kennethfine

I want to hear your very worst turbulence story, complete with guesstimates on just how far your plane dipped, dropped, yawed, or pitched. Bonus points if stuff/coffee/babies in the cabin went airborne.

Mine: I was flying SEA-NYC-Istanbul. At some point over Europe, we started pitching and dropping like crazy: every now and again, we'd do this roller coaster thing where it felt like we were dropping like a rock for five seconds or so.

The last and longest time this happened, the FA in front of me in the jumpseat audibly gasped, and that's when I started worrying for real. Not what you want to hear out of your crew.

When we landed, everyone applauded: heartfelt relief.

I'd be curious how much "real" danger we were in: a pilot could contextualize this. I suspect the plane can take a much worse beating than this without falling apart, but maybe that's just my American optimism talking.

-KF

IceTrojan

There must be another thread already on this topic.. there MUST be!

Anyway, funny thing, the worst flight that I know of that I was aboard... I was sound asleep through it. I woke up to fellow pax gasping and sighing, and my neighbor didn't look to great.

Didn't take away from my pleasant flight

planemechanic

I have been on many, many test flights for commercial aircraft and I can tell you that the airplanes can take MUCH MUCH more than you are ever likely to experience on a revenue flight. Nothing like intentionally taking a B737 up to a stall to test the auto-slat system. Then of course you get to do it again to check the B system.

ContinentalFan

This question was raised a few months ago in this thread.

SEA-Flyer

I was flying CTS-HND in the nose of an All Nippon 747, about 30 minutes out of HND. Pilot flipped on the seatbelt sign and made a very huried announcement in Japanese - I thought I heard the phrase 'Jet Wash'. Then the FA gave a quick please fasten seatbelts now message in English.

The entire plane then shook like crazy - anything objects not held down were quickly flying all over the place, etc. My empty beer can hit the ceiling. My wife help on to her glass, but the contents were completely lost - it got on her, the seat in front of her, the side wall, the overhead bin, etc. I was quickly nauseous, but managed to hang onto the contents of my stomach - a few passengers weren't so lucky, and threw up.

After about about 90 seconds it ended.

I don't think it was jet wash, as it doesn't seem like that should have lasted that long, especially at 28,000 feet in a 747-400.

Not a ride I care to experience again.

djk7

One time I almost spilled my wine.

producerkoof

My sister and I were scheduled to fly LGW-BOS on Virgin Atlantic back in 2000, but our flight was canceled. So they re-booked us on a British Airways flight out of Heathrow later that evening. About 20 of us trudged over to LHR for our new flight.
Everything was smooth and we were about half way across the Atlantic when all of a sudden there was a big drop! At the time, the flight attendants were cleaning up the dinner plates and serving coffee. The guy across from me did not have his seatbelt on and flew up and landed on the armrest. He wasn't hurt but he sure did buckle his belt after that. As we were dropping and shaking the flight attendants ran (stumbled) through the cabin yelling "buckle your seatbelts!"
Several passengers let out yelps and screams.
When we finally got out of it, everything not bolted down had fallen into the aisles and one or two overhead bins had opened! It looked like a tornado had gone through the plane.
I had my video camera on my lap at the time and I managed to tape the finally moments of the turbulence... including some of the gasps from other passengers!

Fishie

What exactly is Jet Wash?

miki

Well if you almost spilt it you certainly hadn't had too much.

SixAlpha

Easiest way to describe it is as the "wake" behind an airplane. Aircraft engines and wings disrupt the air quite a bit. Just as boats try to avoid each other's wake, so do aircraft, except that in an aircraft you get tossed around a lot more -especially if the aircraft you're following is much larger than yours. ATC and pilots usually work together and are specially trained to avoid the "jet wash" of other airplanes.

redbeard911

There is a great vomit thread that is one of my favorites.

I tried to search but it didn't come up. (pardon the pun )

UMassCanuck07

Worse I have experienced was on an ATR72 from STL-SBN during a thunderstorm. We hit a tunderstorm somewhere between SPI and DEC and it seemed like we followed it all the way to the GYY area. It was bad for a good 30 minutes. The captain kept us informed that it was just a "bad thunderstorm." At one point they were going to divert us around it and we would have to stop in LAF for fuel, however the LAF tower was closed and they had no fuel trucks available to service an ATR72. They also did not have a tail stand for it, so we would have been screwed.

Basically we probably dropped a few 100 feet for a good while, up and down, up and down. We were told by the F/A to keep our seat belts on and either hold on to the seat head rest infront of us or to the arm rests.

Wilbur

Landing toward the west in PHX, my HP flight on an airbus hit what the pilot later announced was wind shear and went around for a second try. In the very worst of the vicious rolling and pitching action, before the engines went to full power and we pulled up, I could see the Salt River bed through the window on the F side. I was seated in the A seat. Thus the airplane had rolled over at least 60 or 70 degrees.

The final landing was made in total passenger silence, and I updated my will the next week.

Fishie

Ah yes, thanks for the explanation.

I was in that once in an aproach to ORD.

mwp2paris

Last year AA MD80 flight DFW-BWI...storms required loooong alternate routing, and the turbulance was bad enough to keep FAs in their seats the entire flight and the turbulance lasted well over 3 1/2 hours...not that the turbulance was hurl-worthy, it was just the unendingness of it all that began to wear on everyone...ceaseless rough bouncing for that long does test one's patience...especially when you can't get a drink from the FC FA!