In November 2011 I was on an AA flight from DFW to SEA. About an hour into the flight we hit severe turbulence. The aircraft bounced and shook for almost entire flight.


Since that flight I now hate all turbulence, and I feel every shake or bump.

Not long after 9/11. Departing HNL on Qantas for SYD and an announcement is made "assistance required in forward cabin". All food and drink carts race to the back of the plane. Flight Attendants run up towards First Class. Plane goes black. Pitch black. No lights on at all. Premium passengers are asked to move back to Economy and find a seat. The pilot makes no other announcements. About 7 minutes later after thinking the worst the pilot makes an announcement to say there was a fire on board but it is ok now. We were an hour of of HNL and had 9 to go. I figured we'd turn around but we didn't... we continued the 9 long hours to Sydney. 7 minutes is a long time when you are wondering what the hell is happening.

Yes, the LCY approach is something to behold if you've never experienced it. Had a couple of rather heavy landings in WX ARJs, and a couple of particularly blowy ones in the old KLM F50s.

The F50s were always fun on a winter north sea crossing from LCY-AMS, the latter being a particularly windy location thanks to, well, the complete lack of anything remotely hilly. The crew were so used to it, though - they'd even do a hot drinks service in turbulence, falling from seat to seat to pour out while seated. Weak tea for the Dutch passengers on the first pass, strong tea for the British ones on the second :) Have had a few go-arounds on arrival at AMS, too.

I remember having a glide in a BAC 1-11 on a rather 'challenging' charter flight from PMI-NCL, with an unscheduled stop at LGW due to engine problems. It was rather eerie, going from ridiculously loud to almost completely silent - even the drunk Geordies.

But that's about it, really. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Thanks for sharing...again. :)

Please post your future plans so I can avoid being on your flights ;)

I've had several white knuckle Tap flights to the Azores like that. You're thinking to yourself, there is absolutely no way they are landing in this crap, and then they stick a hard landing in driving rain and heavy crosswinds

Understandable.

Almost 30 years ago in the Philippines. Three friends and I took a 6:30 a.m. six-seater flight from Manila to the island of Panay and an airstrip close to the beach resort island of Boracay. Pilot shows up with the most bloodshot eyes I've ever seen. From his manner, it was clear that he was very hung over.

Anyway, we get into the plane and I sit up front next to him. The first half of the two-hour flight is serene and beautiful. I even dozed off.

Then we hit a storm. He takes us over a ridge on an island and we dip to within about 100 feet of land. Then he takes us below the clouds so he can see better, and I'm wondering about things like are there sharks in those waters, should I kick off my shoes if we ditch in the water, etc. I'm also thinking that if we could simply turn back to Manila and cancel our trip I'd be absolutely fine with that. But I don't want to distract him with such a discussion, especially since he's looking panicked and between his limited English and my limited Tagalog such a discussion would be fruitless.

He's drumming his fingers very nervously on the plane's equivalent of a dashboard, trying to figure out where we are in the lashing rain and winds. He keeps asking me, "See the island? See the island?", which I knew meant he was looking for some island for some reason.

Finally, he spots "the island". It must have been that finding and flying along the shore he recognized meant that we were on track to Panay. After being in such a panic, he then proudly beat his chest, exclaiming "Guts! Guts!"

Though the rain was still pounding, the winds had died down by then. So combined with his "seeing the island," we all felt relieved.

We landed on the airstrip, and hopped out without saying good-bye or thanking him for his sober, confidence-inspiring piloting.

found this photo ... early in my Boeing Flight Test career I had one flight on the Lufthansa jet that was used for the GE CF6-50 certification test program, and this included the spare engine ferry kit

A few years back, POS-MIA on AA, canceled due to hurricane approaching MIA. Rebooked POS-CCS-DFW instead.

POS on a small Caribbean Airlines Dash 8, pulled up shortly before landing on two go-arounds to CCS due to harsh cross-winds. Pilot announces it's too windy, so we're diverting to our alternate of BON.

After about 5-10 minutes, the pilot comes on again: "we're not sure we have the fuel to make our alternate, so we'll have to land in the cockpit. The FAs will demonstrate the brace position for you."

Fortunately, despite getting blown all over the place and a pretty scary bumpy approach, we managed to put it on the ground in CCS in one piece :D

Oops!

My pleasure!!!

My most terrifying flight was actually two weeks ago DFW-HKG.

We had to divert to ICN for fuel because of a typhoon moving in to Hong Kong, and a definite need to circle before landing. About two hours after leaving Korea the pilot announced we'd be circling for "about and hour" and "He was not going to update us unless it was going to be longer." About 40 minutes we started to descend. The plane was shaking a bit, but that didn't bug me....actually I like turbulence and had felt worse. I was sitting in row 20 which is right in the center just at the trailing edge of the wing. So here is what is terrifying.

The typhoon winds were so strong the captain keep putting on more and more power to keep the nose up. Rain was sheeting off the wings and you could feel the sheer force of the wind against the plane. The further we descended the more power was put on to the point where the GE90's were screaming. You'd feel the nose dip, a lag, and a bust of power. The fog was only illuminated by the wing tip lights and streaks of lightning. We descended, and descended until there was a blur of lights on the ground and we had touched down. I just kept mumbling to my self "Don't be to low." It was terrifying.

A colleague and I both flew back into HKG during that same typhoon. My flight was cancelled before departure, but his flew and he also described it as the worst landing of his life ^

My Adam Air DPS-CGK (FEB 2008) flight was rather unnerving. Masking tape was liberally used on doors and windows, and to call where passengers sat "seats" is an affront to actual seats. Oh, and roughly one month later the airline stopped flying.

This may have been mentioned in another thread, but my Garuda DPS-UPG flight was first a DPS-DPS flight because the pilot said they didn't have enough fuel. So there's that.

Sitting in BA Lounge in Schiphol. Just watched KLM Tail number PH-BCE taxi in at high speed. Docked at Gate D-3. I was sure that the plane was going to hit the gate.

Must be a Navy flyer or a bush pilot by training.