<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Lpas:
Have you ever had a flight that truly scared you or one where you actually feared for your life? I fly quite a bit, but aside from a few very bad weather experiences (of the sort where the FAs were never allowed up) I think I've been lucky. What's been your most harrowing flight experience? </font>
I must not be very lucky, I guess.
I have had two quite frightening experiences, one of which left me fearful for my life.
I was taking a flight from Casablanca to London, making a stop in Gibraltar, and the micro-weather system around the famous Rock makes the tiny island colony windy in the extreme, which was the case that day. The stupid pilot tried to land, pulling up only at the LAST MINUTE, diverting to Malaga, and he and his crew were replaced unexpectedly there. The plane was rocking SO BAD that at any moment I felt we could simply flip upside down, that's how windy it was!
But the worst was flying from Caracas to Miami, at one moment, the plane literally DIED halfway there, 35,000 feet above the Caribbean. Only for five seconds or so, but if you've ever been 35,000 feet above the Caribbean in a jet when suddenly, the lights go off and the engines cease making noise, and the plane falls, and everyone is screaming, then you know how I felt. I knew we were in trouble when moments before the engines died, I heard them sputtering, and I remember thinking to myself, "Hm, THAT's not supposed to happen?" They said it was an "air pocket." Right.
EDIT: The lesson is clear: Do not fly from cities whose names begin "Ca."
[This message has been edited by anonplz (edited 08-24-2002).]