I was flying from Saratov to Moscow back in October of '00. We started our descent into Shermetevo and the plane seemed to be wallowing left to right (almost like the nose was a pivot point and the back end was wagging side to side).

It got worse and suddenly there was a loud metal bang noise, and the plane started really weaving left and right. At this point, the pilots came on and said some things in Russian, and the PAX became visibly disturbed - with some mothers grabbing children, etc. I don't speak a lick of Russian so I had no idea. The FA's started doing the whole head-between-knees briefing again and were coming down the aisles 'comforting' folks and giving instructions to those with questions. As we came down through the clouds, we were low over the runway - the plane was swinging wildly back and forth and there were emergency vehicles lined up all down the runway. As we were closing in on a landing, I noticed there were a few vehicles pacing us down the runway.

The plane landed with quite a bit of eventfulness - the tires screeched back and forth at first and when they finally caught traction the whole plane was sort of violently snapped back on a straight line. We landed and came to a stop normally. Everyone rejoiced. They had pulled up to some distant runway and the butt-end of the plane opened up (you exited down a set of stairs that came from the back) and there was a bus waiting for us along with a lot of Russian police. They were ushering folks onto the bus quite promptly. As we got off the plane, I turned to look back and I noticed the flap that is mounted vertically to the tail section was *missing*. There were a couple of shredded metal bits like it had sheared off. I was staring and a policeman came literally running over very animated and was clearly upset that I was looking. I got on the bus and sat in the back trying to find my camera to grab a pic, but I couldn't get it in time - the bus zipped out of there.

It was quite an experience.


A friend had a good story. He was flying domestically within Ukraine many many years ago. The pax all got on the plane and they tried repeatedly to start the engines without success. The pilot emerged from the cockpit, visibly drunk and went outside the plane. They saw him shortly thereafter *on* the wing, wielding a hammer and beating the engine to dislodge the ice that was preventing it from starting. The pilot came back aboard shortly after and said something like "don't worry - ok now" and disappeared back into the cockpit, leading to a (surprisingly) uneventful flight.

I have no idea if the story is really true, but the guy swears it is and it would have happened around the late 60's/early 70's.