When I was 14 I took a couple flight lessons in Marathon in the Florida Keys. Cessna 152. First lesson the guy takes us up (no idea the altitude) and says the first thing he’s going to do is show me stall recoveries, which sounds important enough. Third time he lowers the throttle and puts us in a stall, he looks over to me and says, “Hey, now you recover.” I’d been watching, sure, but I can only imagine the shade of white I turned. Sure enough, throttled back and let us get to speed, then pulled us up. My lunch almost didn't pull up with us. That was a bit scary to me.

ORD-MAN in the 80s. Not so scary as disconcerting when a 30 minute holding pattern due to nasty weather conditions is followed by an announcement that we now have first priority for landing because of our fuel situation, and that we're therefore landing Right Now.

Had a cabin depressurization incident somewhere around winter 1993, but it was during landing and we were low enough at the time the masks didn't pop down. Our pilot probably brought up the depressurization in attempt to keep us from getting annoyed that we ended up stopped at the end of the runway in GRR afterwards for an extra 20 minutes because a lake effect snow squall had kicked up and we had to wait for the plows to clear tarmac between runway and terminal. (I think they also might have lost my luggage for 24 hours with that one too, so not a good flight all around.)

April 2002 HKG-NRT on an NWA 747. We were to land at Narita on the outskirts of a Typhoon. This was the same weather system that brought down an Air China 767 in Korea a few days before. Were warned that final approach would be very rough. This 747 was thrown around like a toy. Dead silence on the plane. Got down to tree-top level and spooled back up. After about 10 tense minutes, captain came on and said they had to abort for two reasons. Wind speed exceeded maximum for the aircraft and a Dragonair 747 in front of us scraped an engine and they closed the runway to inspect for debris. Comforting I know.

We circled as long as fuel would allow and finally had to divert to Haneda. We were not allowed off the plane. Sat on tarmac for 4 hours. Plane ran out of food, drink, ice and the lavatory situation was getting dicey. So for that reason it was just like being at DTW. All the while, 40-50 mile sustained winds were buffeting the parked 747. Everyone wanted off the plane. No one wanted to even think of getting back in the air, but they "got a window", refueled, fired up the engines and made the short but still scary as hell hop from Haneda to Narita. Shortest flight you'll ever take on a 747. We missed our connection to DTW, but no one cared. Last thing we wanted was to get back on a plane. And so began a five year run where I needed three vodkas in the Worldclub to get on a plane.

I was forced to fly on a company-owned Piper Navajo. I never enjoyed it.

Landed in STL and Ground traffic control calmly said "exit runway, make right turn at next exit". 5 seconds later said "Navajo exit runway", 5 seconds later he screamed "Exit runway NOW!"
When our pilot turned onto the exit, I clearly could see a DC9 landing just behind us (almost on top of us). Obviously, the Controller was much more excited than we were (and much more aware of what was happening!).

Landing in Istanbul with lightening bolts zigg zagging around the plane. We weren't hit but I would say it was not fun.

the worst was leaving ATL in a storm and sat in the same row as a little girl who screamed solidly for 40 minutes to the point I actually found it distressing.

My wife and youngest were travelling back from the UK to the USA and I was already in the US. They were doing MAN-EWR-MCI on CO21. They got into MCI > 24 hours later than scheduled and slept on the floor in EWR.

Yes, I assume they were, DIA is now my home airport to say the least, COS has horrible service but I like the streamlined approach. I had a Colorado temp ID (the printed kind), so it was very suspicious I assume but I made it past security with it whole, what kind of scam could I be pulling?

My experiences weren't quite as spectacular as what's reported here. An aborted landing. A landing in dense fog where we didn't see the runway until we were above it. An aborted takeoff because of MX. An aborted takeoff because of a microburst. The weirdest thing was a TATL flight where I sat in the exit row and saw green liquid oozing out of the wing the entire flight, from takeoff to landing. It was late spring or summer, so it wasn't de-icing fluid. I still wonder what that could have been. Needless to say, we made it.

I fly abut 3-4 times a month into DCA. every single landing is a hard landing.....bam!

One bad experience (12 years ago) with a crash landing (runway foamed/dumped fuel for 2+ hrs prior to landing) due to issue with landing gear. Only traveled intermittently for the next ~8 years. In the last 4 or so I've been between 50-75K year and the increased flying has actually help, to the point that I can sleep on flights.

Early 1969 flying from YYZ-JFK on an Air Canada DC-9. Snow storm along the route had delayed or cancelled many flights that day, and I was able to get on the last flight out that evening. Once airborne the captain came on to tell us that conditions in NY were doubtful but he would try to get us there if they opened up on the way down or if not we'd be returning to Toronto. Nearing JFK he announced that the airport had opened and we'd land shortly, and he started a straight in approach with a light snow falling and strong winds buffeting the aircraft. Just as we crossed the runway's approach hash marks we got hit with a very strong gust of wind which pushed up the wings into what felt like they were vertical to the ground as we hurtled just above the runway. After a quick recovery from one side up then to the other, he finally slammed the plane down hard so it would stay down and we came to a stop at the very end of the runway. I wasn't a white knuckle flyer then, nor am I now, but in those few seconds I saw my whole life flash before me.

Later that same year my wife-to-be and I were returning from Miami to NY on a National Airlines B727. Just after takeoff on a sunny afternoon and climbing towards the east before making the left turn northward over the ocean to head toward NYC, the aircraft suddenly hit an air pocket while we were still over the city, and it fell so fast that our stomachs felt as though we were in a quickly descending elevator. Good thing we were belted in, as shortly thereafter the captain came on to say that we had fallen almost 1,000 feet before we got some lift under the wings. The rest of the flight was very smooth and surprisingly quiet in the cabin.

My worst flight was in February 1989 on a TWA turbo prop. We were originally MCO-SUX, but got diverted to STL at the last minute due to a nasty winter storm in SUX. Got put up in a hotel that night and did the STL-SUX flight the following day. Upon takeoff, several gallons of clear liquid poured out of the overhead bin across the aisle from me as the turbo props were screaming away. The single stewardess came running to smell the liquid. Apparently, it wasn't jet fuel as I had feared, but was water leaking in from outside somehow. We continued on to SUX without further incident. The landing was incredibly unnerving as the runway was a sheet of ice. The pilot assured us he was up to the task and even had us skid a few feet as we landed to demonstrate how slick the runway was.

Returning from the Caribbean on some forgotten-name charter package.
Flight was supposed to be Curacao-Aruba-JFK-Boston. We had something like a 6 hour delay in leaving (I think mechanical problems), then flying Aruba-JFK in about the crappiest jet I've ever seen. Liquids running down the center aisle pretty much the whole flight (airconditioning?, drink cart over flow?,...).
At one point due to turbulence we had a big sudden drop of a couple thousand feet. We all thought the plane was coming apart. Nothing about the flight instilled any confidence in the plane or pilots. When the plane landed in JFK, we and many of the rest of the passengers who were supposed to continue to Boston, got off and found other ways home (we rented a car to drive home in a snowstorm rather than give that airline another chance to kill us).

We weren't really "frightened" so much as just having no confidence in them.

AS flt. 67 SIT-JNU-ANC mid 1980's, took off from Sitka. Before we were over the end of the runway we encountered 3 or 4 bouts of wind shear. I thought we would end up in the rocks at the end of the runway. When we landed in Juneau the entire plane emptied into the bar. When we left Juneau for Anchorage, the pilot came on and offered an open bar for the entire flight. We needed it.....

I have three incidents come to mind though one didn't really bother me.

1) I was a kid flying either Piedmont or People's Express from south FL to BWI. During the flight, I said to my mother--I think there's fuel coming out of the wing. Five minutes later, the captain comes out and looks at the wing. A short time later, we made an emergency landing I believe in Charlotte and transferred to Ozark (?) airlines on a plane that looked very old. Not a big deal (except for being exposed to the cold--I think it was November and I had pure FL blood in me).

2) Back when I was a SkyTeam junkie in the mid-2000s, flying DL from FL to either BWI or DCA. A hurricane had just come through the area. Entire flight was fine until we were landing. Having flown a plane and jumped out of numerous ones prior, I know what it's like to be jerked around in a small plane. In fact, I like turbulence! In any event, when we landed, it felt like we were getting buffeted with wind from one side with so much force that we were going to turn and crash. It didn't happen, but it was the only time I've ever flown commercial that I thought we were going to have some type of incident.

3) The only other time I thought I was going to have an incident occurred in a private flight on a Cesna Carravan. The pilot, a prankster, went to near stall speed at 1200 feet. My stomach sank, and I remember thinking we were going down. The pilot then jacked the throttle and we went on our way. The owner of the plane gave the pilot an absolute earful for messing with us.

4) Bonus: not a big deal, but on nighttime descent on a commuter jet into GNV, an airport I have piloted into, I said to my companion that we weren't going to make the runway, i.e., we were too far. Almost immediately, pilot pulled up, went around for another landing, and everything was fine. Again, no big deal.