I was on a Delta CRJ about a year ago ATL - MGM.

Full throttle down the runway, just as our rear wheels left the ground, we slammed back down making contact with the runway. We kept our speed and then pulled up to take off.

Guess we didn't have the speed we needed on the first try?

Up, slammed back down, up and away is basically how it felt.

Half the cabin screamed. The crew acted like everything was normal.

It was jarring to say the least.

Two come to mind:

1. In the 1990s, flying HP often from CMH to PHX and then on to points west from there, we were about to land somewhere on the west coast, when the pilot, just inches from touching down, abruptly pulled the plane back up at an angle I had not previously known a plane capable of managing. During the silence that followed, terrified passengers began to wonder what was wrong with our plane. We circled for quite a while, thinking that the pilot was passing over the control tower to have the landing gear checked.

Turned out that a private plane had wandered onto the runway in the jet's path, and the pilot pulled us back up to avoid collision. Would have saved quite a bit of terror had he told us earlier what had happened. But I'm sure he had his hands full talking to the tower about the little guy that scared one hundred people quite a bit.


2. About a week after a NW plane had encountered turbulence on a certain route, wherein many passengers were sent to the hospital with serious injuries that at least required stitches and casts, and such, I was on another NW flight in a similar area. We encountered turbulence so bad that the pilot ordered everyone seated, including the crew. Warnings were made that the turbulence was going to be so strong that we really, absolutely, we're-not-kidding, you need your seatbelt on!

We encountered turbulence sooooo strong, that despite the fact that my seatbelt was sooooo tight I had likely cut off my blood supply, we hit a pocket where my butt left the seat. Sounds inrrational now, but when you're on that flight, all you can think of is, "what kind of damage did that do the plane?" and "will we land safely?"


Bonus: my first ever flight from Singapore- around 1995 on NWA. The breakfast. (Seriously gave me food poisoning.)

Back in Feb '09 I was on an air canada flight from YYZ to LGA...very, very windy (gusts up to 70 mph) but planes were still landing. Probably the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. We were on final approach flaps up gear down when we abruptly veered off. I figured we were just going around but instead we flew back to Toronto. This wasn't the scary part though.

Couldn't get out on any other flights that day so I ended up on a 6 am out of Porter. Overnight, a Colgan Air Q400 had gone down near Buffalo, apparently due to ice buildup on the wings. 8 hours later I was on a Q400 in essentially the same conditions and flew close enough to the crash site to see the wreckage. Flight was uneventful, but very unsettling given the similarities of weather and airplane.

Ha. I was on US 851 (PHL - DEN) two weeks ago when the pilot said the same thing. "Folks I'm asking the flight attendants to sit down and for you to actually buckle up and stay seated for the next 15 minutes. It's going to be a bumpy ride for a bit".

The turbulence was so INSANE that... well nothing happened.

Ha. It was a smooth ride and the captain laughed about it when he turned off the safety belt sign about 20 minutes after turning it on.

Only really one scary flight. BKK-VIE on Austrian. Coming into land and all over the place. As wheels touch down, can see from the camera that we are not facing down the runway. Then, engines power up and we're back in the air, circling at around 1500 ft (this may be off). Landed without problems the second time. The go round wasn't mentioned at all, just silence from all crew.

Taking off in a UA 747-400 from HKG Kai Tak in a very bad storm.

not much to do with the flight/craft itself but i got on with symptoms of a very minor cold. was asleep the entire flight until i woke up just about descent for landing.
my skull felt as if it were about to cave in. looked around the cabin - still in half a daze - and everyone appeared perfectly normal.

meanwhile, for me it was like being put in a headlock by andre the giant.
had no idea about the congestion/sinus/air pressure thing. was glad to have landed just before my eardrums went past the edge of rupture.

QUOTE=

meanwhile, for me it was like being put in a headlock by andre the giant
had no idea about the congestion/sinus/air pressure thing. was glad to have landed just before my eardrums went past the edge of rupture.[/QUOTE]

"The Princess Bride" ???

Seaplane in the San Francisco Bay
 

I'd arranged for my girlfriend and I to take a scenic seaplane ride over San Francisco. We were in a small plane (a Cessna I think), I sat up front next to the pilot and my girlfriend behind me. We took off from the bay and everything seemed fine, but the pilot took his hands off the controls and reached down to fiddle with something next to my feet. As he did that we picked up speed and headed nose first back to the bay. He looked up, pulled back on the controls for a bit and then went back to whatever it was by my feet. We started back down again and the water is looking very close when he looks up again, grabs the controls and says "Uh, we have a problem". My girlfriend and I exchanged terrified looks and he explains that the rudder was broken and couldn't be raised, while he could fly with it like that, it wouldn't be stable and we should land as soon as possible. We landed safely, but with a broken rudder, navigating on the bay back to the dock was difficult. The pilot apologised and once we got back he insisted we go back out again, but this time in their DeHavilland Beaver, which turned out to be much better.

Always enjoy flying and generally enjoy a little turbulence too, but I can think of only 3 instances where I was somewhere between perturbed and truly afraid:

1. US 321 landing in SFO in heavy fog. Very low visibility and lots of gusty winds. I have landed in SFO so many times I basically know how long it takes once I feel the descent begin... so I knew we were getting very close to the runway but could still see nothing but fog outside the window, and the plane was sliding around in the wind. Runway appeared out the window at around 150 feet and we landed very hard, but perfectly safely and went to the gate without incident

2. UX CR7 landing at LAS. At maybe 500 feet we abruptly, almost violently, rolled about 15 degrees left, then 15 right, then maybe 5 degrees left then right again, before stabilizing and continuing on for a smooth landing. Was so weird as it came out of nowhere on an uneventful flight. It was almost over before I could get alarmed. I wouldn't have felt much except I knew we were close to the ground

3. In a 6 seater flying out of the grand canyon back to LAS, racing to get out before a thunderstorm would have forced us to find shelter for the night or maybe take a bus back. Pilot told us "Not gonna lie, this one is going to be rough on the way up" and we were tossed every which way like a leaf in the wind. This was probably the only time I was afraid for a sustained period in an airplane

I've been uncomfortable three times on flights I can think of though never terrified. I've had some other minor incidents though.

One was taking off from YUL on the back end of a hurricane that had made it's way up the eastern seaboard (it was just a really brutal low pressure by the time it got to YUL). Immediately after takeoff it was like being on a ride at an amusement park - left, right, up, down. There were a few gasps. OK above the clouds.

Another one was a flight leaving SYD on a QF 747 en route to LAX. The pilot came on during taxi and warned the first hour and a half was going to be pretty rough. It WAS. It is the one an only time I took an anti anxiety pill for anxiety. I was glad he warned us though; a couple times I felt pretty weightless for a second before the "bang" when I assume the lift took hold again on the wings. The AC pilot above said nothing.

The last time I was worried other people around me were shrieking but I was actually not too concerned; on a Flyzoom flight from YYZ to GLA we were struck by lightning. It was LOUD. However, I have a perverse interest in airplane disasters so I had watched a lot of content on lightning strikes and was not really worried like I said. We continued onto GLA; the pilot funnily didn't say anything for about 20 minutes later. The cabin was "buzzing".

The ones that didn't bother me but were of interest:

On a Canada 3000 flight to YHZ in February there were 3 go arounds until diverting to YUL (fog).

On a United DC 10 (or L1011 - I was only 9 so don't remember) the pilot put the plane down so hard on the runway (in HNL I think) the masks came down and a couple of the overhead bins opened. Doofus. My mom who used to be a flight attendant was not impressed.

Bangkok Air prop flight to Samui in the rain. I thought the wing touched the ground when we landed and then tilted the other way.
Month later exact same flight went down and few people died.

Wow, that's a scary landing.

Around 20 years ago, UA flight, ORD-HNL. Flight delayed due to captain talking to operations about possible overweight situation due to an exta engine being ferried to HNL, and attached to underside of wing. Since captain was outside the cockpit while on the phone, a number of us could hear the conversation.

Plane eventually took off, and quickly started violently shaking. Captain begins long process of fuel dump and we eventually land back at ORD, with emergency vehicles lining the runway.

Only time I thought I was a goner while on a plane. Bet that captain never gave into operations again.