I know what you mean...;)

Flew Sky King (A charter airline) from MIA-HAV as part of their regular charter flights to Havana. Flight scheduled for 11am. Arrive at 9am, they make us check and weigh everything , and they ask us our weights in order to get the a/c as full as possible (The Cubans like to take a lot of stuff with them).
At 11am, they inform us we are delayed due to a mechanical, and they were waiting for one of the other two planes they had to return so they could use that one. At 5pm, they come over and say that we are delayed again because this a/c has a mechanical problem. Finally, at 9pm we load up and take off. I noticed that it was quite hot on the plane, and my ears kept popping. The flight attendants also kept talking to the captain. A few minutes later, we hear "Flight attendants prepare to don oxygen" which I presume was part of the checklist. We had to divert back to MIA after burning off fuel.
Turns out, they had problems with the engines providing bleed air for the pressurization and air conditioning. After sitting at the gate at MIA for an hour, we got it fixed and finally got to HAV over 12 hours after our scheduled time.
Not a terribly terrifying experience for me, but I spent a lot of time trying to comfort others in my group.

Two flights stick out for me:
1. Flying over the amazon on in a large airbus we hit an air pocket and free fell 33 feet. Turbulence was bad, so most were buckled in, but one lady hit the roof. The pilot announced and told us it was a 10 meter drop.

2. Landing in Biloxi, MS in a little 20 passenger prop, we were hit by a cross wind while we were landing, plane tilted, I could see the wing inches from hitting the ground, and then the wheels hit the ground hard immediately when we tilted back and hit level.

This - very very much so. In fact, the one time I sat through this flight was when I was a child, and you could practically touch the buildings underneath you as the airliners came in for a landing at Kai Tak.

Thank you but that's not funny :(

After flying for so many years, I never thought I would get such an anxiety attack as I experienced a particular flight, but it did happen.

The trouble started right at take-off, where the plan started rolling down the runway and we heard a loud cracking sound. Everybody started looking around to see what might have happened. We were all looking out of the windows when two people on the exit rows of the 757 said they saw a charred large "something" fly out of the engine. I don't know if it were true or not, as I was up in front and not in economy. The pilot started explaining that there was nothing wrong with the plane, that we would be safely going to our destination. Luckily, the flight attendant was quick with the drinks in first class.

During the flight, we kept hearing noises that sounded like a congested vacuum cleaner. It was unsettling, but I put in my headphones and turned them up and fell asleep.

As we were getting ready to land, we suddenly banked to the right, powered up both engines and the pilot came on to explain there had been a runway incursion. So we go around, this time with the same cranking and wheezing sound coming from the left engine. Finally we land, but I notice that we're skewing off to the right. We pull up to the gate and of course everyone looks at the left engine. It appeared like some bird the size of a full-grown turkey had tried to force its way into the engine and there were a bunch of maintenance people around checking out the engine with the pilots. I called my colleague near the gate, and I heard that the flight had been cancelled due to "maintenance".

I know this is minor compared to what others have gone through, but it certainly scared the living daylights out of me.

^

I hope you made it clear to the flight attendant that you wouldn't be flying that airline again!

Welcome to FT ^

Another - welcome to FT ^

1st-BRU-AMS on Sabena. Head down the runway, slam on the brakes and abort the takeoff. The pilot says small problem-no worries-but we need to try that again. Same thing happens again. Needless to say we took the train after that.

2nd-I was sitting in the jump seat of a Falcon which was our company's private jet. We were taking off from Lakefront in new Orleans and as we are rolling down the runway, I see a 5 pelicans flying across the runway right at the perfect height for us to blast right through them. I couldn't decide if I should say anything-I was thinking surely they see the birds. At the last minute, we slammed on the brakes and aborted the takeoff. We were just about to have to pull a Sullenberger because there was no way we were missing those birds.

I was on a JL NRT-PUS flight back in 2010 and the landing at PUS was definitely the roughest I've ever experienced. Thunderstorms with strong cross-winds made for an extremely rough approach. Then, the plane drops the last 20 feet or so to the runway, bounces a couple of times, and then accelerates and takes off again for a go around. I guess the pilot didn't like the way that the plane hit the runway and decided to try again. The turbulence was just as bad the second time around and I kept wondering whether the first bump perhaps damaged the landing gear...

Landed safely in the end, but definitely scary.

-S

UA flight from DEN to HSV, about an hour after take off we went into a steep dive. Flight attendant told everyone to be seated, not a word from the cockpit. Dive continued and I knew we were going to nose in. Pilot leveled off finally and said we had lost cabin pressure and he had to get under 10000 feet. The oxygen masks never deployed. In hind site, my coworker noticed before take off that the cabin pressure kept popping her ears. We made an emergency landing in Wichita. The overeager pilot stated that he had fixed the problem and we would take off. Good thing filght operations said no. We moved to another plane to finish the trip.

I remember a US Airways flight a few years back where the only beer onboarded in F was warm Bud Light.

That was a truly horrifying flight. :mad:

Not a Flight experience but most terrifying airport experience had to be a few months after 9/11, about to board COS - LAS, everyone was silent, not much talking or anything. I went through security and was fiddling with my boarding pass bending it back and forth then it happened, it ripped in half. Of course it happened as they were boarding the plane and when I went to get on the plane the attendant quickly called security and had me step aside to continue boarding the plane. Security had me strip down to my underwear and nothing else, ransacked my bag, and held me until everyone else got onto the plane and the door was about to close before they let me get on. I was terrified that I would miss the flight, and I'm sure other were terrified at my nearly naked body standing in the terminal then running onto the plane still putting my clothes on.

Are you saying you were especially searched only because your boarding pass had disintegrated into two parts? Was it not possible to place the two pieces side-by-side to determine if it was a real boarding pass valid for this flight? Or perhaps to print a new one from your ID which I expect you had? Were security hoping to discover another copy of it lodged somewhere on your person?