very happy to report, that after over 25 years of flying, the only issues for me have been hard landings, in flight tuberulance, and fog so dense that you cant see the airport or runway until you land. A big round of applause for all those pilots and crew that get us to where we need to go.
(was on AA50 on 9/11, pilot dumped fuel for 3 hours over Greenland, and we returned to LHR later that day, took 2 weeks to get back to ATL, Bless all those who did not make it home)

Flying into Wellington, NZ, in a Fokker in 1984. Incredible crosswind turbulence, small plane blown over off the runway etc and yet the Kiwi pilot landed the plane on the numbers! My associate, a very experienced US pilot was very impressed. I was very relieved. Never worried after that, I figured I would never experience anything worse and indeed I haven't.

I first started flying in the early 90s and hated it. The obvious solution was to get a pilot's license, which introduced its own problems -- specifically knowing the dangers of icing conditions. One of the last years that US Airways used the Shorts 360 (the boxcar with wings), I was on a flight through clouds sitting just behind the wing where I saw ice starting to build. The flight attendant was right near me serving drinks and I discreetly mentioned it, to which she responded, "oh the pilots are aware of it", continuing about her business. I was a little nervous and watched for another minute or two as the ice continued to accumulate. Just as I was about to announce my concerns to her at full volume, she headed towards the cockpit with a drink, spoke with the pilot for 10 seconds, and we dropped like a brick from 12,000' out of the clouds to what I estimated at about 5,000'. It was pretty obvious to me that she told them, and I also suspect that her flippant attitude nearly cost 30 lives, including mine.

I'm not terrified of being on commercial flights. I actually enjoy turbulence and shaky rides.:D

My most terrifying flight was when I was just west of SFO, skirting San Bruno Mountain. Some commercial flight that had passed over me put my 172 on its side due to wake turbulence and gave me a straight down view of the ground. I righted the plane immediately, but it took me several long minutes to right my pulse. :eek:

The only experience I've had at all out of the ordinary is reasonably rare--I was on an AA MD-88 in the mid-90s and they had an engine stall during climb out of DFW; we circled pretty quickly and put the plane back down with no issues.

The scary part is that I was sitting pretty near the engines so it was REALLY obvious when they pulled it back to idle.

as a Boeing flight test engineer (1979-1982) I experienced some moments that I would probably call "exciting" (with raised eyebrows) than "terrifying"

RA001 (#1 747) was the flying testbed for the engines that would later power the 767 and 757 ... to investigate the effect of oil starvation we did "roller-coasters" with a couple seconds of negative "g" at the pushover ... all manner of crud came flying out of the seat tracks; one of my colleagues very nearly got hit in the eye by a piece of metal

one of the other Engine Operating Characteristics test conditions was a "Bodie" (interrupted deceleration): pull the throttle to Idle, and when N1 decays to a specified level (I want to say we tested several turnaround points -- 80%, 75%, 70%, 65%) shove it back to maximum ... we got a spectacular compressor stall with flames shooting out the inlet for a fraction of a second

VA006 (#7 767) one of the First-of-Model certification flight test conditions was a go-around initiated at about 50 feet altitude, with the pilot pulling one throttle to Idle to simulate an engine failure about 5 seconds into the maneuver ... I was in the Test Director's seat immediately behind the pilot, and distinctly remember looking out the window and seeing no sky at all for a couple seconds

in >2000 commercial flights I can recall two instances where other passengers on the plane might have been terrified

1975, Allegheny CV-580 landing in Ithaca NY on a Sun morning; the tower was closed, so Elmira approach cleared us for a visual approach to runway 13 ... the right turn from base to final ended with power being applied and a 360-degree turn to avoid the Cessna 150 that had been making a left turn from base to final from the east side of the airport (the pilot turned out to be one of my ROTC classmates)

1985, Delta L-1011 landing to the east at LAX in thunderstorms, we took a lightning strike that caused all the cabin lights to cycle off and on about three times

Your most terrifying flight?
 

I was on a JFK-KEF flight several years ago which had the worst turbulence I've ever experienced. At some point I believe I was woken from sleep as I basically almost flew off the seat and hit my head on the overhead compartment.
Another time I was flying to Seattle and we had such bad turbulence that I thought this could have been the end basically. We were diverted to Portland. Then the passenger next to me who was about 25 had a seizure and collapsed in the aisle. The passenger across the aisle from is started to freak out. He was about 55 and according to him that was his first flight in 20 years. It became very entertaining as he kept repeating, "Just my @"&$ing luck. I fly for the first time in 20 years and I almost die." By sheer coincidence I was sitting next to a guy from FT as well. It was very entertaining overall. Needless to say we never flew back to Seattle. We deplaned in Portland and I still to this day have never been to Seattle.

Your most terrifying flight?
 

2009 a week after Continental 3407 went down in freezing rain, flying on the same plane with PD into YTO, on initial approach we flew into ice. The pilot came on and said "I'll get this over quick!". They then turned the plane into a really steep approach and pulled up really late to make a perfect landing. We skidded to a stop not far from the end of the runway.

UA835 ORD PVG in July 2011. We hit severe turbulence over Anchorage, AK. after going though a classic "mountain wave pattern" of three or four successively increasing dips and rises. I was caught out of my seat in C which was a recliner :mad: I think I was in 13A. Once we hit the rough stuff I made myself into an X holding both bins at the top across the aisle and legs spread with pushing up with my arms and down with my legs to keep from floating and bouncing around the cabin. For about 2-3 minutes we were hammered and everything not stowed was all over the place. Flight attendants caught away from seats dove underneath people's leg rests in C and legs in Y. I had a great view of it all from my fixed position in the aisle.

When it subsided, the Captain came back to inspect the upper wing surface which appeared unrippled. He said it was the worst ride in his 17 years.

We had a few injuries but nothing serious. AA289 had an identical experience within 15 minutes supposedly albeit with injuries.

I don't mess with mountain waves. If I feel progressive dips, I get strapped in.

20+ years of flying and the two memorable ones were both on BA. First Delhi to Dhaka. Sitting in F on a 747 we were strapped in as it was Monsoon season and jeez was there some turbulence. Second one on approach to LHR took a lighting strike. Loudest flash bang I have witnessed. Got the adrenaline going for sure.

I believe the year was 1990, and I was with my family on an America West 737 en route from LAX-DRO. My memory of the routing is imperfect, but I believe it was LAX-DEN-DRO. At any rate, as we hit the western face of the Rockies on what I think was the LAX-DEN segment, the plane began to rock 'n roll--severe turbulence that was sending FAs to the ground and pax into a panic. People were in tears, screaming, praying, holding strangers' hands. The ride felt more like an old wooden roller coaster than a modern airliner. We ended up diverting to GJT, taking on fuel, and waiting until winds aloft were more favorable to continue.

That's my home port. If THAT scared you, don't ever get on a plane bound for Petersburg or Wrangell. Or a float plane.

Your most terrifying flight?
 

Flying on smaller planes w/out TCAS terrifies me bc the pilot always asks me to look out for traffic, which I find it extremely difficult to do.

Flying on commercial jets might seem terrifying, but they are far safer on the whole.

Mine was more than a decade ago now flying CVG-BDL. On Delta, plane is barreling down the runway to take off, front wheels begin to lift of the ground and the pilot slammed it back down to a screeching halt and took us back to the gate saying that they had gotten an emergency warning about flap issues...

Still not sure how that pilot kept it on the runway.

Orders of magnitude safer, as I recall. Hopefully the pilot will ask ATC for VFR flight following so you have a chance at getting traffic advisories. Of course you still have to look out the window to find whatever is being pointed out. I still remember some butt-clenching moments over Lake Casitas where ATC pointed out traffic at my twelve o'clock, opposite direction, two miles, and indicating the same altitude! I never did see him. :eek: