Moomba

Massive thunderstorms over Texas, 1000 planes in the air trying to find somewhere to land. Chaos at HOU and my flight eventually leaves sometime after midnight, several hours late.

In the air on a CO 757 for the short hop to SAT the captain announces that we have to fly around a storm cell so the flight will be longer than normal. He also informs us there will be no service as he will not be letting cabin crew out of their seats.

Thunder, lightning, bumpy as hell. Reminded me of that scene from Twilight Zone where there was some sort of critter sitting out on the wing.

Was pretty relieved when we landed in SAT.

DYKWIA

Yup, quite a few. A BOAC 707 near Mount Fuji broke up in turbulence.

More recently, the AA A300 just after September 11th was indirectly caused by wake turbulence.

Cheers,
Rick

astralclouds

Back sometime around 1980 I remember being at the back of a (I think) BAC 1-11 (next to the engine on the side). On a flight from LHR-GVA, we went over the top of a huge thunderstorm near Dijon. The crew were clearing up after service when, all of a sudden, the plane just dropped like a stone. I was covered in the remains of a cup of tea, but the poor FA alongside me ended up flat on her back with two teapots landing on her. Needless to say she was scalded and bruised, and the rest of the flight was filled with others trying to help her with some rudimentary first aid. As far as I am aware, she was fine, more shocked than anything.

The scariest part about it was that the seatbelt sign was not on, so several passengers also injured due to being not strapped in. I have kept my belt on throughout every flight since.

gfreq

I remembering travelling to the Japan years ago. I remember the captain suddenly shouting "Everyone to their seats, NOW!". The cabin crew ran to their seats, virtually abandoning everyone else. Then the plane just dropped violently, and even the cabin crew screamed. I have to say I was thinking this was IT. Turns out just a pocket of turbulence (clear air?? can't remember the phrase they used), and only lasted 5 mins, but I admit, I was scared! Didn't put me off flying, but I do now work out the exits are!

I've had a few rough ones otherwise - Brussels from Heathrow in January this year was pretty bumpy - belt on for everyone so no drinks were served as a result.

PUCCI GALORE

Moomba! I was only thinking of that this morning. It was the Storm Demons and they ate a lump of the wing. Now I know that the food in F is not all it might be some days................

continentalclub

A delayed hop across the Irish Sea to BHD, where as the rearmost passenger and therefore closest to the 'galley', I was the only one to receive service before the shuddering set in.

Approach to Harbour was almost sideways.

The eqpt was G-OEAA and I remember vividly hearing the news 4 and a bit months later. In fact, I still feel sick now when I think about those poor folks.

jonnye

'Wind Shear' is the word you're looking for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_shear

mjack99

Charleroi to Dublin. Both ways were horrific especially landing. No amount of bumping has compared since.

I asked the pilot on a scale of 1-10 how bumpy it was and he said 11 (which in itself is a bit worrying given that pilots should be numerate right)!

DYKWIA

Nah, it's 'Clear Air Turbulence'. I remember hitting some on a flight from DXB-MAN a few years ago. Plane just dropped after being perfectly smooth. And that was it, 10 seconds later back to smooth air. The captain apologised, and explained that we'd hit some CAT.

Cheers,
Rick

Gaz

Probably an AC YVR-LHR a few years back, plane literally being thrown about like a little toy for about 3 hours with crew strapped in, and everyone else looking around sitting bolt upright going "err, this isn't very good is it".

Fortunately nothing as bad as a lot of the stories in this thread. My worst flying experience was an night-time emergency landing on Virgin Blue going into Brisbane from Sydney when they thought we'd done something nasty to the landing gear taking off. Only precautionary, and we landed fine, but those 30 minutes before landing were not very enjoyable.

Frequentflyer99

You haven't lived until you have encountered the sort of conditions descrbied above in a small plane.

I still remember a DC3 flight in 1963 across the Andes. Not only very turbulent, but the clear impression that the plane would not make it to climb over the next peak, and then the doors opened at La Paz at 12,000 (?) ft with instant depressurisation. No wonder I still remember it 45 years later !!

. ... and not to forget an Iran Air internal flight up from Isfahan to Teheran in 1974 in a smallish plane of some sort, when the whole flight was through a lightning storm and the pax next to me spent the whole flight with the sick bag clamped to his face. Not to be repeated in a hurry !!

Greg66

Just received this from a colleague who has arrived back at LHR today:

"The flights from Zurich to Heathrow today were much disrupted by the weather. As luck would have it, ours went ahead, albeit delayed. Having seen that German plane abort a landing when one of the wings nearly hit the tarmac was not a good thing. Shortly before landing, we went through something similar. Not great. The captain then saw us off the plane, and quite a few people hugged him."

bjorns

Are you sure the DC3 was pressurised?

I seem to remember they didn't have pressurisation.

I'm certain the Dacota didn't.

bjorns

bazzatel

CDG-MAN on AF, winter 95. Strapped in all the way with a plane full of French nuns, some of whom were holding crosses. Seriously...it was like the Big Dipper. I was studying on a sandwich year at the time and I recall being sat at the back, taking it all in my stride, smoking (!) Lucky Strike Lights when allowed

latitude

Many years ago, going into Oslo (I think) and the approach to landing was very bumpy, so much so that there were several people being ill in the cabin. Had it gone on another few minutes I think I may have joined them