We were hit by lightning going into ORD last spring. It was actually really cool looking and totally uneventful. I thought it would be all dramatic and scary, but is was simply a bang on the left side, pilot didn't say or do anything differently, didn't even get on the radio to tower (channel 9 on united). People on other side of plane probably didn't even notice. No drop, nothing. One less thing to fear in life now...

I’ve had my share of turbulence, but nothing really to write home about.

My most excitement came when I was on a school trip to Washington when I was about 13. We were coming in to DCA on a NW flight and shortly before touching down we pulled up hard and went around. I was looking out the window and saw a smaller plane (corporate jet size I think) sitting on the end of the runway. Eventually the pilot came on and told us that a plane had pulled onto the wrong runway and was right in our landing path -- that will get a group of middle school kids talking.

I worked myself into a bit of fear going to France when I was 16. It was a year after TWA 800 and during the flight I couldn’t help thinking about the center fuel tank on our Air France 747 and wondering how the fuel vapors were doing. A silly thing to think about, I suppose, but I was young and had an active imagination.

Though it wasn’t on a plane, one of my other scary air travel moments came later on that trip. I was waiting at ORY to fly to BOD (Bordeaux) on Air Inter to meet a family after the school group left. The airport made no sense to me. I don’t remember all of the details but I was first told I couldn’t check in because I was too early and had to wait in the outer lobby. I waited and kept checking with the check in people as my flight time approached. They were helpful, but I was concerned that I was going to miss my flight. Eventually my flight time came and went and they kept telling me to keep waiting. I did and eventually my flight was called and we boarded. This was really the first time I was on my own at an airport in a major city. I knew some French, but wasn’t great and was quite concerned I was going to screw something up. To this day I want to go back to the domestic terminal at ORY and figure out how it is supposed to work.

About 4-5 yr ago I was on a plane after a relaxing 7 day cruise with my then girlfriend, now fiancee. YVR-SEA was okay and when we arrived at SEA, it was already nighttime. Asked my wife whether or not to take the red-eye to MSP or to ask the GA to fly tomorrow morning. She said lets just get home. We were off and maybe 45 min into the flight, sparks flew out of the engine and we heard awful noises throughout the cabin. Some passengers started freaking out and the FAs had to calm a few people down. The pilot then came over the PA and came forward with the truth. I really hate pilots that BS around, I just want to know. One of the engines on the 757 had totally failed. We were diverted to GTF. Just to let you know how small a city GTF is, people had to be woken up to get the airport open. We sat on the plane for an hour. We sat in the terminal for 2 and then were all sent to hotels. It was 4 AM by then.

Not a big deal but hearing the screams and passengers freaking out had me going for a while.