The strangest experience with crying for me was landing in SYD after flying from LAX not very long after 9/11. Once the plane landed people clapped, including me - so happy to be back in Australia, and people cheered and quite a few had tears of joy.


However, the most upset I have been was leaving Australia to go back to DC for work after Christmas, having to leave my mother who had terminal cancer and not knowing if I would see her again. I was seriously hoping that the plane had a minor fault which would mean another day with her. When the wheels lifted off I was crying quietly, thankfully in I was the only one in my row.
Fortunately I was able to return and spend the last two weeks of her life with her.

Most of my families, including my father, are still living back home in CGK. I always cry when it's time for me to leave .. whether in the middle of the busy CGK airport or outside of my house when I'm about to get into the car.

I would still cry as I am boarding the flight. As much as I'm embarassed when people around me see me cry, I am sure they'll understand why.

:) I would agree with you on a normal basis, but it's almost always clothes and toys for our family in India, so I didn't even question the pre-packed bag. However, I made him promise to tell me what he packed in the future so that I wouldn't be running around with 800 ball point pens without realizing. ^

I cut folks who are crying huge amounts of slack, because who knows what really is going on in their lives?

And perhaps because decades ago, I had the worst flight of my life. My two late-middle aged parents and myself in F, and my 20 year old sister's body in the cargo hold. Dead suddenly after an unknown til then cerabral arterio-venous malformation ruptured. We weren't crying, but the three of us looked like we had slammed into a brick wall at high speed, I'm sure.

I do try to remember that some folks on every flight may have just come from a human tragedy or on their way to one.

I've cried several times.

There's the time my husband called me as I pulled up to the airport to let me know his mother had died - I didn't get there in time. More tears at the airport.

Many others, but today, MR BL and I headed for Paris, BL JR going to her grandparents, I had tears streaming down my face - a lady next to me noticed, but kindly didn't intrude - I watched BL JR walk down the concourse and make the turn. She was fine, I was a bit of a wreck.

If you need to cry, do - and don't feel bad about doing so.

Last summer, I was transiting DFW when I saw a whole plane full of troops returning from Iraq deboarding in Terminal D from a ATA L1011. As the troops were moving along the elevated bridge into customs, I saw no less than 50 people shouting, screaming, and crying as they went past by. Some of them were family awaiting some of the troops to re-enter security, judging by the crying and the home-made signs saying "Welcome Home".

In 2002, I was flying BR from LAX to TPE when one of the IFE channels played the music video of the song Cry by Faith Hill. Now THAT'S a song to tear-up by! :-)

I never used to cry, but in the past year have become quite the flying weeper. My fiance lives in the UK and I live in the US and we say goodbye in airports all too often. It's just a part of our lives right now, but I just can't get used to it.

Everyone is nice to me and asks if I'm okay, and I nod and explain briefly and people are very cool about the whole thing- in fact, it often leads to interesting conversations about their long-distance love affairs. I had a very pleasant chat with one of the security people at NCL while she was looking in my bag to check some embroidery scissors just a couple of weeks ago. I've never had trouble in security because of it and find that people are very kind.

AND, I can be distracted. Once my fiance was in Uruguay and I was departing Montevideo to come back home and in the security line, a Uruguayan woman distracted me by telling me about all the food she was smuggling back to the States. By the time I got to the gate, I was laughing.

So...if you see a weepy woman in line at security in NCL, on a plane departing NCL or walking away from security at IND, it's probably me.

GG

Not me, but once saw a young lady (mid-20s) at a gate podium hysterically crying. I asked the gate agent later, and it turned out she had been heading out of Miami to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding. Her flight was canceled, and the only other flight that would have gotten her to the destination in time was completely sold out (weekends are a zoo in Miami during cruise season).

It might sound better and be more true to the inspiration if it went, "There's no crying in flying." ;)

Me? I'm an emotional faucet. Commercials can make me cry, for pity's sake. Sad movies on the flight? Forget it. Even a book will set me off.

I don't usually cry in the airport but if I do it would be on the plane or in the car when I'm on my way to the airport.

It's the movies for me
 

Not too much IN the airport but I find sad movies on the plane oddly moving. I don't know why. They seem to hit me even harder than they do on the ground either watching a DVD or in the movie theater. I can't remember the last time I cried watching a movie on the ground but I can distinctly remember 3 movies I saw in the air that did:

Reign Over Me (I believe on some JAL flight). There's a certain scene there that sent shivers down my spine. I looked over at my seatmate (older male) and he and we were both wiping our eyes. (This was not VOD)

Life: Tears in Heaven: Also on some JAL flight. Japanese title is Tengoku de kimi ni aetara. Touching movie of a Japanese windsurfer living in Hawaii.

Virgin Snow: Hatsuyuki no koi. On some Malaysian airlines flight. Japanese / Korean film. Korean guy moves to Japan and falls for Japanese girl. But all is not so simple...

It's really hard to find the Japanese movies scene on foreign carriers as DVDs with proper Enlish subtitles. If anyone has a source, please let me know!

I cried the first time my daughter flew as an un-accompanied minor.
She flew to MSP with my Father and was gone for 2 weeks. Didn't phase me a bit. When her planed landed back in PHX and as I stood at the gate waiting for her to come down the jetway the tears just started flowing and would not stop. I was realizing how indpendant she was becoming and how much longer she wouldn't need me around.

Glad to know I'm not the only one to have lost it at an airport! January last year a very, very kind security lady at Stavanger let me sit in their staff room and gave me a cup of tea and just talked with me while I tried to pull myself together.

Had broken up with longterm boyfriend the night before and then had to say goodbye again at security. We were both flying out at the same time - he was going back to Sydney (he is Norwegian) and I was going to Oslo (I'm Australian)! Was not pretty. Tried so hard not to cry but the floodgates opened as he walked away towards the international terminal. All terribly embarrassing. Thankfully I was given the chance to indulge in my tears in private and managed to board the plane dry (but somewhat red and puffy) eyed.

I've since worked in an international airport and have had the chance to 'repay' that act of kindness and have made a cup of tea and offered words of comfort while a stranger has taken a moment to cry in our staff room.

I've gotten teary-eyed at some of the sad movies on planes. I've also cried (quietly) when flying to my mom & dad's funerals.

Only time I cried at the gate was years & years ago. Had to go to Houston from O'Hare for a critical meeting for my company. Was on the last UA flight. Was tired & sick (shouldn't have been flying, but it was a critical mtg & I had to be there). Two gate doors literally right next to each other. Go down what I think is the correct one. Get on plane, settle into seat, & hear them announce that the plane is going to (can't remember where, but it wasn't Houston). Get off the plane asap & go to gate agent. Can I get on the Houston flight? Nope; it's gone from the gate. It's late, I'm tired, I have to be in Houston for this meeting, and I lost it (not hysterics but started crying due to stress/tired/sick). They realized there was a flight leaving shortly on AA & UA switched me to that. Of course nowadays, they'd say tough patootie but back then there was still cust service. Only time I've really cried at the airport. Luckily it was late & not many to see me.

Cheers.