When I was a kid, perhaps 7 or 8 years old, my family and I were on a Pan Am flight that over-ran the runway. Not really a white knuckle experience because we didn't know it was going to happen until it did. I barely remember anyhow. But we had to evacuate down the slides because the plane sunk into the grass and they couldn't get it out or get air-stairs to it. I remember my mother being completely upset though.
2 years ago I was on a CRJ with non-functioning flaps coming into COS in bad weather. It was nerve wracking for me because I guessed that the flaps were only the symptom of a larger problem with hydraulics.
I was on an MD-80 going into DFW at night in a thunderstorm..that was pretty wild. The rain was so thick I was worried the engines were going to ingest more than they could handle, and when we did make it and taxiied in, I noticed that there was hail too..
Landing at SAN a few weeks ago I could tell we were on the visual to runway 9, and I thought we were going a bit long (SAN is my home airport so I know how it feels). We were coming in "high and hot" and the aircraft ballooned, came back down (I had already thought I would have TOGA'd, I hold a PPL myself) and I could have sworn we were going to over-run, the braking was so hard I thought my eyeballs were going to fly out of their sockets and the brakes would catch fire. When we stopped and turned, we were at the opposite threshold. Used it allll up.
Many aborted landings, but only one freaked me out. Iberia, Malaga around 1982, 727. We must have aborted at 200 ft. Up so steep I thougt we would stall. Came back around and landed, and as the pax exited the Iberia pilots would say goodbye..this pilot was sweating profusely.
The scariest I think I have related on this board before. A Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Pisa in 98. While we are sitting around the gate the pilot shows up and is in a complete rage. I did not speak German at the time, but he was screaming and throwing his arms around and the Gate crew were terrified of him. We board, push back, and this guy is obviously "driving angry". We were taxiing way over the limit and on turns would be leaning left and right and hanging on for dear life. The plane, an A319, took of like a freaking rocket..no toga button, he throttled it all the way up and took off at what must have been 2500 vsl. And on approach to Pisa, this guy just pointed the nose down and aimed it at the runway, spoilers out all the way to the ground, HARD braking. I thought we had a psychotic pilot. Taxi in was like the taxi out, being thrown around everywhere. And then the pilot pushed past us in the jetway and was screaming bloody murder at the gate crew at Pisa. He must have been near his max hours!! It did not look good for Lufthansa.