that, most of the time. Any change in heading - the direction our nose was pointing - was all but undetectable. I imagine some passengers saw it differently: "We dropped like 3,000 feet in two seconds!"

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Just wanted to say that I picked that book up in an airport somewhere in the US and it's a great read! My next door neighbour works near Southend airport for a company that builds and repairs parts for aircraft and he also thought it was excellent.

[gl20]

Originally Posted by Leyfy

Just wanted to say that I picked that book up in an airport somewhere in the US and it's a great read! My next door neighbour works near Southend airport for a company that builds and repairs parts for aircraft and he also thought it was excellent.

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Might see if I can download right now then as flight boarding still 90 mins away. There was a really good book i read last year by a BA 747 pilot called Skyfaring. The author previously worked in Mgmt Consulting before deciding to follow his dream. Lots of neat stories and anecdotes. For example, on the overnight flights from LHR to South Africa they experience very little traffic but eventually pass the flight headed opposite direction, normally on a close track. Apparently it's customary for them to flash their landing lights at each other as they fly by.

[TigerMom]

Many, many years ago when I had my first proper job I was travelling home from work on a packed bus when a drunk man threw up all over me. I had to get off the bus and walk the remaining 3 miles home with it dripping off me. It left me with a vomit phobia so bad that I would leave parties early just in case someone was sick. Fast forward to December 2016 when DH and I were flying from Salzburg to Gatwick. The last people to board were a family of four. The dad sat next to me and proceeded to throw up repeatedly for the whole journey. It was awful. There is no way he should have been allowed to travel but as we found out on landing he worked for British Airways so he got special treatment. Weirdly it seems to have got me over my phobia.

[Gryff]

I don't get out my seat from the minute we take off til we land unless it's an emergency
Well,inthe days of Monarc we were on a flight with the kids 11 8 and 18 months when the call went up any medical personnel,on board I literally sat on DH hands so he'd not voulenteer me but DS1,2 pipe up Our Mums a nurse so I had to get up at that point a male nurse decided saFety in numbers so he got up too
Unfortunatly a lady was having a miscarriage he bailed out we had to land in New Yprkmto get her off que air incident forms we arrived 2hours late
Well on the way home on the same trip again same call I honestly though DH had arranged a wind up but no a elderly gentleman decided to have a heart attack same male nurse and me he stayed this time
Low and behold did the gentleman not arrest we got him back when the pilot asked what do you want us to do it's either dump fule and land at Gander Air Force base or continue our reply getbthis ******
Plane on the ground again air incident forms but this time whole pane unloaded the kids had a ball seeing found the other aircraft etc but my lot our bags etc were all off loaded as a precaution in case the crew ran out of air time we took off with 5mins to spare but our bags and the sky kennel we'd bought arrived about 2weeks later
We did get free flights from monarch for the next year
The gentleman did recover as well

[The Bobbo's]

We've experienced an emergency landing with passengers crying, praying and being sick. It was not nice!

Many years ago when my youngest was a baby, I'd struggled to get her to settle during a night time flight. Finally, she slept curled up on me, then the seatbelt sign went on. I innocently asked if I needed to strap her in too (I obviously didn't realise the danger at the time). The stewardess said no, but my baby would die if I didn't! I cried my eyes out until another stewardess came to help me with an extender so we didn't wake her up.

The first flight attendant came back, full of fury - I told her to stay away from me as I couldn't control my emotions at that point.

We've also been asked to 'mind' a child travelling by himself. I agreed, it was no problem, until he turned into the child from hell. As my girls were trying to sleep he repeatedly hit them. He kicked the person in front, was rude to everyone and demanded I give him my iPad. I didn't. The attendants were mortified and moved him to UC as he was tired and needed to lay down! I got a 'free' drink...

[mumx3]

A couple that stand out, both on Air France from Mauritius, the first one was my DH was sat a few rows from us, next to a rather large French lady and her DH, well after the meals were served my DH picked at them eating bits and bobs, when he had finished he cleared up as normal only for the french lady to ask has he finished, she then asked can she finish his meal off ! he was so shocked and didn't know what to say so just passed her the leftovers on his tray, where she proceeded to finish the lot off, unbelievable always chuckle now if he leaves anything, and the french lady is always mentioned

The other again was my DH got a french guy sat behind him on overnight flight, where he took his shoes off leaving his bare feet and perched them inbetween my DH seat and the window, and slept pretty much the whole way, so DH had dirty bare feet next to him for hours, I would of said something but DH didn't want to cause a fuss!