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Emergency landing on a Dash-8 after it lost power in an engine. Dash-8's are terrifying, and I don't recommend flying in one. It is kind of like driving a 1949 Chevy in 2015.
Emergency landing in a DC-10 after it lost power in an engine. No real reason to land, but there had recently been a DC-10 crash and the pilot was being cautious, or else was following protocol. (This was a long time ago.)
Four go-rounds (aborted landings followed by a safe landing).
Too many diverted flights to count.
Too many delayed or canceled flights to count.
Still, I love to fly. Since I'm fairly large and not particularly broke, I fly first class whenever possible, which helps a LOT.
This story isn't disasterous, but dangerous and funny at the same time.
My brother in law and his wife arranged to adopt an infant in Guatemala. My husband offered to accompany his brother instead of his wife for safety reasons (Guatemala wasn't too safe back then). In Guatemala, there were lawyers to meet and papers to sign, and then there was a two day wait until everything was processed.
To pass the time, they decided that they wanted to check out the Mayan ruins in another part of Guatemala. Since there were no roads at that time to the ruins, they went to the airport and bought a ticket with Air Guatemala for the one hour flight.
It was like out of the movies when they stepped onto the plane... they were directed to a few rows of folding metal seats that weren't secured to the floor. No seat belts, nothing. There were young children walking about and playing on the floor throughout the flight. This was obviously a normal thing because the other (Guatemalan) passengers were unfazed by the whole affair.
The cargo area was behind them instead of below them and throughout the flight they had to smell and listen to the cacophony of chickens in cages (also not secured to the floor) and a goat tethered to a railing, baaing in fear the whole way. Thankfully they didn't have turbulence, but I can't imagine those cages, goats, chairs and people flying around on a rough flight.
As a happy side note, they arrived safely back to Canada with a beautiful baby girl, who is now 25 and a lovely woman.
My most recent flight back home from San Antonio!! It was really my fault though. I had too much to drink the night before and I woke up with a massive hangover. Not to mention, I am dealing with a herniated disk and it was killing me. My flight left at 1000 am and I woke up at 900am!! I washed my face, brushed my teeth, threw my hair in a messy bun and called a taxi to pick me up. I got there in time. But I was in so much pain because of my herniated disk and to make matters worse, on top of a bad hangover, I had a screaming kid right behind me. He was crying for the entire flight. (not crying but just being fussy and he’d shout a few times). I had my earphones but it didn’t cover up the noise. His parents had their “beats” on and enjoyed the silence and ignored their fussy child.
On my flight over there, I was going through TSA and they were having issues with a man who didn’t want to go through that tube where they scan you and he was freaking out. He delayed a few people and when I was in line, I heard them paging me. (I don’t know why they only had one person working the line they usually have a few) Luckily, he finally went through with it and I had to run to my gate. They were about to close the gate when I got there!!!
I had a similar experience, only I was 13 and we were flying in a bad thunderstorm circling the airport over and over around ATL waiting for clearance to land. The turbulence was so bad people were intermittently crying and screaming. We circled for so long (2 hours) and the storm was so terrible, that I had to pee really bad, but the flight attendant wouldn't let me get up due to the turbulence. She eventually told me it was OK to pee in my seat. Being unable to hold my bladder any longer, I did, so adding to my terror was embarrassment at peeing my pants at age 13 I take Xanax while flying to this day, 25 years later.
Crikey, that was a horrible. It was like a pre-crash tease. Yikes!
But I did giggle a little over this story - intermittent crying and screaming.
Ooh, I've got one and it's bad and it was only about 3 years ago. I had been dating a man for several months and off and on I had my doubts about the future of the relationship. I had been planning a trip with my daughters to Scotland even before I met the man and as soon as he heard about it, he was spoiling to go. I held him off awhile but he somehow wormed his way to getting an invite.
So, we had it planned for mid-June, tix bought, everything ready to go and then he said something so phenomenally stupid that I knew that I could never sleep with him again, so I told him that it would be great if he were to get a doctor excuse so I could get a ticket return, but he insisted that he still wanted to go. I told him the relationship was over but he still wanted to go so I said that if he could behave himself and not make us uncomfortable in any way, then he could go but if any issues came up whatsoever, he would be on his own. You may wonder why I agree to this but it's because he had only just written me a check for the ticket I had bought and I didn't want to be stuck with $1000.
So, flying out, seats together on a crowded flight. Flight delays due to tornado activity in Chicago. Got there finally and discovered that he had only brought a Discover card. To Europe. Had claimed to be an experienced traveller. So it was obvious that he had planned to travel on my dime. Not young and cute enough to get a sugar momma as he was older than me. Dumped him in Glasgow while he cried like an abandoned child. Ugh. (Oh yeah and did I mention we spotted him talking to himself out on the street corner when he thought he was unobserved?)
Then, the flight back. There are no words. The flight out of Chicago was delayed again. By 8 hours. 8 hours spent in an airport with an angry retired Jungian Psychologist with a major sense of entitlement. We got to my house at 1:00 in the morning and he had a 2.5 hour drive to his and as crazy as I was at that point I simply could not find it in my heart to make him drive home that night so I let him spend the night on the couch while he sobbed loudly. I swear that every word of this is true. I'm not a stupid person but I don't seem to have much sense when it comes to relationships but then he was my first after my 23 year marriage crashed and burned.
PS--the check did clear for the flight but I suspect that was b/c I told him that if it didn't he'd have to find another way to get home. I wasn't at all sure it was possible for me to do that but it must have worked.
This has screenplay written all over it. Get to work girl!
I was flying to Key West for a meeting with a co-worker who was uncomfortable flying. A lot of the people on the flight were going to the same meeting. Our lay-over in Miami was longer than planned and mostly unexplained except that they said there was a weather problem. Some folks opted to rent a car and drive the last leg but it was late at night so we decided to wait it out and fly. When we finally took off we ran into a horrendous storm with lightening and the plane bouncing around like a yo-yo. We ended up flying way out west over the Gulf to escape the storm and then circle back toward Key West but hit the storm again for about ten minutes as we got closer. It took forever to get on the ground and we got there about the same time as the folks who drove. I wished I had some chloroform for my co-worker because she was nearly unhinged. Maybe I could have had some too.
Checked bag never showed up on the carousel from Bangkok to Hanoi. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and had a meeting with a new client the next morning. Imagine tooling around downtown Hanoi in a rickshaw looking for a clothing store at night. I found one shop that actually had one dress shirt with a neck size large enough. The locals are small and have no use for an 18-inch collar. The bag showed up the next night, but only after I got the nasty glare from the client for showing up in jeans.
Good grief, where do I begin? LOL. I've got dozens of 'em.
Flew from Newport News, VA to LaGuardia (NY) "non-stop"! When our plane was taxiing in to our gate, it collided with a fire truck. Our non-stop flight took off an hour late, and then we landed in Baltimore to pick up a part (busted in the collision) and waited 3 hours at the airport in Baltimore for the part to be installed. Got to New York several hours late. We would have been better off driving!
The worst - the absolute WORST - was when I flew from Denver to Hayes, Kansas in a puddle jumper. The tiny plane held 10-12 people, and the "captain and co-pilot" were about 14 years old. They looked like kids, dressed up in Dad's uniform. Even the hat didn't sit on their heads right. There were only four "passengers" on the plane.
The plane was so small there was no door, no curtain, not even any space, separating us from the pilot and co-pilot. I was right behind the cockpit, so I felt like I was right there with them!
As we're descending into Hayes, the cockpit suddenly lights up, with lights flashing and this "whooop, whooop, whooop" siren went off. I knew something had gone terribly wrong.
I thought I was going to throw up. I'm a nervous flier anyway, and this was the most miserable plane ride of my long and distinguished career as a business traveler. My gosh, when we came in over the Rockies on that hot summer's day, we were bounced around like marbles in a coffee can.
I leaned forward in my seat to see if I could hear the pilot's comments. That's when I heard the young pilot utter that word that instills perfect fear in the heart of every nervous traveler:
"Oopsie."
Seriously, I thought I was going to die from pure fear. I'd read before that the "last words" of many pilots are "Oh *&#" or "Whoops," or something like that.
The young pilot turned off the siren (which helped) and then we leveled off a bit. From what I could see, feel and hear, the descent had been too steep, and that's what set off the alarms.
I think.
When I landed, someone was waiting for me, and he said, "My dear, are you okay? You're not looking good."
LOL.
No kidding.
I will never ever never again get in an airplane that doesn't hold at least 30 people.
Never.
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I take Xanax while flying to this day, 25 years later.
