re: Describe your worst flight experience.

I'm going to limit this to larger commercial flights because I've had some real experiences on small planes.

Worst, I ended up on the tarmac at DFW being put into an ambulance. Flew from Anchorage to DFW, then was going DFW to Shreveport.

I was having some withdrawals from alcohol, and hadn't slept in a couple of days. My S/O said I looked out the window (much like William Shatner in "The Twilight Zone") and started saying "no, no no." Banging my head on the seat in front of me, bit through my tongue then went into some seizure.

Landing gear issues going into Mobile. Turned out fine.

NY to Frankfurt, Germany - had a headache the whole way. Miserable flight.

When the flight attendant on my flight a few weeks ago from Vegas to Birmingham was reading the preflight stuff she said, "If you are travelling with small children... Why?"

flew from San Juan to FLL, and cabin lost A/C. We were over ocean at time, and had to make an emergency landing back at SJC. Made it safely. Got a free flight in exchange for that mess

Flying back from Barbados this summer. We were at cruising altitude when suddenly the 767 we were on banked violently to the left. Wing tips were not far from being vertical for about five seconds. Most passengers were freaking out. Captain came on a minute later and said we had passed through the tailwind of a 747 . He said we were clear of the FAA mandated 8 miles of separation and wasn't sure what happened.

Mine was St Louis to Boston. I sat next to a child who needed an exorcism.

It started in the waiting area by the gate. I'm traveling for business, got my briefcase and laptop, sitting and doing some reading. All of a sudden, I hear this booming voice, and look up to see a woman who could have been a member of the East German Women's Wrestling team back in the day, stomping toward my gate with an older woman and 2 kids. She is loud. And I mean LOUD, and has that obnoxious Bah-stan accent. She's yelling at the older woman (her mom), and at her kids. They're yelling back. And I'm praying they're not on my flight. My prayers were not answered.

So as we're in line to board, I'm praying they are sitting far away from me. Again, unanswered prayers. I had an aisle seat, and sure enough, grandma and the daughter were in my aisle. Instead of putting the kid by the window where she could see an be entertained, grandma takes the window seat and puts the possessed girl in the middle next to me. Mama and the boy are in the row behind.

During the course of the flight, the little girl (who was about 7 years old, so old enough to know better) yelled, screamed, hit me (both accidentally and on purpose), got up and down about 12 times, ran up and down the aisle of the plane, and dumped her Coke into my open briefcase. When she hit me in the head putting on her sweater, Mama came over the seat, smacked her in the head, and screamed "Watch what you're doing, you just hit the lady upside the head!" It was wonderful.

The little boy behind me, who was about 10, yelled, screamed and pitched fits. I swear he also spoke in tongues and in a voice that could only belong to a demon. He kicked my seat repeatedly, until Mama finally screamed at him to quit. Then she leaned over the seat and told me her son had "special needs". I thought he especially needed a firm hand to his backside, but that was just me.

It was bad enough that people around me were laughing, and when I finally stood up to get off that flight from hell a couple of passengers offered to buy me a whiskey. I was traveling with some other people, but we all sat separately. One of the guys says, "Wow, I hope none of you had to sit next to those awful people!" I raised my hand, and he asked if I wanted a drink there in the airport, or could I wait to get to the hotel.

I once punched a plane.

quote:

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The 737 we were on hit an air pocket and dropped suddenly. The coke I was drinking floated momentarily in front of my face. It was all my parents could do to make me fly again. I still hate flying.

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Planes leaving Juneau used to do this maneuver (still do on rare occasions) called the Lemon Creek Turn. The plane is prone to drop several hundred feet which it has done at times due to wind coming off the mountains on either side. A F/A was injured on this maneuver on a flight I was taking to Anchorage once. I know several folks vowed never to fly again on that flight.

Here's a vid of the departure, not a great one but gives you some idea. you take off, immediately turn left toward a rather large mountain. Before you hit that mountain, you make a very tight 180 degree turn to avoid hitting other mountains on the other side of the channel.

LINK

Holy shite. I put that on the big screen. Made my toes curl.