What is your most dramatic airplane experience? Whilst vomitting children are always fun, I'd love to hear stories about malfunctioning engines and emergency landings ... I've never had anything significant happen inflight, although Im sure its only a matter of time.

A couple years back when America West was opperating a Palmdale to Vegas route, one of the engines on the turbo prop I was on malfunctioned and quit working, made an emergency landing at an Private airport in AZ and was bused to Vegas.

I'm grateful to have had only aborted landings, which is pretty common. Knock on wood. Of course, flying Aloha's 732s on any given day would be "dramatic" enough.

On approach to MEM during a thunderstorm, the plane, (NW DC9) was blown sideways by a gust of wind and we had to do a go-around. The pilot did a great job of maintaining control. A flight coming in right behind us got slammed around so bad they pulled it out of service until the mechanics could give it a look.

Many years ago, I was flying RNO-DFW on an AA 727, and was seated near the front of the coach cabin. Shortly after take-off, I heard a "ding, ding, ding" coming from the cockpit. Having previously seen the movie "Fate is the Hunter," I suspected that I was hearing the fire-alarm signal. The plane cruised at a low altitude for a while, apparently dumping fuel; a flight attendant informed us that we were returning to RNO; and on landing, the emergency vehicles were out alongside the runway. Fortunately, as the pilot then informed us, there was no engine fire, just an apparently malfunctioning alarm system.

Here are a few memorable moments.

Flying in a turboprop airfreighter in the early 1960s in a storm at night. Lightning strike, all lights and engines stop. Only the sound of air whistling as we glide, with the flight engineer illuminated by lightning flashes as he frantically popped every circuit breaker in the overhead panel until they got the engines and generators back online.

Somewhere over Texas in an AA jet (don't remember the type but a narrowbody) in the late nineties, stormy night and yes, another lightning problem. Lights go out in cabin, except for the emergency lighting. Pilot informs us we lost generators and were on battery power. Diverted to nearest airport (San Antonio) in rush to land while still powered. Some instructions on crash positions and so forth, but basically just an anxious thirty minutes or so until we landed safely.

The winner - flying SJC to NRT on a 777, about 4 hours out over the Pacific. Crew members walking back from cockpit to peer anxiously at right engine. I am one of only two in the F cabin, and can see lots of consultations with the FAs and pilots. Announcement tells us that we are turning to return to Seattle to land. Crew members keep peering at engine. Obviously fire alarm and some concern that there was still a fire active. Pilot asks passengers in main cabin to relocate to seats over the wing section, as it is the strongest area and safest if we have to ditch. Hmmm, not a good announcement, is it? Then we are asked to don life vests and sit with them for more than three hours. Not good at all. FAs bring me and other pax to front doors to walk us through how to open them "in case we are not available". FAs studying books intently. Very very not good. Most horrible three hours of my life, as the odds did not look good at all. Circle to sea near Seattle to dump fuel before landing -- another sign that fire was a significant worry still. Pilot informs us that crash vehicles will be driving alongside us as we land. Fortunately, landing was fine and we were even able to deplane through jetbridge, so they must have resolved their concerns about fire once we were at rest at the end of the runway.

I chose to take a flight back to SJC rather than get rebooked onward to Asia on another airline, nerves frazzled. Seems like many picked the same option that day.

1. My most dramatic was as follows:

In July of 1996 I was working at a remote site in the NorthWest of Iceland; the nearest airport was �safj�r�ur. After an unenventful arrival on Landsflug (Air Iceland - the inter-Iceland airline at the time), and a few days work, our departure was delayed due to heavy winds blowing the wrong direction. Eventually, they bused us to an alternate runway. After a somewhat harrowing drive (the plowed snow in some places was higher than the bus, yet the driver seemed to have only two speeds - on and off), we arrived at a dirt strip barely wide enough for the Fokker 50 turboprop to turn around.

Upon takeoff, the pilot had to bank a bit to make it through the terrain. At this point, I told a colleague traveling with me that we did not get paid enough to do this. We had bad weather on the way down the island, so we rocked and rolled our way to Reykjav�k.

As we made our approach, we must have hit an area of severe downdraft, as suddenly we were VERY low over houses. The pilot banged the gear up, firewalled the throttles, and brought us out over the bay, presumably because water is at least a bit softer for an emergency landing than houses.

As we skimmed the waves, the crew began to give the "Emergency Landing Procedure" speech to the passengers - in Icelandic! Fortunately, it was easy enough to figure out what they were saying from the motions (my Icelandic was pretty thin at that time, and all but non-existent now). We were seated ahead of an emergency exit, and we planned our exit - we were going to help some women seated ahead of us out of the exit behind us, then go out ourselves.

Just as I was beginning to worry about how cold the bay would be, even in July (pretty darned cold, I imagine), and how long we'd last in the water, the pilot was able to gain altitude. We circled back for a hard (but well received by everyone aboard) landing. When we exited the plane, I did something I'd only read about - I kneeled down and kissed the tarmac!

Friends picked us up at REK and drove us back to KNAS. We went directly to the O-club, where I proceeded to have an all liquid dinner, and drink my companions literally under the table.

2. My second most dramatic was also in Iceland:

On September 30, 1996, a volcano erupted under Vatnaj�kull, Iceland's largest glacier. A month later, the melted ice broke through to the south, destroying, among other things, a bridge that held the relatively newly installed fiberoptics for our system. As we had done for the original eruption, some colleagues and I charted two light planes to take pictures of the j�kulhlaup ("glacial running") - which had hunks of ice the size of greyhound buses churning their way down to the coast.

After buzzing around for a couple of hours, and getting some great shots, we returned to REK. As we came in for a landing, a light plane, which was sitting at the end of the runway we were about to land on, began its takeoff roll as we came right over it. As everyone on our plane shouted a bit, our pilot hauled us up for a go around.

Although not as dramatic as my first flying adventure in Iceland, we really were VERY close to having that other plane as a hood ornament.

After two close calls, I vowed to not fly in Iceland again until I returned to the U.S.

(I did DRIVE around the Island, all in daylight, on June 21st, but that's another story)

OK this is probably not the best thread for me to be reading right now considering I am due to fly tomorrow night!!1

Thanks god I have never had any experiences like above and hope not to have any soon!

Eight million miles with commercial airlines, three really memorable incidents in more than 40 years. I continue to fly and enjoy it in spite of a very very few scary times.

Honestly, how many times would you have a near miss in an automobile or other scary situation in the same period of time? The ratio of bad experiences like these to all my trips is incredibly small. Notice that this thread is not 500 posts long, as there are not all that many incidents in total in spite of the many thousands of flights each month. Take your flight and enjoy it!

To date, the most dramatic would have to have been an aborted landing at HEL. (Like someone else already said, not so uncommon.) Plane was almost on the ground, and right before touchdown, the engines went back to full throttle and the nose pointed sharply back up. Caught the pax by quite a surprise. I know a go-around does not constitute any kind of emergency, but it's still a weird feeling when you're not expecting it.

In 1971 (!), flying from ZRH to JFK in a TWA 707. The flight originated in Israel somewhere, and had Israeli diplomats on board. After clearing Ireland, we were told by the pilot that there was a bomb threat, and we had to make an emergency landing in Shannon. Turned around, dumped fuel, and landed way out away from anything. Bussed to the terminal, waited 8 hours for the plane to be searched. We got back on the same plane, flew to JFK (arriving well after midnight) and flew 1st class the following morning to DTW. That is an adventure for a 10 year old!

1. clear air turbulence in 747 SIN-NRT...felt like the plane went straight down...water in my glass "sloshed" vertically out of the glass
2. wind storm 2 weeks ago in SEA landing (a 757 thankfully) on one wheel being buffeted badly at the same time...PAX clapped when we had fully gotten all gear on the ground..
3. wind shear warning caused aborted landing DFW-DEN
4. JNB-Perth, 747, on landing part of the tire disintegrated and flew into the cowling of one of the engines...fortunately not INTO the engine...couldn't feel the difference
5. Piper Chieftan commuter PDX-EUG, on take off the door/stairs popped open before liftoff...pilots had warning indicator but all PAX yelled anyway...it was surreal watching the runway zoom by across from my seat!
Found out later that was a "known" flaw on this model
6. 767 ORD-SFO pilot comes on PA and says that the flaps won't deploy fully so the landing would be faster than normal...so he was declaring an emergency...buy it was a pretty mellow emergency...I couldn't tell the difference except for the emergency vehicles lining the runway
7. 777 lightning strike in flight, big flash and pop from the wing, 1st officer came back to look thru the a PAX window at the damage but couldn't see any...continued on normally

I was flying from Saratov to Moscow back in October of '00. We started our descent into Shermetevo and the plane seemed to be wallowing left to right (almost like the nose was a pivot point and the back end was wagging side to side).

It got worse and suddenly there was a loud metal bang noise, and the plane started really weaving left and right. At this point, the pilots came on and said some things in Russian, and the PAX became visibly disturbed - with some mothers grabbing children, etc. I don't speak a lick of Russian so I had no idea. The FA's started doing the whole head-between-knees briefing again and were coming down the aisles 'comforting' folks and giving instructions to those with questions. As we came down through the clouds, we were low over the runway - the plane was swinging wildly back and forth and there were emergency vehicles lined up all down the runway. As we were closing in on a landing, I noticed there were a few vehicles pacing us down the runway.

The plane landed with quite a bit of eventfulness - the tires screeched back and forth at first and when they finally caught traction the whole plane was sort of violently snapped back on a straight line. We landed and came to a stop normally. Everyone rejoiced. They had pulled up to some distant runway and the butt-end of the plane opened up (you exited down a set of stairs that came from the back) and there was a bus waiting for us along with a lot of Russian police. They were ushering folks onto the bus quite promptly. As we got off the plane, I turned to look back and I noticed the flap that is mounted vertically to the tail section was *missing*. There were a couple of shredded metal bits like it had sheared off. I was staring and a policeman came literally running over very animated and was clearly upset that I was looking. I got on the bus and sat in the back trying to find my camera to grab a pic, but I couldn't get it in time - the bus zipped out of there.

It was quite an experience.


A friend had a good story. He was flying domestically within Ukraine many many years ago. The pax all got on the plane and they tried repeatedly to start the engines without success. The pilot emerged from the cockpit, visibly drunk and went outside the plane. They saw him shortly thereafter *on* the wing, wielding a hammer and beating the engine to dislodge the ice that was preventing it from starting. The pilot came back aboard shortly after and said something like "don't worry - ok now" and disappeared back into the cockpit, leading to a (surprisingly) uneventful flight.

I have no idea if the story is really true, but the guy swears it is and it would have happened around the late 60's/early 70's.

Years ago on a flight(SEA-NRT), we took off and about 20 minutes into the flight the pilot said a "temperature" light was coming on. For safety reasons, they were going to dump fuel and go back to SEA. After 2 hours sitting at the gate, pilot stated that everything was fixed and we would be departing again. Before departing the captain stated that he will update us on arrival times once we get in the air. Takeoff #2 went fine. This time expecting to hear the usual announcements, I hear "This is captain XXXX, have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?". "The same light is coming on, so we will once again dump fuel and land again at SEA". This time we stayed on the plane for about 30 minutes. The captain said that a part would need to shipped overnight, therefore we would staying in SEA(Doubletree) with a $25 dinner voucher, $10 breakfast voucher, amentity packet and an overnight pack. With about 350 or so people heading to awaiting buses, we decided not to wait so we took a short cab ride to the hotel. While standing in line for a room, 3 buses pull up filling up the lobby rather quickly. After dumping our bags, we decided to go ahead and use our vouchers in the hotel restaurant. While giving our order to our waiter, I told him we were distressed passengers on SEA-NRT and expect to get a ton of people here shortly. He looked distressed because due to a slow day, the manager had sent 2 waiters home early. By the time we finished, the manager was waiting tables along with the hostesses. Hang on it gets better!!! We woke up at 5a.m. for a 7:30 departure. When we got to the lobby, we were told the flight was moved back to 11a.m. After breakfast we went back to our room for CNN, Regis and Sportscenter. This time we all boarded for our 11a.m. flight. After being seated, we were told the flight would be delayed 1 more hour. FA comes on a few minutes later and said that there would be delay in fixing the plane and for us to deplane. This time there was another plane that was getting ready to depart(same flight #,24 hous later) and that they would try to accomodate all first class passengers first,then Plats, then Golds. I was a lowly silver and was left to fend for myself. The FA said that another plane was being flown in from MSP and would be here in about 4 hours for those who did not get on the flight at the neighboring gate. By the time I got back to the gate area, there was already a line of about 50 people. My mom walks cane-assisted, so people were passing us in the walkway. Once there, I called the 1-800# and got myself booked on the flight. My seats went from bulkhead to 2 middle seats in the back of the plane. As I reached the boarding gate, there was still a long line. GA said that if you did not already have a boarding pass for this flight and on board you were losing your seats. Now panicking, I rushed to the front and explained to the GA that I just got off the phone with NWA with 2 middle seats. This was a snowbell chance in ^&*%, but I told her that I had bulkhead on the previous flight and asked if there was any chance on an aisle seat or better for my mom only. She said my seats were given away. She quickly grabbed 2 boarding passes and told us to quickly board. I grabbed my mom and began our slow descent to the plane. Not paying real close attention to the row number, I saw that my mom had C and I had D. It was 2 seats upfront(my first flight ever upfront across the Pacific).All ended well after a 24 hour delay, bags were delivered the next day to my uncle's house in Ofuna,Japan(2 hour train ride from Tokyo). Great job by NWA. Received miles for both days(SEA-NRT).
Sorry for the long post, moderator feel free to delete or move.

Two:

1. Horizon Airlines Dash8 from Yakima to Seattle in the early 80's. I was the only passenger on board. Over the Cascades we hit clear air turbulence, and the airplane was doing huge oscillations up and down. THe orange juice came out of my glass and ended up everywhere, including on the ceiling (but only a little on me ). Luckily the FA was able to get buckled into one of the empty pax seats. Galley cart broike lose and turned over spilling overything. What a mess! We landed safely in Seattle...

2. Frontier Airline Airbus (A320 I think) from Denver to Seattle in 2000. Engine fire on the right side. Captain shut the engine down and we made an emergency landing in Idaho Falls. Man we went down fast! Had to wait until the brought another airplane up to pick us up...