I sometimes wonder whether frequent flyers harbor any fear of flying. The logical answer would appear to be to be no, as otherwise they wouldn't of course be able to handle the frequent flying. But on the other hand, you never know, maybe the necessity of the job requires them to fly even if they have fear of it. Or maybe they are embarrassed to admit they do harbor such fears.

But whether FFs harbor any fear of flying or not, I do want to ask you folks what was the most terrifying flight you ever had? One that gave you a moment of terror (or at least fear in the back-of-your-mind). Did you flew with that airline again afterwards?

I am very afraid of flying. It was never an incapacitating fear and I used to avoid it as much as possible. I've flown ca. 15k miles every month for the past year and I'm still afraid of flying. More at ease, but if something feels wrong I still get afraid.

My worst flight was sometime in the summer going from PVD to DCA. Crazy wind made flying above the Potomac felt like forever.

North Central (remember them?) ORD to MKE in January 198? through a blizzard. The pilot got clearance to fly under the ceiling so he could see the ground and navigate along the highway from Racine north. Roller-coaster gusts felt like we were going to be driven right down on top of the silos we passed over, clearly visible out the windows. Rough landing, overhead latches released, skidded a little as we slowed... Yikes!!

Flying around the time of all the hijackings I flew with Qantas from Honolulu to Sydney. About 1 hour out of Honolulu the cabin lights went out. I mean ALL lights. There was an announcement. Assistance required in the forward cabin. This caused drink carts to be raced towards the back of the plane at break neck speed with staff running up the aisle. Then nothing. No announcement. We just sat in dark silence. Every so often a flight attendant would scoot up the aisle and I'd ponder whether to ask her what was happening. I figured she'd just say "don't worry about it, it is ok". I thought I was worried about it, that's why I was asking. I decided the ignorance is bliss and figured if we were being hijacked and I knew it, the real fear would kick in.

This went on for 15 minutes until there was an announcement by the captain "sorry folks, but we've had a fire onboard. It's all fine now and we'll continue on to our destination". WHAAAAAAATTTT. A fire and we were going to continue for another 9 hours instead of turning around to Honolulu.

I made it home safe without their being any other issues.

Unreal experience when flying into Ketchikan, Alaska for a quick stop before flying into Sitka, Alaska. Pilots were amazing, but it was mega sketchy to say the least.

I'm generally not afraid of flying. However, for me, PIT-IAD about 5 years ago in a UA RJ was quite the scary one. VERY gusty conditions in the D.C. area that day. As far as I can remember, during our descent from about 5,000 ft., the plane was consistently being tossed about with ease until touchdown.... which is why we had two go 'rounds. Finally landed on the third try. We were one of the last, if not the last arrival as the airport shut down due to the conditions.

No fear of lfying and actually prefer a little turbulence if not working or reading as it's the only thing that helps me doze off for 15-20min or so. so the following incidents were interesting rather than truly scary.

Many years ago I flew from Sydney to Wagga Wagga on an Ansett turboprop. Came in to land in a heavy thunderstorm, plane being buffeted this way and that with Lindsay Buckingham's 'I think We're in Trouble' playing in the cabin (on the smaller aircraft they played muzac cabin-wide in those days).

Also quite some time ago was on Singapore Airlines coming into land at Brussels in very heavy fog. Looked out the window just before touching down to see the very edge of the runway and nuthin' but grass to the right. Pilot quickly went up and tried a second approach. That one also didn't fare too well. Third time was the charm.

Thankfullly, that's as exciting as it's been in all my years of flying. Now, as far as delays are concerned, I've got a beaut but this isn't the thread......

United flight, circled over ORD for >1 hr due to thunderstorms. Plane was hit by lightning and dropped what felt like thousands of feet. The wings bowed more than I had ever seen to stop the fall. Everyone in the cabin was screaming. This was ~10-15 years ago, no idea what plane it was.

I'm taking a transatlantic flight on a 10 abreast AA 777-300 in Y tonight.

Terrified.

LOL made my day^

The short flight to the mother in law's town always terrifies me.

I get airsick sometimes so I'm mostly terrified of losing my lunch. One reason I invest a lot of time making sure I have aisle or premium seats, so I won't be a nuisance to anyone else.

My most terrifying flight was AMS-ATL, we never made it, as we got struck by lightning while circling ATL, the plane smelled of smoke, and they wouldn't let us land. We were diverted to Charlotte where there was nobody around, so even though they said there was no danger, I think there was some fear of the plane losing control and bumping into somebody else in the very crowded skies around Atlanta, yes? It took hours for them just to get us off the plane.

In the early 80s I was on a flight from Houston Hobby to MSY where the pilot announced that we had been hijacked to Cuba. His idea of a joke but not very funny and it would have been terrifying if someone had chosen to believe it. Ugh. You can probably guess which airline, since they make a fetish of their stupid humor.

I was flying a Cessna 172 doing some pattern work. On one touch and go sequence I was told by the tower to make a 360 turn for spacing. As I completed the turn and ready to reentered the downwind leg, I lifted the left wing to check for traffic. To my surprise, I made eye contact with a passenger in a Piper Cherokee. Needless to say we both avoided the midair collision or I wouldn't be here today. Turned out the other pilot entered the traffic pattern without informing anyone.

AA 757 FLL TO ORD. First aisle seat in coach facing flight attendant. Off duty captain in the aisle seat next to me. The engine on the left side was making a terrible noise and the plane kept tilting left each time the noise happened. The look on the flight attendants face was fear. She asked the off duty captain if she should call up front and he quickly responded Yes. She called up front and talked to the cockpit for a few minutes. Then the noise stopped and so did the plane dipping left. They never told us what was wrong and we finished the flight with no issues. That 15 minutes is the only time I thought we may crash.

I believe it was in 2008 March when I was on a Continental flight from Boston to New York (I was flying instead of taking the Acela cos I had a connecting flight). All later flights on the same route got cancelled due to a storm and our flight needed to abort landing due to the same storm and was diverted to another airport. I rarely got scared on a flight but that attempted landing was effin' terrifying.