Any scary airline stories? (cost, scene, employee, tank)

[lovebrentwood]

Has anyone ever been on a plane something went wrong? How did everyone react? In the movies, everyone screams. Do you think that's a realistic reaction?

Okay I'll start...

The recent Hudson River "miracle" brought back memories for me. Nothing as dramatic, however.

I was 19, returning from a two-month European trip. On a Lufthansa jet, about half hour or so after we left Gatwick airport in London, the pilot announced something in German, and there was chatter among the passengers. Then he said it in English: "Ladies and gentlemen, one of our engines is on fire, and we must return to the airport."

He explained that we first had to drop fuel because we couldn't land with a full tank. No one reacted with fear; there was just normal chatter. I didn't hear any praying.

We landed safely, and then we spent the next eight hours in the waiting room where they fed us hotdogs, hard rolls, and Coca-Colas until the plane was ready.

When we finally reboarded the plane, the pilot announced, "You were a very brave crew." It was only then that I was nervous about what had happened; I didn't think we had anything to be "brave" about. Later, I heard the incident made the papers in London. That surprised me, too.

Years later, I read about a pilot of a jet with a similar problem, but he mistakenly turned off the engine that was NOT on fire, and the plane crashed, killing all aboard.

What about you? Do you have a scary airline story?

[JimmyO]

I was on a plane where the flaps froze up on descent into Milwaukee a few years ago, in the dead of winter. It basically meant they had to make a faster landing at a more shallow angle. I happened to be sitting next to an off-duty pilot who talked me through the whole thing, and while it was a pain in the butt to deal with, was not really a huge safety issue. So, if she wasn't freaking out, I wasn't freaking out.

But what was funny was, once we pulled up to the gate in Milwaukee, I saw a ton of emergency vehicles waiting for us, just in case something had gone wrong. It was like a scene out of "Airplane!" But again, if the experienced pilot next to me was OK, I was OK.

[dansdrive]

I have a number of them but this one sticks out more than the
other but its right up there with the one where we hit severe
turbulence in route to Singapore on an old 747 and all the over head
doors opened up and spewed luggage over our heads.

But this one was one I truly remember. Use to fly a lot between
Pittsburgh and upstate NY especially in the winter. Well had the last
flight out of Pitt around 10:00PM. However, connecting flight from
Ft. Lauderdale was late due to bad weather up and down the east cost.
Boarded about 10:45PM and it was to be a 45 minute trip. Clear in Pitt
that night. Everything was normal the first 10 minutes and then the
pilot came on and said due to fog at our NY destination we would
divert to Elmira/Corning airport. That in itself is not a bad deal done that
before just means another hour or so to get home from there. After another
15 minutes the pilot came on and said weather improved at our original
destination and we were going to 'try' it. We do once and did an abort,
twice and did a abort. Pilot came on and said its a no go and that we had
to head back to Elmira/Corning as fog was setting in there too. So we headed
there and we did a long decent, seemed to long and guess what it was. The
wheels came up and pilot put the stick to full and up we went. The pilot
undershot the approach so we were coming around for another go at it. That
pass two failed and then the fog set in. So pilot was going to go to Ithaca or
Syracuse NY. It was not about 12:30AM. He headed to Syracuse, we were all
wondering about our fuel level at that point.... Syracuse was clear and we landed
without a problem. What a relief. However we sat on the plane for almost an hour
because there were no slips for us to deplane from. So they moved a plane and we
got into the now decolate airport. The airline said buses would be waiting for us
to take us back to our original destination which was a 1 1/2 hour drive. Well
you guessed it no buses. They could not get drivers. After about an 1 or so two
school buses pulled up, one for the people and one for the luggage. Bus trip went fine until we were about 15 minutes away from our destination and the bus pulled over and the driver turned and asked if anyone knew where the airport was from
where we were....so he got direction and we made it to the airport at about 3:30AM.
Next issue no luggage bus it was lost somewhere on the highway. People that
could wait no longer headed home and luckily found the luggage bus and pulled it over and guided it back to the airport. We got our luggage at about 5:30AM. I
headed for my car and remember I said it was winter. Well where I was parked and
the wind direction while I was away forced rain and snow into my engine compartment. I could not start my car. Some airport employees help me get it
started and it was bearly running, to this day I felt that if I hit a deer that early
morning my car would of just stopped and the deer would just go on its merry way.
Arrived home at about 6:30AM and I remember my wife asking how the trip go...???/??

[Magnum Mike]

The ones I experienced were nothing major, they were only related to turbulance. In 1971, when I was only 14, we were on a flight from London to Chicago on BOAC Airlines (now British Airways) We were at cruise altitude, and we were experiencing very heavy turbulance over Iceland or Greenland, then suddenly the aircraft, which was a British-made Vickers VC-10, dropped a few hundred feet, so that scared a few passengers and I remember seeing a few items that were not secured, floating for a a couple of seconds during the zero gravity condition that resulted. That scared many passengers, but I remember thinking something like "Wow, this is fun, let's do it again!" ...

Another similar, but not quite as serious, in January of 1997, I was on a flight from Portland, Oregon to Phoenix, on an Alaska Airlines, McDonnell Douglas MD-83. We were over the Sierra Nevadas, and experiening turbulance, and again, the aircraft dropped a few hundred feet, and I remember a woman that was behind me screaming. I also remember a guy across the aisle, he had a drink that ended up on the cabin's ceiling, again from the zero gravity. I remember him pointing at it and laughing..

It wasn't a major story, but on my return flight from Honolulu to Phoenix, back in June of last year, on a Hawaiian Air Boeing 767-300, the landing/touchdown on the runway, was pretty rough for some reason, even though weather conditions were perfect, no heavy wind or anything that would hinder the landing in Phoenix.

[nilssson]

I was on a flight that showed a movie so bad that I walked out on it. Man, that first step was a doozy.

[MoNative34]

This one flight I was on ran out of coffee. I was in pretty bad shape.

[cynwldkat]

We were flying to Charlotte NC from CA and hit some really bad thunder storms in Ohio where we were suppose to get on a connecting flight.. We were the last flight able to land and then the airport was shut down for 3 hours. But while we were preparing to land we were hit by lightening--pretty scary!! We did live to tell though!!

[Roaddog]

Not scary for me but I was flying to Alaska and I think we were leaving Juno and the jet had to make a hard left to clear mountians and some guy started screaming like a little girl.

[Crew Chief]

Was the only Space-Available passenger on a C-130 cargo plane that was hauling the members of a USO Show from Osan Air Base, Korea to Kunsan Air Base, Korea. The band members were invited to see the cockpit. Every one of them that sat in the pilot's seat took the stick and played with it like they were in a fighter aircraft... I normally don't have a problem with air sickness, but I was a little "green around the gills" after that flight.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by nilssson

I was on a flight that showed a movie so bad that I walked out on it. Man, that first step was a doozy.

If they showed one of those Airport movies, I wouldn't blame you for walking out. The pressure would just be too much for some people.