Your Scariest or Worst Air Travel Experiences!!

[Anonymous]

I was travelling back from India to the UK recently and had to take the Kingfisher Flight from Mumbai (Frickin no Indian carrier flies directly from Chennai (). 5-6 hours into the flight, the plane hit an air pocket and we had massive turbulence for about 20 to 25 minutes. The plane lost altitude rapidly and people around me started panicking. I had this gujju guy next to me. He was going to some dodgy Uni in London and this was his first time on an International flight ( Its an other story that he couldnt speak a single word in English and was detained at the Immigration upon arrival..Dont know whether he was sent back). He started crying and a lady sitting ahead was literally shreiking in fear (I was scared too after the Pilot sounded **** scared on the PA). As this was Bevda Airlines, Bottles of cognac, whisky etc were falling from the shelves behind me in the pantry or whatever they call it. I have been on some serious roller coasters, but this topped em all when I look back at it now. Couple of passengers had head injuries (Dont know how) and a lady kinda passed out needing first Aid. Thankfully, it didnt need an emergency landing , but this was easily the most scariest experience I have ever had. I was told that Planes hitting Air pockets was very common and some even make the news for being near misses. As per my understanding, even if the Plane loses a few feet at that altitude, it would seem like a massive drop for the pasengers inside. Any pilot members who can help corroborate that here? And of course am sure you guys would have had your fair share of airplane adventures :woot:

[Sachinism]

lol sounds crazy. Been through air pockets, but nowhere near that long, I think 5 minutes was the most, I wasn't really scared, it was just a painful experience bouncing about

[EnterTheVoid]

These were from the airport waiting area at Melbourne airport, Australia. What an absolute ****ing pigsty ------ ------------

[EnterTheVoid]

Dirt and rubbish everywhere, sit wherever you wanted, staff that treat as if you've just escaped from jail. Flight got delayed. Did anyone bother to tell us? No, not with this *****y airline.

[Anonymous]

@ Sach..U r lucky man..Touchwood.. @Sree..that must have been some scary **** . I am planning to go sky diving very soon . Will PM you if I need any Personal advice

[Prakat]

Once flew over sea in a small, noisy aircraft that had to have chilled air pumped into it before take-off. After a long time revving up and a long runup down the runway when the plane took off a few of us actually felt like clapping. The most surreal part was when the plane literally flew through clouds - with the clouds actually entering the cabin. The flight itself was without incident but the whole environment before and during was very uniquely magical.

[Stuge]

I had similar experience but that was quite a long time back ,when I was coming back from Kathmandu(nepal)-Delhi in 1998 .That was my first experience with massive turbulence .Man ,I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday . I was raining outside and airlines was going up and down .its was freaking scary .All this lasted for about 40 min or so .

[akshayxyz]

Two of them: a) In terms of scariness - My first international flight (some 10 years back) - Thai Air-to South Korea. After 5-10 minutes of take off there was some small sound, not very scary. But after 20-30 minutes people realized that we were still circling the airport. That meant there was something wrong, but cabin-crew did not tell anything for quite some time. When people started getting nervous, we were told, one of the engine has stopped working and we are going back. Even though I knew that is not something serious, but still there was a bit of nervousness, as there was a doubt, whether we have been told truth or not. b) Quality of service and scariness both. - Air India. Frankfurt to Delhi ( 2010). The overhead cuboards were shady, quite a few of them kept vibrating vigrously (some portions were visibly broken), Window besides me making scary noises, as if it would tear apart any moment. To top that, we passed through some turbulence couple of times. Every time it felt scary - as windows /cupboards became even more noisy. As if it was not enough, the food was extremely bad, with in 1 hour of having food I started feeling dizzy, my mother also developed bad stomach - ( I could clearly see it was due to food-poisoning) - The crew was extremely unhelpful. My mother desperately wanted to use the toilet (usually she is very tolerant, but it was clear that at that time it was clearly unbearable), and since plane was about to start its descent, the crew kept pushing her back to the seat. She had to undergo all that for 15-20 minutes, until the plane came to halt. Afterwards I felt ashamed that why I did not stand up and punched the crew in the face. I just kept requesting politely and she kept denying.

[Rajiv]

1995 I reached at Zurich Airport after a 4 hr train ride from Geneva ( DDLJ songs and booze kept me company ), only to realize that the airport is closed at night :((. But the security let me in and asked me to rest anywhere. I sat in the dark all by myself, managing to move around wit my lighter. Pin Drop silence, where I finally found a set of chairs to sleep and woke up amongst a group of noisy german kids I actually picked a pretty good spot, right before the check-in counter

[EnterTheVoid]

Some airlines don't even provide a glass of water on their flights. The budget domestic ones :whack:

[Cricket Tragic]

I was travelling back from India to the UK recently and had to take the Kingfisher Flight from Mumbai (Frickin no Indian carrier flies directly from Chennai :((). 5-6 hours into the flight, the plane hit an air pocket and we had massive turbulence for about 20 to 25 minutes. The plane lost altitude rapidly and people around me started panicking. I had this gujju guy next to me. He was going to some dodgy Uni in London and this was his first time on an International flight ( Its an other story that he couldnt speak a single word in English and was detained at the Immigration upon arrival..Dont know whether he was sent back). He started crying and a lady sitting ahead was literally shreiking in fear (I was scared too after the Pilot sounded **** scared on the PA). As this was Bevda Airlines, Bottles of cognac, whisky etc were falling from the shelves behind me in the pantry or whatever they call it. I have been on some serious roller coasters, but this topped em all when I look back at it now. Couple of passengers had head injuries (Dont know how) and a lady kinda passed out needing first Aid. Thankfully, it didnt need an emergency landing , but this was easily the most scariest experience I have ever had. I was told that Planes hitting Air pockets was very common and some even make the news for being near misses. As per my understanding, even if the Plane loses a few feet at that altitude, it would seem like a massive drop for the pasengers inside. Any pilot members who can help corroborate that here? And of course am sure you guys would have had your fair share of airplane adventures :woot:

I've seen plenty of them on the TV prog UK Border Force :cantstop:

[Holysmoke]

One of my worst experiences was going to the US as a kid in '97 via Air India. At that time, smoking was allowed on flights. Unfortunately, I was in the smoking section, and there would be pplz coming from all over the plane to near my seat to have a ciggie. They would have a ciggie, and go sit with their wives and kids leaving me to inhale the second hand smoke for 18-20 hours :mad:

[Ram]

@OP You really shouldn’t lose altitude because of turbulence. Maybe the pilot rapidly descended to a lower altitude just to avoid the bad weather, giving you the impression that things were out of control. But that is effin scary (or exciting, whatever your perspective of things is..)

[Ram]

Some airlines don't even provide a glass of water on their flights. The budget domestic ones :whack:

The dude’s talking about his plane going out of control, things falling all over the place and people getting injured and here you’re complaining that you don’t get free bottled water. :wall: :wall:

[Mariyam]

I've had just one terrible experience. I was returning from NY to Mumbai via Frankfurt. It was a Lufthansa flight. It was in 2009 and I was with my mom. Everything was very uneventful and takeoff was pretty smooth. I was seated in the centre section, with my mom on one side and a German guy in his mid 30s on the other. How did I know he was a German? I heard him shpekhen dokh dokh with the stewardess. Generally, I like talking to these European types to listen to their accents. So that I can imitate them later when back in India. So I just started small talk with this guy. But he wasn't interested at all. He just answered very curtly in yes/no. I didn't understand. Here was a beautiful smart girl trying to talk to him and he was reading the in-flight entertainment magazine. Surely I can't be that boring. :whack: Or maybe he was gay. Or maybe he was just being German. After 1 hour, there was a slight disturbance. The flight shook violently for a few seconds. I thought that maybe it was a one off thing. After a gap of 30 seconds, the flight shook violently again. this time with more ferocity than before. I was watching some stupid movie on my laptop and didn't bother. But my mother who was asleep woke up. Then for the next 5 entire minutes the plane kept shaking violently. No one announced anything, neither did they put on the seat belt sign. All this while the German was reading his inflight magazine. Then the shaking got more violent, and we could feel the over head baggage being tossed around. It also felt as if the plane was losing altitude. The captain finally managed to come on the PA and said disturbance yadda yadda. As he was saying this the plane shook even more violently. This time even the captain was shocked, you could sense that in his voice. He put the seat belt indicator on. The plane was shaking now like it was nobody's business. Drinks were falling off the tray tables, the baggage was making noises above and it felt as if the plane was bouncing. My mom suddenly got out a prayer rosary, which I saw for the first time in my life and started praying. She also held tightly onto me and kissed me a couple of times on my forehead. I was very scared, but she was 10x as scared as me. Everyone was panicking.Now this German casually asked me a question: German : Why is she (my mother)worried? Me : (I didn't know what to say. Maybe dying in a plane crash, or being stuck in a submarine in the North Sea, or in a tank in France or under the snow in the Russian steppe might be normal things in an average German's life. But these things make us Indians worry. Of course I didn't say all this. Difficult to be a smart ass in those circumstances.) German: Its ok. The pilots are trained. This is normal. Me: What? German: A pilot has to go through a test in which his plane loses altitude and does a half tilt and he is asked to regain control of the plane. Only if he can do that 4-5 times does he get a commercial license. These Lufthansa pilots are trained for it. They are the best in the world. He said that Lufthansa bit very proudly. Me: ( obviously I was comforted by this knowledge) How do you know? German: I work in the aviation sector. He went back to reading the magazine. The disturbance/turbulence continued for the next 10 odd mins.But after hearing this both me and my mom felt so much better. And re-assured. We weren't that scared anymore. Furthermore, this guy besides us was reading that magazine as if he was on a hammock in Margoa and not in plane that was shaking violently. His calmness gave us confidence. This German read the same magazine in both English and German for the rest of the journey. At Frankfurt, he got off. Just before he got off, he smiled at me. I smiled back. He told me a joke on Lufthansa which was very unGerman (read:funny). He then said that he had bluffed and that worked in the hospitality sector and had no idea about aircrafts or pilots. The he walked away. The rest of the journey was uneventful. We reached Mumbai. I never saw those prayer beads again. And mom's kisses have been replaced by the usual quota of flying sandals and ladles.

[nikred]

I've had just one terrible experience. I was returning from NY to Mumbai via Frankfurt. It was a Lufthansa flight. It was in 2009 and I was with my mom. Everything was very uneventful and takeoff was pretty smooth. I was seated in the centre section' date= with my mom on one side and a German guy in his mid 30s on the other. How did I know he was a German? I heard him shpekhen dokh dokh with the stewardess. Generally, I like talking to these European types to listen to their accents. So that I can imitate them later when back in India. So I just started small talk with this guy. But he wasn't interested at all. He just answered very curtly in yes/no. I didn't understand. Here was a beautiful smart girl trying to talk to him and he was reading the in-flight entertainment magazine. Surely I can't be that boring. :whack: Or maybe he was gay. Or maybe he was just being German. After 1 hour, there was a slight disturbance. The flight shook violently for a few seconds. I thought that maybe it was a one off thing. After a gap of 30 seconds, the flight shook violently again. this time with more ferocity than before. I was watching some stupid movie on my laptop and didn't bother. But my mother who was asleep woke up. Then for the next 5 entire minutes the plane kept shaking violently. No one announced anything, neither did they put on the seat belt sign. All this while the German was reading his inflight magazine. Then the shaking got more violent, and we could feel the over head baggage being tossed around. It also felt as if the plane was losing altitude. The captain finally managed to come on the PA and said disturbance yadda yadda. As he was saying this the plane shook even more violently. This time even the captain was shocked, you could sense that in his voice. He put the seat belt indicator on. The plane was shaking now like it was nobody's business. Drinks were falling off the tray tables, the baggage was making noises above and it felt as if the plane was bouncing. My mom suddenly got out a prayer rosary, which I saw for the first time in my life and started praying. She also held tightly onto me and kissed me a couple of times on my forehead. I was very scared, but she was 10x as scared as me. Everyone was panicking.Now this German casually asked me a question: German : Why is she (my mother)worried? Me : (I didn't know what to say. Maybe dying in a plane crash, or being stuck in a submarine in the North Sea, or in a tank in France or under the snow in the Russian steppe might be normal things in an average German's life. But these things make us Indians worry. Of course I didn't say all this. Difficult to be a smart ass in those circumstances.) German: Its ok. The pilots are trained. This is normal. Me: What? German: A pilot has to go through a test in which his plane loses altitude and does a half tilt and he is asked to regain control of the plane. Only if he can do that 4-5 times does he get a commercial license. These Lufthansa pilots are trained for it. They are the best in the world. He said that Lufthansa bit very proudly. Me: ( obviously I was comforted by this knowledge) How do you know? German: I work in the aviation sector. He went back to reading the magazine. The disturbance/turbulence continued for the next 10 odd mins.But after hearing this both me and my mom felt so much better. And re-assured. We weren't that scared anymore. Furthermore, this guy besides us was reading that magazine as if he was on a hammock in Margoa and not in plane that was shaking violently. His calmness gave us confidence. This German read the same magazine in both English and German for the rest of the journey. At Frankfurt, he got off. Just before he got off, he smiled at me. I smiled back. He told me a joke on Lufthansa which was very unGerman (read:funny). He then said that he had bluffed and that worked in the hospitality sector and had no idea about aircrafts or pilots. The he walked away. The rest of the journey was uneventful. We reached Mumbai. I never saw those prayer beads again. And mom's kisses have been replaced by the usual quota of flying sandals and ladles.

This should help the posters with short attention span. :((

[Holysmoke]

I've had just one terrible experience. I was returning from NY to Mumbai via Frankfurt. It was a Lufthansa flight. It was in 2009 and I was with my mom. Everything was very uneventful and takeoff was pretty smooth. I was seated in the centre section' date= with my mom on one side and a German guy in his mid 30s on the other. How did I know he was a German? I heard him shpekhen dokh dokh with the stewardess. Generally, I like talking to these European types to listen to their accents. So that I can imitate them later when back in India. So I just started small talk with this guy. But he wasn't interested at all. He just answered very curtly in yes/no. I didn't understand. Here was a beautiful smart girl trying to talk to him and he was reading the in-flight entertainment magazine. Surely I can't be that boring. :whack: Or maybe he was gay. Or maybe he was just being German. After 1 hour, there was a slight disturbance. The flight shook violently for a few seconds. I thought that maybe it was a one off thing. After a gap of 30 seconds, the flight shook violently again. this time with more ferocity than before. I was watching some stupid movie on my laptop and didn't bother. But my mother who was asleep woke up. Then for the next 5 entire minutes the plane kept shaking violently. No one announced anything, neither did they put on the seat belt sign. All this while the German was reading his inflight magazine. Then the shaking got more violent, and we could feel the over head baggage being tossed around. It also felt as if the plane was losing altitude. The captain finally managed to come on the PA and said disturbance yadda yadda. As he was saying this the plane shook even more violently. This time even the captain was shocked, you could sense that in his voice. He put the seat belt indicator on. The plane was shaking now like it was nobody's business. Drinks were falling off the tray tables, the baggage was making noises above and it felt as if the plane was bouncing. My mom suddenly got out a prayer rosary, which I saw for the first time in my life and started praying. She also held tightly onto me and kissed me a couple of times on my forehead. I was very scared, but she was 10x as scared as me. Everyone was panicking.Now this German casually asked me a question: German : Why is she (my mother)worried? Me : (I didn't know what to say. Maybe dying in a plane crash, or being stuck in a submarine in the North Sea, or in a tank in France or under the snow in the Russian steppe might be normal things in an average German's life. But these things make us Indians worry. Of course I didn't say all this. Difficult to be a smart ass in those circumstances.) German: Its ok. The pilots are trained. This is normal. Me: What? German: A pilot has to go through a test in which his plane loses altitude and does a half tilt and he is asked to regain control of the plane. Only if he can do that 4-5 times does he get a commercial license. These Lufthansa pilots are trained for it. They are the best in the world. He said that Lufthansa bit very proudly. Me: ( obviously I was comforted by this knowledge) How do you know? German: I work in the aviation sector. He went back to reading the magazine. The disturbance/turbulence continued for the next 10 odd mins.But after hearing this both me and my mom felt so much better. And re-assured. We weren't that scared anymore. Furthermore, this guy besides us was reading that magazine as if he was on a hammock in Margoa and not in plane that was shaking violently. His calmness gave us confidence. This German read the same magazine in both English and German for the rest of the journey. At Frankfurt, he got off. Just before he got off, he smiled at me. I smiled back. He told me a joke on Lufthansa which was very unGerman (read:funny). He then said that he had bluffed and that worked in the hospitality sector and had no idea about aircrafts or pilots. The he walked away. The rest of the journey was uneventful. We reached Mumbai. I never saw those prayer beads again. And mom's kisses have been replaced by the usual quota of flying sandals and ladles.

I think this is more accurate:icflove:

[kabira]

never had horrible experience as such although have flown from USA to India atleast on 5 occassion, each time using different airline Emirates, NOrthwest, Delta, Gulf Air, EVA air etc etc. Once coming from india (newly married), our NW flight had to be landed emergency as they had fire in the baggage area or something. They landed in Iran. It was all over the news there, you can see police escorting us to the airport, they treated us well. we were there for 5 hours...and then our flight got ready, our baggage was left in Iran (thats scary) , we landed in Amsterdam, but our connecting flight was long gone, so we were given visa and hotel booking to stay in Amsterdam. That was honeymoon we never planned. Amsterdam is beautiful city. Would love to go there one more time. But never had scary experience. My mantra was to sleep for entire duration of the flight. I would never sleep whole day and once it takes off I am all gone into deep sleep, never had to bother about turbulence blah blah.

[akshayxyz]

I've had just one terrible experience. I was returning from NY to Mumbai via Frankfurt. It was a Lufthansa flight. It was in 2009 and I was with my mom. Everything was very uneventful and takeoff was pretty smooth. I was seated in the centre section, with my mom on one side and a German guy in his mid 30s on the other. How did I know he was a German? I heard him shpekhen dokh dokh with the stewardess. Generally, I like talking to these European types to listen to their accents. So that I can imitate them later when back in India. So I just started small talk with this guy. But he wasn't interested at all. He just answered very curtly in yes/no. I didn't understand. Here was a beautiful smart girl trying to talk to him and he was reading the in-flight entertainment magazine. Surely I can't be that boring. :whack: Or maybe he was gay. Or maybe he was just being German. After 1 hour, there was a slight disturbance. The flight shook violently for a few seconds. I thought that maybe it was a one off thing. After a gap of 30 seconds, the flight shook violently again. this time with more ferocity than before. I was watching some stupid movie on my laptop and didn't bother. But my mother who was asleep woke up. Then for the next 5 entire minutes the plane kept shaking violently. No one announced anything, neither did they put on the seat belt sign. All this while the German was reading his inflight magazine. Then the shaking got more violent, and we could feel the over head baggage being tossed around. It also felt as if the plane was losing altitude. The captain finally managed to come on the PA and said disturbance yadda yadda. As he was saying this the plane shook even more violently. This time even the captain was shocked, you could sense that in his voice. He put the seat belt indicator on. The plane was shaking now like it was nobody's business. Drinks were falling off the tray tables, the baggage was making noises above and it felt as if the plane was bouncing. My mom suddenly got out a prayer rosary, which I saw for the first time in my life and started praying. She also held tightly onto me and kissed me a couple of times on my forehead. I was very scared, but she was 10x as scared as me. Everyone was panicking.Now this German casually asked me a question: German : Why is she (my mother)worried? Me : (I didn't know what to say. Maybe dying in a plane crash, or being stuck in a submarine in the North Sea, or in a tank in France or under the snow in the Russian steppe might be normal things in an average German's life. But these things make us Indians worry. Of course I didn't say all this. Difficult to be a smart ass in those circumstances.) German: Its ok. The pilots are trained. This is normal. Me: What? German: A pilot has to go through a test in which his plane loses altitude and does a half tilt and he is asked to regain control of the plane. Only if he can do that 4-5 times does he get a commercial license. These Lufthansa pilots are trained for it. They are the best in the world. He said that Lufthansa bit very proudly. Me: ( obviously I was comforted by this knowledge) How do you know? German: I work in the aviation sector. He went back to reading the magazine. The disturbance/turbulence continued for the next 10 odd mins.But after hearing this both me and my mom felt so much better. And re-assured. We weren't that scared anymore. Furthermore, this guy besides us was reading that magazine as if he was on a hammock in Margoa and not in plane that was shaking violently. His calmness gave us confidence. This German read the same magazine in both English and German for the rest of the journey. At Frankfurt, he got off. Just before he got off, he smiled at me. I smiled back. He told me a joke on Lufthansa which was very unGerman (read:funny). He then said that he had bluffed and that worked in the hospitality sector and had no idea about aircrafts or pilots. The he walked away. The rest of the journey was uneventful. We reached Mumbai. I never saw those prayer beads again. And mom's kisses have been replaced by the usual quota of flying sandals and ladles.

Too lazy to edit. Sounds like an awesome guy, German or whoever. You should have taken his number and stayed in touch. Why I never meet cool people on flights. Once I had an Amway couple sitting beside me, and both of them tried for 1 hour to make me understand their 'un-loss-able' business. I had to be rude in the end to silence them.

[nikred]

I think this is more accurate:icflove:

:giggle: