Your Worst Flights (Turbulence, other pax, etc...)

[RDU-JFK]

1. Flying SBA-DEN on an F9 E190. We had to hold over Durango for about 20 minutes due to storms in DEN and almost had to divert to SLC but a window opened up in the storms so the captain told us it would be a rough arrival. One of the roughest descents I've ever experienced. I was so glad to touch down in DEN; I was pretty green. Taking the train to the main terminal I noticed a lot of pale/green passengers coming off other flights who acknowledged the rough approach!
2. Flying ICN-LAX on a KE 777-300. Hit about 45 minutes of rough air over the Pacific just below the Aleutian Islands. I was a bit scared given how constant and rough it got; a few big dips. Having it occur in the evening over the Pacific didn't help matters!
3. Flying LGA-MDW on an ATA 737-800. Was in an aisle seat next to a woman with a screaming newborn. Completely full flight and the baby wouldn't stop!! Had a massive migraine upon arrival in Chicago.
4. Flying LAX-JFK redeye on a DL 757-200 (ex-TWA). The ones with the exit rows by the doors with no overhead bins by this row. Preboarding these two women from NJ cut in front of the Elites who were patiently waiting; they claimed to have a disability. Then I noticed they had exit seats. So I tell the gate agent "I thought people with physical handicaps should not be given an exit row?". These women heard me and began to curse me out in the jetway. They also hogged the overhead bins with large bags and shoved my duffel all the way in the back! All the time they were still cursing me out but I just kept my mouth shut and acted civilized! I was so glad to get to JFK and away from those hogs. Overhead bin space is a common problem on DL 757s ex-TWA especially if you are in the exit row.

What are your war stories?

[yankees368]

My worst flight was detailed in this thread: http://nycaviation.com/forum/threads/39908-LAN-gt-DTW-gt-JFK-gt-LGA-gt-JFK-gt-LGA

Long story short, boarded a DL MD-88 to LGA at DTW, pilots seat broke so I transferred to a another flight to LGA departing almost at the same time, also an MD-88. Flight was absolutely packed. Because of our late departure, we got caught up in a monster storm in the NYC area. I have never been on such a turbulent flight. To top it off, we had a lightning strike about half way to LGA. Scared the crap out of everyone! That landing at LGA was scary, lets just say that.

The second worst flight I had was a short hop from BUF to JFK on jetblue. Another very long story short, several missed ATC takeoff windows because of icing on the plane and ground holds. 45 minute flight turned into an 8 hour deal. Here is a pic of Blue 100 which I spent the entire day on and around.
http://i.imgur.com/38nJU.jpg

[moose135]

Two stories...

When I worked at Newsday, we would regularly visit a big ad agency near Chicago - I'd go out with one or two sales reps every couple of months. We would take a 7am SWA flight out of ISP to MDW, meet two or three client teams, then fly home that evening. One time, I go out with a fairly new sales rep, we have our meetings, and head back to MDW. Our flight was supposed to leave around 6pm, but our meetings ended early, so we were at the airport before 3pm. I suggested we have something to eat (Harry Caray's in the terminal is always a good stop) then catch our flight. The sales rep saw there was a 4pm flight, and whined about trying to get it, so he could get home earlier (he was newly married). We were able to change our reservation to the earlier flight, but of course, now we're in the C (cattle...) boarding category. As we are waiting near the end of the line to board, a huge thunderstorm comes over the field - all the rampers get pulled inside, and the rain was so heavy, I couldn't see the airplane at the jetway! After a 30 minute delay, we board - and get stuck in middle seats. Once we were ready to taxi, the captain came on and announced that the winds from the storm had bent the access panel that covers the external power plug, and they couldn't get it closed. That resulted in a 45 minute delay, while mechanics came and fixed the door. Now, we're ready to go. Except that the line of storms that had passed through were now between Chicago and New York, and ATC was holding all flights east. We sat on the plane for another hour, waiting for clearance. Of course, we were buttoned up, and away from the gate, so we couldn't do much but sit there. We finally get cleared to depart, and had an uneventful flight to ISP. When I got home, I checked FlightAware, and found that the flight we were originally booked on arrived at ISP 15 minutes after we did.

Back when I was flying the KC-135, we had the "flight from hell". It was mid-December, we flew our scheduled mission, refueling and a navigation leg, then headed home to Grissom AFB, Indiana (KGUS). I was flying co-pilot from the jumpseat and my aircraft commander was trying to upgrade to instructor pilot (only she was truly scary to fly with) She was in the right seat, the Instructor Pilot was in the left. We get to KGUS, but weather was below minimums, and we diverted to KI Sawyer AFB, on the upper peninsula of Michigan. We took on some fuel, and checked the weather. I saw no way we were going to get into KGUS that day, and the weather was heading downhill at Sawyer, but I got outvoted (2 Majors vs 1 LT...) and off we went. Sure enough, weather at Grissom hasn't improved any, so we return to Sawyer. By now it's like 9 pm, it's dark, snowing, blowing snow, fog, and we're 14 hours and 2 wx diverts into our day. We went missed approach on our first try at the ILS, and on our second approach, we're near decision height, looking for the runway. As we dropped below decision height, one of the pilots said "There are some lights, I *think* I see the runway". Well, from my seat, all I saw were the strobes (dimly) and lots of blowing snow, but no runway. Since I didn't want to die that night, I got on the intercom, and in my best command voice said "GO AROUND". They did, we spent the night at Minot AFB, ND, and flew home to Indiana the next day.

[megatop412]

Easy- Eastern DC-9, LGA-MCO, sometime in the mid 1980's. The worst turbulence I've ever flown through as we made our way through a line of thunderstorms approaching MCO. Many of the pax(including my brother) vomiting. I got real close there for a few minutes before we stabilized on finals. Boy was I happy to see Micky Mouse and Donald Duck. Stangely though, it didn't make me afraid to fly(USAir 427 took care of that)

[Mateo]

I've boarded a commercial aircraft approximately 110 times. I've boarded a GA aircraft approximately 200 times. After every one of those landings, I've arrived at my final destination safe and uninjured. Don't think I can reasonably call any of those flights bad, let alone my "worst."

[lijk604]

1989 - Piedmont, B737-200, Myrtle Beach to NY. Flight was one of two dailys they operated, luckily we were booked on the morning flight due to approaching weather. Inbound though, was 2 hours late due to said weather, and when it finally did arrive, so did the storm. Severe thunderstorm, with hail....which damaged the aircraft. Wound up having to wait for a replacement, which was coincidentally, the evening arrival. The flight was fine, however, the 9 hours in the terminal waiting was probably the worst I've had it in my many years of traveling.

If you want a good baby/child tale? jetBlue in 2006, JFK-MCO, a mom, infant & 5 year old wind up sitting behind my wife & I on the aircraft. She got "lucky" and had the crying baby behind her for most of the flight...me, I had the 5 year old kick the back of the seat from the time he sat down until the time we blocked in at MCO. The mom, said, sorry can't do anything about it, he's a kid.

[Derf]

I have you all beat hands down but I do not want to end the thread so I will wait! Give me your best shot... It will fall short of this target!

[moose135]

The mom, said, sorry can't do anything about it, he's a kid.
Duct tape works wonders...:tongue:

[hiss srq]

August 14th, 1996.. Delta 727-200Adv. LGA-TPA Operating as flight 801. This was a few days shy of 1 month since TWA 800 went down of which I was well aware of being the aviation junkee I was already. We take off out of LGA on 13 make the right, start the left and hear a loud pop followed by a noticeable reduction in power for a few moments. After that it felt like some power came back. We continue climbing for about another minute or so and start making a sweeping right turn headded south bound for Nassau County. The Captain comes on and explains that we have just experinced what is called a compressor stall from our number two engine. With that, he announces that we will be headding out over the Atlantic to dump 15K of fuel before diverting to JFK. So, we make circles off the coast for a while dumping fuel which I can clearly see from 15F. Finally we come in and land on 13R at JFK and are met with fire trucks to examine the engine. Later on they find a sub aircraft and we taxi out to depart on 31L after dark. At that point I fell asleep and didn't wake up until we were over what I would guess was Brookville, Florida on the way into TPA. When we landed there were a few cameras around. The next day we found out in the local paper that a few peices of the engine had actually been spat out the back end and landed on a Port Authority employees truck.

Additionally to that, trying to get home from MCO on the afternoon of the Valentines day blizzard. By the grace of God and Delta, I got the last avialable first class seat on a 738 to JFK that night thanks to one Justin Idle.

[jerslice]

That's an easy one for me: it was a small sightseeing plane flight around the Big Island of Hawaii. I can't recall the airline but we left out of Kona in what I remember being a Cessna Caravan. They placed me in the very back of the plane...nearly stuff into the tail I thought. It was a rainy day with a light wind in Kona, but once we were airborne the motion quickly started getting to me. I started falling asleep about 20 minutes in, which was making me feel better. Then we hit the windy side of the island and within 30 seconds I was reaching for the barfbag. I somehow managed to incorrectly deploy the bag (yeah, I know) and I threw up my breakfast of CornPops all over the seatback and myself. And I mean all of my breakfast - it was an epic amount of vomit. Just as I was recovering, round two got underway and I threw up even more (I wasn't aware I had anymore to give)...and again missed the bag and it went all over myself this time.
With excessive amounts of vomit now sloshing about the floor, others in the plane were beginning to become overcome by the fumes of my breakfast returned. My mother was next to go...also missing the bag. My sister followed suit 5 minutes later...in the bag...followed by myself for a third time, followed by another passenger after that. Followed again by me...finally in the bag. My dad was laughing his ass off though admited later the fumes almost pushed him over the edge.
Finally at this point I see the runway for Kona in sight and I am HAPPY. I saw a 737, later discovered it was an Aloha 732, depart ahead of us and thought that was super cool. As we came up over the runway it started getting really bumpy, and we started crabbing super heavily (I was looking straight down the runway out the pilot side windows). Suddenly I felt the plane dropping quickly, in an uncommanded sort of way, heard the pilot yell "****" and heard the stall warning go off (a sound I was familiar with from my then obsession with FS's). We pulled a last minute go-around and came down 10 minutes later with no incident - except for myself, mom, and sister hurling again.
When we got off the plane the bottoms of our shoes were covered in a light coat of vomit...and I raced off to the bathroom, passing the folks scheduled for the next flight - who looked absolutely terrified to get on board next. One of the staff members walks out to the plane with a thing of paper towels, and the pilot stops and says "that ain't gonna cut it, we're going to need some towels...and some industrial grade bleach..."

[cancidas]

I have you all beat hands down but I do not want to end the thread so I will wait! Give me your best shot... It will fall short of this target!

VIP flights at Rucker.



...but i can't wait to hear Fred's!

[Derf]

My story is not a great story, but short of an airplane crash, this will top all others (Maybe tie Jeremy's, that is a kick ass horror story). I have had nightmares about this flight.... And I am sorry to say Tommy, it was TWA!

[Matt Molnar]

With excessive amounts of vomit now sloshing about the floor, others in the plane were beginning to become overcome by the fumes of my breakfast returned. My mother was next to go...also missing the bag. My sister followed suit 5 minutes later...in the bag...followed by myself for a third time, followed by another passenger after that. Followed again by me...finally in the bag. My dad was laughing his ass off though admited later the fumes almost pushed him over the edge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eYSpIz2FjU

[Derf]

JESUS!!! I JUST SPIT COFFEE ACROSS THE ROOM! IT WAS THE SAME COLOR TOO! ahahahah Oh My GOD that is some funny stuff right there!

[Matt Molnar]

Great timing for this thread, or for this story, depending on which way you look at it:

Drunk Passenger Uses 11-Year-Old Girl as Urinal While Another Man Pukes on Grossest JetBlue Flight Ever (http://nycaviation.com/2011/08/drunk-passenger-uses-11-year-old-girl-as-urinal-while-another-man-pukes-on-grossest-jetblue-flight-ever/)

[Big Tim #70]

Duct tape works wonders...:tongue:

So does a backhand...:mad:

My kid did that to some poor guy on the way back from MCO (No, it wasn't John). I tried so hard to keep him from being the little jerk that he was but was unsuccessful. I appologized up and down & he was very cool about it but I still felt really bad. After we got everything wrapped up & got off the plane, I noticed him sitting at the bar in the terminal. I walked up to the bartender & paid for the drink he was having as well as his next 2 rounds. 1 drink for every hour he had to endure my little monster, although not enough, was a good start at reperations.

Parents who write off bad behavior of thier kids as "Kids being Kids" need to be Pimpslapped.

[megatop412]

My story is not a great story, but short of an airplane crash, this will top all others (Maybe tie Jeremy's, that is a kick ass horror story). I have had nightmares about this flight.... And I am sorry to say Tommy, it was TWA!

Come on man, let us have the story...I turned my laptop on just to see if you submitted it yet! Especially given that it was Trans World

[Derf]

727-200ADV flight to hell

18 years ago I was traveling to Arizona with my Fiancé and left for the airport on a very damp evening with way to many bags. Getting them from the car to the check-in was difficult as I was taking heavy luggage for my brother who moved out years earlier from N.Y. and it was humid, getting foggy and 90+ degrees. In checking I started getting nauseous from a smell at the check-in that I could not place. The security check was nothing to talk about compared to today's check-in but I did not know that the fun was about to begin!

I am sorry if I offend anyone, this is how I perceived it and my thoughts. I do not mean to disrespect anyone else's religion or beliefs.

As we were walking to the gate there was a horrible smell, we get to the gate and there was middle eastern women only on this flight. Their religion makes it that they do not shower on a normal basis and the smell of about 100+ woman was.... OK, I have no words to explain, other than to say my eyes were tearing and I was taking shallow breaths... after about 1 minute Nancy and I took a walk and stood about 3 gates away. We were now very concerned!

Unable to change flights we boarded the aircraft and figured that the blood curdling stench would be better if we were in the front where the air would filter back to the out the rear of the aircraft. As you guessed it, we were sitting in the last seat in front of the Lav (Little did we know how that would help us). The captain announced that we would be pushed back a little late as there were about 50 aircraft waiting before us and we needed to take on more fuel of the wait. We pushed back 15 minutes late and sat...and sat....and sat! After 1 hour the pilot turned off 2 engines and the aircraft went from hot to a hell that can not be explained. Nancy had her nose pushed as deep into my wet armpit as humanly possible. She would moan to me that she loved me soo much in case we would not make it thru the flight (seriously!). Every now and then I would smell the bathroom and I was very relieved to smell the nasty stench from the bathroom (it was welcome to my nose compared to what I was normally smelling). I was remembering the time I was in a 747 over the pacific in the jump seat where we had a rithmic pounding for 1 hour and we were free falling for 10 feet at a rate of once every 8 seconds or so... They would not allow us to descend and they were being real as$es, Engineer threw up all over my feet, the copilot blew chunks all over his instruments and I tried to get out of the cockpit but got thrown into the Engineers vomit on the floor exiting thus being exactly like the cartoon posted earlier...(not sure if the pilot ever blew). Thinking that it was not as bad as what I was currently going threw as I was able to take off my clothes and wash out in the sink and hang up to let dry while I was sitting in the top in my underwear!..... That was not fun but it was nothing like this! 3 hours waiting and the pilot says that we would need to turn back and get more gas and then get back to the end of the line! Nancy tells me that is it and we are not going to AZ, the minute they open the door we are done and thank god as she could not say on-board for an entire trip to AZ. Right on cue, the pilot comes on the PA again as says that there was a break in the fog and we were number 10 to take off and we just might be able to pull this off. At that time Nancy's head splits in half and an alien comes out....... sorry. Yea, we take off after 3 hours of cooking on the ground and now it gets cooler in the aircraft but that does not help the smell... The flight was uneventful and the smell did not get any better the entire way.... in the car on the way back to my parents home we had the windows open the entire way, in 100+ degrees and there was no discussion. Not seeing my parents for a year and not saying one word the entire way home was rough but nothing would have been able to prepare me for that flight or how bad a smell can be. Nothing would ever make me believe that a smell could be worse than vomit itself but it was. If I am ever put in that position again, I will walk to Arizona thank you.


I have had lots of horror flights, dropping a wing 40 degrees due to wake from the plane in front of me at 50 feet on final and such.... Lighting hitting aircraft I was on, vomit fest in a 747 cockpit and pilot almost not able to recover from a spin while showing off.... NOTHING came close this flight. Most of the time I was wishing the plane would crash. Kind of like when you have the flew so bad you wish you were dead...and mean it!

[moose135]

That's all you got, Fred? A few hours in a smelly airplane? I was expecting so much more from your build up. I had two pilots try to kill me!

[Derf]

But Moose.... Nobody blames the pilots for trying! :tongue:

[megatop412]

That was absolutely disgusting and I felt ill just reading it.

It reminded me of summers on Long Island where we'd be driving around south Nassau and then WHAM- the stench of the Oceanside dumps cooking off would smack you in the face and you would frantically try to figure out which direction to drive off in.

Related but only by a thin thread- you want to talk disgusting- about 6 months after my Dad passed away we went to sell our house upstate since he was really the only one that had used it recently- well no one had been there since the last time he had been there about 6 months before, and somewhere in the interim the damn fridge had died. Dad had meat in there, eggs that had broken, cheeses, fruits and vegetables- the works.

So I come in the house the night before everyone else shows up to clean the house out, and I swore up and down I was going to find a squatter that had broken in and had died in one of the bedrooms. The stench enveloped the entire house, but when I determined it was harshest in the kitchen, I knew. Like an idiot I flung open the freezer and fridge doors at the same time and was greeted by what looked like a pale green vapour that sounded like it was hissing at me. It smelled like 2 hobos that had just rolled in week-old chicken parts before engaging in intercourse on top of one of the Staten Island dumps. During a July heatwave. It was so bad that my poor mother, who has never seen anything she couldn't clean, was sickened as she tried to make some kind of difference. But at least we were able to leave the house every few minutes to catch our breath. Can't imagine being stuck on a plane with that.

And with that, I bid you all a good weekend.

[RDU-JFK]

It smelled like 2 hobos that had just rolled in week-old chicken parts before engaging in intercourse on top of one of the Staten Island dumps. During a July heatwave.

Brilliant use of prose!!!

[cancidas]

Unable to change flights we boarded the aircraft and figured that the blood curdling stench would be better if we were in the front where the air would filter back to the out the rear of the aircraft. As you guessed it, we were sitting in the last seat in front of the Lav (Little did we know how that would help us). The captain announced that we would be pushed back a little late as there were about 50 aircraft waiting before us and we needed to take on more fuel of the wait. We pushed back 15 minutes late and sat...and sat....and sat! After 1 hour the pilot turned off 2 engines and the aircraft went from hot to a hell that can not be explained. Nancy had her nose pushed as deep into my wet armpit as humanly possible. She would moan to me that she loved me soo much in case we would not make it thru the flight (seriously!). Every now and then I would smell the bathroom and I was very relieved to smell the nasty stench from the bathroom (it was welcome to my nose compared to what I was normally smelling). I was remembering the time I was in a 747 over the pacific in the jump seat where we had a rithmic pounding for 1 hour and we were free falling for 10 feet at a rate of once every 8 seconds or so... They would not allow us to descend and they were being real as$es, Engineer threw up all over my feet, the copilot blew chunks all over his instruments and I tried to get out of the cockpit but got thrown into the Engineers vomit on the floor exiting thus being exactly like the cartoon posted earlier...(not sure if the pilot ever blew). Thinking that it was not as bad as what I was currently going threw as I was able to take off my clothes and wash out in the sink and hang up to let dry while I was sitting in the top in my underwear!..... That was not fun but it was nothing like this! 3 hours waiting and the pilot says that we would need to turn back and get more gas and then get back to the end of the line! Nancy tells me that is it and we are not going to AZ, the minute they open the door we are done and thank god as she could not say on-board for an entire trip to AZ. Right on cue, the pilot comes on the PA again as says that there was a break in the fog and we were number 10 to take off and we just might be able to pull this off. At that time Nancy's head splits in half 1and an alien comes out....... sorry. Yea, we take off after 3 hours of cooking on the ground and now it gets cooler in the aircraft but that does not help the smell... The flight was uneventful and the smell did not get any better the entire way.... in the car on the way back to my parents home we had the windows open the entire way, in 100+ degrees and there was no discussion. Not seeing my parents for a year and not saying one word the entire way home was rough but nothing would have been able to prepare me for that flight or how bad a smell can be. Nothing would ever make me believe that a smell could be worse than vomit itself but it was. If I am ever put in that position again, I will walk to Arizona thank you.

think that was bad? oh this is nothing! you should've been with us five, six months ago. OH! you talk about puke! we rain into a hailstorm over the sea of japan, right? everybody's retching their guts out! the pilot shot his lunch all over the windshield and i barf on the radio! knocked it out completely, and it wasn't that lightweight stuff, either. it was that chunky industrial weight puke. here, want a bite?




That's all you got, Fred? A few hours in a smelly airplane? I was expecting so much more from your build up. I had two pilots try to kill me!

anything like IPs smacking you on the side of the helmet for making a stupid mistake? i read a story where a pilot going through BFT just let go of the helo after his third or fourth time on the receiving end. the IP never flew with him again.