Have you ever had a flight that truly scared you or one where you actually feared for your life? I fly quite a bit, but aside from a few very bad weather experiences (of the sort where the FAs were never allowed up) I think I've been lucky. What's been your most harrowing flight experience?

I must not be very lucky, I guess.

I have had two quite frightening experiences, one of which left me fearful for my life.

I was taking a flight from Casablanca to London, making a stop in Gibraltar, and the micro-weather system around the famous Rock makes the tiny island colony windy in the extreme, which was the case that day. The stupid pilot tried to land, pulling up only at the LAST MINUTE, diverting to Malaga, and he and his crew were replaced unexpectedly there. The plane was rocking SO BAD that at any moment I felt we could simply flip upside down, that's how windy it was!

But the worst was flying from Caracas to Miami, at one moment, the plane literally DIED halfway there, 35,000 feet above the Caribbean. Only for five seconds or so, but if you've ever been 35,000 feet above the Caribbean in a jet when suddenly, the lights go off and the engines cease making noise, and the plane falls, and everyone is screaming, then you know how I felt. I knew we were in trouble when moments before the engines died, I heard them sputtering, and I remember thinking to myself, "Hm, THAT's not supposed to happen?" They said it was an "air pocket." Right.

EDIT: The lesson is clear: Do not fly from cities whose names begin "Ca."

[This message has been edited by anonplz (edited 08-24-2002).]

If you've even flown into Funchal on Madeira Island, you know what a harrowing flight is. The airport has a tiny runway and we were told that only a few airlines are aloowed to land there, and that the pilots had to have special training to be permitted to fly there. Because the runway is so short, the flights come into the airport just about at ground level. The airport is surrounded by huge hills on 3 sides, the 4th side is the ocean which is at the far end of the runway. The planes come in to the airport towards a big hill-like cliff and then do a 180 degree u-turn just before the cliff and then head into the airport. However, because the runway is so short, they have to be very low when making this u-turn. The turn was the sharpest I've ever experienced, it seemed that that plane was almost completely sideways when it turned, and because we were so low, it seemed as if the wingtip was going to hit the water on the turn. For some unknown reason the cockpit door was open (this was pre-9/11 and on a small TAP Air Portugal Jet) so we could see out the front windows and see what the pilots could see. After making the turn, we approched the runway. The plane was getting tossed around quite a lot from the very strong winds coming off the hills. As the runway approached we could see that the plane was not even straight on the runway when it touched down; we could see the pilots fighting fiercely to strighten out the plane and they were braking very hard. Since we could see out the front of the plane, we could see the end of the very short runway ahead approaching much too quickly. As we're screaming down the runway, we can feel the wind pushing on the plane; it felt the way it does sometimes when driving on the highway on a windy day. There were white faces and white knuckles everywhere on the plane; many were saying their prayers. It appeared as if we'd run out of runway before the plane would slow and we'd be taking a plunge into the sea. Just before the end of the runway the pilots do a u-turn with the plane at a speed much greater than any plane should ever take a u-turn. As the plane is turning, the wheels are skidding and shuddering from taking the corner too fast. It literally felt as if the plane was going to flip over. Then, all of a sudden, the plane was under control, and we slowly taxied to the gate. It was the only time I've ever been on a plane where the passengers erupted in spontaneous applause when the plane rolled to the gate. It felt good to be alive. The flight attendants informed us that it was actually a routine flight; that just about every flight into Funchal is like that. They said that a popular past-time is to come to the airport and watch the planes land. I now can see why. Anyone else ever flown there and had a similar experience?

I don't have anything to match the above posts, thank goodness! Only one I can think of offhand is flying from Panama City, Panama to the Caribbean coast of Panama to visit the San Blas islands. (Where the Cuna Indians live, the ones who make the beautiful Mola appliqued textiles.)

It was a tiny plane (just a few passengers) -- sorry, I don't know the make and model, this was six years ago -- and we were totally enveloped in low clouds. No visibility whatsoever. One woman was praying, and the pilot seemed quite nervous. But it must be normal to fly these flights under these conditions, no?

This kind of flight, domestic flights on small planes in third-world countries, is probably the most dangerous kind I've been on.

Kathy

Hi,
I've been to San Blas, by boat, not by plane, but I have seen that tiny plane land there. If I recall correctly, it landed on a grass runway, and one that was not too even either. I recall seeing some bumps and ruts. When we saw the pilot take-off, it reminded me of those movies where you see someone steal a plane who does not know how to fly the plane. We saw the plane lurch and dive and lurch up again and tip from side to side as if the pilot were taking his first flight without having had a lesson first. You must have had one heck of a ride.

I flew in to and out of Funchal, Madeira about 5 years ago and had a very smooth landing and a very smooth take-off. I'm really glad I didn't read this post before then! I've been flying a ton for 22 years or so and have been really lucky. Only one to two (discounting the turbulence that sometimes is a tad extreme) times where I wondered what the hell was going on.

Oh dear! What a tale of woe in this post. How do pilots, even amateur weekend flyers like me, nevertheless manage to land and takeoff all these expensive aircraft day after day?

Ah yes. Those scenes shot using experienced pilots who have to roll the plane around to please the director. Back in the bar afterwards all the pilots will be having a good laugh about it (ridiculous scenes in Spielberg's "Always" with aircraft ostensibly flown by Holly Hunter come to mind!). Anyone with no flight instruction would never make it lift off in the first place.

That's what those dials on the flight deck are for. Notice how the pilot got you unerringly to your destination.

Probably through worrying that an over-nervous passenger was going to you-know-what! Guess who has to deal with it .....

Not really; if the runway is short you come in steeper; it gives better slow speed control.

There's a new 8,000 ft runway at Funchal, opened last year. It's a shame, all the good approaches (Funchal, Hong Kong Kai Tak) are slowly disappearing.

Five or six in-country flights on Indian Airlines. (Not Air India) That was the year it qualified for most-disaster prone airline in the world according the the NY Times article I had in my suitcase. That was also one of the times the Indian Airlines offices in Bombay were bombed a few days before we arrived.

I must say the flights were fine, once you got used to the guards armed with machine guns searching the plane at each stop. Great security. I was an oblivious tourist and have no idea what was going on.

I can think of two times when it got ugly. Once, on a flight from Denver to Boise, I was sitting in the back of the plane and the turbulence was so bad that I felt the plane was going to basically disintegrate in mid-air. I guess it didn't.

Another one, substantially more harrowing, is on a GRU-EWR flight, when the plane, a brand-new 767-400ER, lost most of the electrical system over the Amazon. No cabin lights, limited instrument functioning. The engines were still running, but could not be restarted were they to fail. We were two hours away from the nearest airport that could handle a large plane (Manaus). We headed for Manaus, and made it safely. CO sent a crew from GRU in a chartered jet, which eventually managed to fix the plane, but we ended up showing up in EWR 12 hours late (but at least we made it).

Once in the early 60s we all had to bail, but that was on a military plane, not commercial. I was only about half trained to jump and went out on a static line. They say my landing was perfect, but I honestly was too danred scared to take it all in.

That was the scariest.

Other than that, I was once on a plane that lost cabin pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing in Tucson, and another time had an incident where one wheel wouldn't go down on an EMB from PDX/SEA. They finally got the wheel down but it was a little disconcerting to look down and see all traffic stopped and watch the ambulances and fire truck position themselves, knowing that it was all for Your Flight. YIKES!

Other than that, nothing but a whole lot of shaking going on.

In retrospect, it was on DL, SLC-YYC. We took off and soon noticed a sound like a bowling ball rolling around in a car's trunk. Then we noticed periodic louder noises. Then we noticed that we weren't climbing very quickly. Then we noticed that we were turning around. And were back on the ground.

Turns out one of the baggage doors wasn't properly closed. When the engine on that side (I forget the type of aircraft, but it had rear-mounted engines) was running it sucked the door back, blocking the airflow. The engine would shut down. The door would then relax enough, bouncing around in the turbulence, to let in enough air for it to start again, after which it would shut down again, and start again, and ... you get the idea.

It all happened too quickly for me to be scared at the time. That happened later.

The Delta agents, faced with 100+ panicky people who wanted to get to Calgary, were so happy that I'd take Edmonton instead that they gave me a complementary upgrade. (This was before SGB. I doubt that would happen now.)

Two times.

First was a routine? flight back to SDF from TPA in the early 70's. First Flight was delayed by fog in TPA so I was put on a later flight that was supposed to go TPA-MCO-ATL-SDF. Got to ATL late and missed the connection. Put up in a hotel that night, 6:00A flight in the morning ATL-LEX-SDF. Well the storm that delayed the flight in TPA had frozen over all the midwest airports, but our plane left anyway. Upon landing in LEX, the runway was covered by 6 inches of ICE!. Since we were the first flight in, the runway had only had minimal clearing. Well, we hit the runway, bounced, skidded sideways and the right wing tip hit the ground throwing up a nice plume of snow. But the pilot was exceptional and got it under control and got us safely to the gate. But this was also the plane that was supposed to continue on to SDF. With a wingtip hitting the ground, they had to take it out of service. We eventually got on a later flight to SDF which was uneventful.
But watching your plane's wingtip hit the ground will get you trying to contact your Creator in a hurry!!

#2 was on our honeymoon. Flying from MIA to Puerto Plata, DR, one of the pax on the other side of the plane noticed a stream of fluid coming out of the wing. He notified the FA, who called upon the other FAs who all were looking out trying to figure it out. Meanwhile the first FA decides that the Flight Deck should be alerted, so the FO comes out to check. HE decides the Pilot needs to see it. So in the aisle between me and the right wing we now have 3 FAs, the FO, and the Pilot, as well as the three pax in the seat next to the wing. (I'm thinking. . "Who is flying the Plane? [but I knew the autopilot will fly it safely for a little while])

The pilot determines that it is either condensate from the plane being gated overnight in MIA (rained the night before) or water from the wash job they did the night before. (I was considering Hydraulic Fluid or Fuel!) But it was a rather creepy time, and I was trying to make my bride not notice the activity.

The scarriest I encountered was actually not the flight but the wait for it.

A couple of years ago I did a skiing trip from germany to Keystone, and on the flight back we were connecting in Detroit. We had only about 30 minutes to get to our other plane, so I just made a quick jump to the gate, with the other 40 germans slowly doing a sightseeingtrip in the airport (they will wait for us..and we have to buy liquor first anyway).
So arriving at the gate I expected to be rushed into the plane, but it was full of PAX, all waiting for the plane. After a couple of minutes me and another gentlemen asked one of the staff members what is, and we hitted the jackpot, the women all gave the information "we are waiting for the plane", he took us two to the side and told us, they would do a technical check on the plane, as they were unsure if it could fly another flight to germany that day. We would probably need to wait for the plane that arrives 2 hours later from Amsterdam.

So, everyone waiting forever, besides a few people all thinking the other plane just didnt arrive, when they finally announced boarding in 10 minutes. Me, the other guy and a few others who knew it too went to the friendly staff member and asked him what plane it was and he told us "they decided the plane could lift off for this flight"
You all know when those security annoucements come on? Everyone sleeps already? around 30 passengers listening very interested, looking for the next exit, how to use the lifevest! And the guy on the exit row made the flight attended explain for 5 minutes what to do in an emergency!
The flight itself was very shaky with turbolences, not a nice feeling. Cant recall having thanked the Captian so much for getting us savely to the ground!

Never really had anything frightening happen. I do get scared of turbulence, but in the back of my mind i know that aircraft can take a big pounding of turbulence,nonetheless i usually fly to Lisbon, Portugal, so I fear that if something goes wrong in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean hopefully we can glide to the nearest airport to hold a 757.
I'd like to become an ATP, so I will have to get use to these things, and Turbulence.

Every August I start remembering this event, especially when thunderstorms hit the DFW area (like today). I was flying on about my third flight as a consultant - flying home from New Orleans to DFW in August 1985. My co-worker who was very control-oriented insisted on checking us both in for our scheduled AA flight. We checked-in and proceeded to the gate. He asked me where the tickets were and realized that he had left them at the counter. The GA would not let us board so we missed the flight (the only flight I have ever missed). He retrieved our tickets and Delta honored them (they were full-fare tickets). We boarded a Delta L1011 (almost the back row and next to my still irritated co-worker) and took off from New Orleans on this Friday evening; our flight was continuing from Florida. About mid-way, the pilot announced that we were being diverted due to weather conditions at DFW. Thirty minutes or so I started hearing lots of dings from the phones the FAs used; then the FAs started crying (not a good sign). Nothing else was said. When we landed at DFW at the Delta terminal, we found out that a Delta plane (that was flying pretty much a parallel route to our Delta flight) had crashed. I later found out our missed AA flight was the plane that landed just before the Delta flight that crashed.

It was scary but 2,100,000 miles and 17 years later, I still fly but I always remember.