Airplane Horrror Stories

[Evalla]

I'm sure we all have at least one airplane horror story...

Mine was on a trip from Dublin to London. Out of no where, the plane took a nose dive...for about 8 seconds! I know it doesn't seem like that long, but seriously, count for 8 seconds. That's a long nose dive! Passengers started screaming, luggage went flying out of the overhead bins, the lights went out. So scary! I really thought the plane was going to crash.

Everything ended up being ok, at least I think so. The pilot never even announced what happened. Oy, what a trip. So, what is everyone else's airplane horror story?

[soliteyah]

Argh, eight seconds IS a long nose dive!! Scary!

I don't really have anything as dramatic as that...but my worst flying experience was when I was coming home for Christmas break after a semester in Scotland. My short flight from Glasgow to London ended up taking forever as we circled over Heathrow waiting to land (there was -- imagine! -- fog in London disrupting flights).

By the time we finally landed, I didn't think I'd make my connection to Washington D.C., but I went sprinting like a mad woman through Heathrow just in case. I was the last one to arrive at the gate and they'd given up my seat. I was standing there panting, having sad dreams of having to miss Christmas with my family, being stuck in some airport hotel without a tooth brush (long story, but this was only the second time I'd ever flown, and I was pretty stupid!).

Luckily they finally managed to get me onto the plane, and the flight was okay -- but I was very exhausted and frazzled by the time we landed. I was thrilled to see my family and my boyfriend, but then on the way home my stomach started to hurt -- maybe from the disgusting dinner on the plane? -- and ended up sick as a dog for the next several days (including Christmas).

So it's not really much of an airplane horror story, but it was a pretty bad flying experience all around. Hope that counts!

[travelmel]

On a recent flight from Jacksonville to Newark, I was seated directly across from a very ill woman. This wasn't simple motion sickness either: She was using her complimentary "bag" before we even began taxiing. The flight attendants asked her if she wanted to deplane but she insisted on staying ... and continued to get sick for the entire flight, shaking and laying across three seats. Eventually, the attendants just gave her an industrial-sized black garbage bag. Yuck. Trust me, nobody within a three-row radius ate their in-flight snack.

I was never so happy to see Newark in my life...

The kicker is, as I was headed to baggage claim, I heard over the PA system, "Cleanup at Gate X." Hmm, wonder what happened there!

[travelmel]

I just thought of another good story -- not exactly a nosedive, but...

I was in Syracuse waiting to board a small plane for a short flight to Laguardia. It was delayed, and the announcement came that the plane needed to be de-iced.

As I'm sitting there watching through the window, waiting for some sort of sophisticated machinery to roll out, here comes a little guy with an ice scraper that looked oddly similar to the one I keep in the trunk of my Toyota Corolla. That's about when I walked off to the bar...

[swifty]

I once sat on a plane from JFk to LHR for two hours whilst they fixed a baggage door which wouldn't close (very reassuring). They didn't have the decency to put on the A/C so we sat there in NY summer heat for the two hours. Then I ended up missing my connecting flight in LHR...

[Unregistered]

I just thought of another good story -- not exactly a nosedive, but...

I was in Syracuse waiting to board a small plane for a short flight to Laguardia. It was delayed, and the announcement came that the plane needed to be de-iced.

As I'm sitting there watching through the window, waiting for some sort of sophisticated machinery to roll out, here comes a little guy with an ice scraper that looked oddly similar to the one I keep in the trunk of my Toyota Corolla. That's about when I walked off to the bar...

That reminds me of when my sister went as an exchange student to Germany back in the late '80s. We were told there would be a short delay due to a minor repair to the front landing gear. We're sitting there watching as a guy comes up to the gear with a tool box, looks it over, and proceeds to pull out a roll of duct tape....

[Jeanie821]

I'm sure we all have at least one airplane horror story...

Mine was on a trip from Dublin to London. Out of no where, the plane took a nose dive...for about 8 seconds! I know it doesn't seem like that long, but seriously, count for 8 seconds. That's a long nose dive! Passengers started screaming, luggage went flying out of the overhead bins, the lights went out. So scary! I really thought the plane was going to crash.

Everything ended up being ok, at least I think so.

I'm sure there were a lot of clothing changes after that flight...

[Unregistered]

I had the delayed flight horror on one trip from Denver to Ottawa, Canada, via Chicago. Our US Air flight was boarded. I was squeezed in the middle seat between two football player sized fellows who smelled of garlic and last night's beer.

Something happened. We sat on the tarmax for 5 hours. They wouldn't let us off the plane, would not server food, or let us stand or go to the bathroom, as they were waiting for permission to take off, and the air conditioning didn't work. The two fellows on either side turned into a bath of sweat. In the middle, I tried my hardest to not breath, but I was wedged between them and couldn't move a muscle. Ugh.

Finally the plane took off, and took a very long flight detour to the south as there were storms in our path. The hot food had long since cooled off. The cold drinks were warm, and the staff finally decided they couldn't serve the food as it was not suitable to eat. We were a pretty miserable set of passengers, bonded only in our absolute hatred of US Air.

Of course, any connecting flights were non-existant on our arrival in Chicago, many hours late. And at the baggage counter, they advised that they could find the luggage of no-one on the whole plane. But there were a few hotel rooms available if we went to the baggage claim counter. A mad dash ensued as passengers scrambled for one of the room chits. (I luckily was a fast sprinter). They gave me a room chit and a small kit with a toothbrush, comb and toothpaste. I took a taxi to the hotel, spent a very relieved night and headed back to the airport in the morning, to discover our luggage had been located.

I was extremely happy to catch the plane home the next day (not a US Air flight).

[Jeanie821]

I really can't blame JetBlue for this one, but it was pretty scary.

Took a JetBlue flight from JFK to Long Beach in October 2004 to see my nephew for his first birthday. Unfortunately, there was a large storm system over the Midwest - and we flew right through it. I'm very religious, and I thought I was meeting my Lord and Savior that very night!

[pryan41]

I was on a Continental flight from Houston to Pittsburgh just before last Christmas. The flight was listed as on-time until we were supposed to board the plane, when the ground staff came on the loudspeaker and told us they could not locate the flight crew. We were assured that it would only be a short delay and then we would be on our way. Four hours later, the flight crew finally arrived and a grumpy bunch of people boarded our little ERJ for the 2.5 hour flight to Pittsburgh.

Once on board, we started taxiing out to the runway. We were in line for takeoff when the sole flight attendant noticed that his galley light had burned out. The pilots asked him if he could just do without it, but he insisted we return to the gate to have it checked. The maintainence staff had it repaired in about thirty seconds, but the pilots came on told us they had "timed out". FAA regulations limit the number of hours that pilots can fly in one day. Our little detour to get this light bulb replaced meant that we could not physically make it to Pittsburgh in the amount of flight time the pilots were allowed. Since it was now nearly 10 p.m., there were no other flight crews available and Continental canceled the flight.

An angry group of Pittsburgh-bound passengers descended on the Continental desk to get their reservations changed and make accomodations for the evening. I guess someone from the Continetal ground staff felt threatened by all of these angry people, because they called the Houston police, who showed up with their billy clubs drawn and threatened to arrest everyone on the flight. This sparked further outrage from the passengers, with one guy yelling about his First Ammendment rights. What a scene. I left at this point and returned home, preferring to spend the night there rather than in jail.

I related this story to the security gaurds as I was passing through security to get on my rescheduled flight and they said "Isn't that the flight where the woman died?" I hadn't heard anything about it that night, but apparently someone from that flight died in the terminal...probably a heart attack from stress. I managed to get to Pittsburgh just before Christmas, but heard other stories about people who did not make it until after Christmas or had to split up their parties to make it before the holiday. What a mess!

In Continental's defense, I wrote them a letter relating this whole episode and received two first-class upgrade certificates for my troubles. At least it was something...

[ppadilla@EncoreCredit.com]

Like a bad dream, enroute from LAX to O'Hare taking a red-eye flight Dec.23. We were the first one's greeted to nothing but rows of suitcase's and baggage waiting to be claimed or shipped to other parts of the country to desserted passengers.

Our luggage was still in LAX, we were all up in arms considering it was ONLY 4 degrees outside and most of us had packed our heavy jackets with our suitcases! This was due to a heavy snow storm that hit the Ohio Valley's AND UNITED baggage handlers calling in sick countrywide.

I did not see my suitcase for another 3 days, I went home the following day - thank God it departed on time. Other than that, Christmas was fine...

100k United Member

[Host Bonjour]

Re: Jeanie821's story about a turbulent JetBlue flight:
There's probably a good reason that you all had to endure the turbulent flight and as the daughter and sister of pilots I can make a fairly educated guess and suggest that the captain most certainly requested a change in altitude (most often, airliners do this to either get above or beneath bad weather) but as that is a very heavily traveled route that you were on and most of the rest of the planes were likewise dealing with weather - but, and this is important, the size and weight of the aircraft makes a difference in terms of prioritizing who might get the better altitude vector for safety - and so I imagine if there was something that flight control could do to change your flight's altitude, it would have been done but there were probably too many planes of various sizes and capacities to factor into the equation. JetBlue almost exclusively flies Airbus320's and they are a decent size plane, i.e. no small aircraft and hence well built and able to withstand the turbulence safely including well trained pilots (did you see JetBlue land the pilot with the landing gear problem?? He did an amazing job getting that plane down safely) and the sophisticated on board computers and instruments.

What a plane can't do for you is take away the nervousness but hopefully the crew were attentive to the passengers and were somewhat reassuring. A plane is designed to be shaken up - there is specific amounts of flexibility built into the fuselage (the body of the plane) and of course, the wings although it can be somewhat alarming to see the wings bob about but that is actually a GOOD thing because the wings are doing what they are supposed to be doing - keeping the plane aloft, albeit in fluctuating pockets of air (which is what turbulence is; hot and cold air fluctuations, oh and storms too) so sometimes understanding how that the plane can handle it, the pilots train for this over and over again, and that you are in a new airliner that is well built. I imagine once about a time that turbulence bothered me but if it did, I can't remember; now, when it happens, it kind of almost relaxes me (you'll think I'm nuts) but I like the shaking motion; the vibrations somehow make me feel comfy (I would know if we were in danger and hence skip the comfy feeling) so I don't know, it doesn't bother me. Also, as I said, having the information from my pilot relations - and flying with them in much smaller aircraft, kind of makes it no problem for me because I understand why it's happening and I trust that the pilots have things under control.

More often than not, the pilots will request a change of altitude to avoid the weather (and be able to make the adjustment) from the controllers but if there is a full pattern, especially on a busy route, it can be tough to avoid sometimes. JetBlue has the DirectTV on board or if you have an MP3 player or whatever, just carry with you the kind of music that relaxes you (or something on the TV) and try to take your mind off of the bouncing. Don't worry about it too much; it's very, very common.

I hope this helps a little bit!

[cruisin'cats]

Two stories: First one was when we lived in OK and were coming home from a visit to PA. I forget which airline it was but I won't forget that we went through some terrible, frightening turbulence. The flight attendant was serving meals (that's how long ago it was!) and she'd gotten to our row when the bumpy ride became a roller coaster and the pilot announced that all flight personnel should be seated and secure all items. The woman threw a few meals at me because I was traveling with young children and rushed to lock up her cart and herself. A few rows behind us, a woman started screaming, "Hey, where's MY meal? I'm a diabetic and I NEED to eat NOW!" The stewardess told the screaming woman to shut up and sit down or she won't have to worry about getting another meal! I passed my tray back to her because I didn't figure my food was going to stay down. I think I kissed the ground once we were off the plane.
Story

[cruisin'cats]

Story#2--
Hubby was flying home on a Cont. flight from St. Croix (biz trip) when the Gulf War (the first one) started. The flight was diverted to Bermuda but had to keep the passengers onboard so they didn't go through customs. This also meant that no one could get off the plane to call home. Meanwhile, I had called the airline to check the status of his flight and his ETA and was told by the Cont. rep that there was no flight #---. Believing that this was some kind of code to show that a plane had gone down or was missing, I became hysterical with worry! I called a friend who knew someone at the airlines to see if he could help me. No help from his friend left me more worried. Finally hours later, I got a call from my husband from the plane's airphone telling me that he was at 32000 ft over Baltimore and coming home, that he was OK and knew I must be nuts with worry. I couldn't believe how frightened I was! I was sure I was a widow left with three little kids. It turns out that the airspace had to be open for the military planes to head over to Iraq (Jan. 1991) and it was all hush-hush.

[jwahl54]

I was traveling from Salt Lake City to Atlanta on a Delta 767. We were on our take off roll when the pilot jammed on the brakes and brought the whole proceedings to a halt. As we taxied off the runway, the pilot informed us that an engine warning light had illuminated in the ****pit and he had to abort the takeoff.

Back at the gate, the maintenance crew did their inspection and could find nothing wrong with the engine. Maintenance decided to call headquarters in Atlanta for advice. Atlanta's response was not to worry about the light and send the flight on it's way.

As you can imagine, everyone had a death grip on the arm rests when we started down the runway for a second time. Fortunately we flew off without a problem. However, it took a day or two for my blood pressure to get back to normal.

[DocNY]

About 20 years ago on a airline serving and indigenous to Mexico I was taking a flight back to NY from Acapulco, via Mexico City. It was a twin engine jet, but I can't recall what type. As usual I snagged a window seat just forward of the starboard side wing. About 20 minutes into the flight the engine on the wing starts trailing flames.. As you can imagine there were a lot of ver¥ scared people on board. The pilot must have shut the engine down or something around that point because the flames died out suddenly but the flight got very bumpy and it seemed the plane was vibrating. Somehow we limped into Mexico City where we were greeted on the runway with emergency foam and just about every emergency vehicle that the airport must have had access to. Pilot put us down on the ground rather gracefully and after a quick inspection they towed us to a gate.

For some reason they didn't want anyone deplaning and the kept us in the airplane for about an hour while the mechanic worked on the engine. Now when I say worked I mean worked. After opening the engine the guy tinkers with the engine for about 40 minutes, then says something to two confused looking fellows on the ground off to the side of the wing and then starts beating on the thing with a pipe wrench. Nine or ten good whacks later the whole engine tears lose and plunges to the tarmac.

At this point they decide we might be slightly delayed... and they let us off the plane into a sealed waiting room (no food, dubious telephones). Now we can only see the other side of the airplane, the one away from the problem. They leave us there for about three hours telling us that a new plane is coming. Then they announce they don't have another plane and that this one is being repaired, and sorry but there are no alternative flights they can help with. As you might guess somewhere along the line during the next seven hours when they were repairing the plane (duct tape and bailing wire is my guess) the pilots timed out and had to get some time off. So we wait another four hours for a fresh flight crew.

Needless to say there are some very upset, and scared people and the police ended up involved with several people who didn't want to stay in the waiting room in which we were put, and even more who never wanted to get on another Aeromexico flight ever again.

We got home, 18 hours late, and I'll never again fly a local airline into that area of the world.

[karazyal]

I was at SFO and had returned from Asia on China Airlines. My flight on NWA to Boston had one stop in MSP and then on to BOS. As soon as the seat belt light went off a "rather large" female passenger ran down the aisle - refilled her own, huge Dunkin' Donut cup with a lot of sugar, cream hot coffee. On the way back to her seat she tripped and spilled the whole thing in my lap. I was covered with hot sticky coffee from just above my belt reaching to almost my knees.

The flight attendants were helpful, as much as they can be, no spare seats either. Stuffed newspapers and a spare blanket over the wet seat. Tried soda water on my shirt and pants. Had to wait until MSP to change my underwear.

Only had one pair of pants, from the front it looked like I pissed my pants - from the back it looked like I had some "other" sort of bodily function problem.

Needless to say "I was very glad to get home and take a shower!" (The immensely huge woman picked up her huge cup, waddled back down the aisle, and got another refill!)

[Jeanie821]

Re: Jeanie821's story about a turbulent JetBlue flight:
There's probably a good reason that you all had to endure the turbulent flight and as the daughter and sister of pilots I can make a fairly educated guess and suggest that the captain most certainly requested a change in altitude (most often, airliners do this to either get above or beneath bad weather) but as that is a very heavily traveled route that you were on and most of the rest of the planes were likewise dealing with weather - but, and this is important, the size and weight of the aircraft makes a difference in terms of prioritizing who might get the better altitude vector for safety - and so I imagine if there was something that flight control could do to change your flight's altitude, it would have been done but there were probably too many planes of various sizes and capacities to factor into the equation. JetBlue almost exclusively flies Airbus320's and they are a decent size plane, i.e. no small aircraft and hence well built and able to withstand the turbulence safely including well trained pilots (did you see JetBlue land the pilot with the landing gear problem?? He did an amazing job getting that plane down safely) and the sophisticated on board computers and instruments.

What a plane can't do for you is take away the nervousness but hopefully the crew were attentive to the passengers and were somewhat reassuring. A plane is designed to be shaken up - there is specific amounts of flexibility built into the fuselage (the body of the plane) and of course, the wings although it can be somewhat alarming to see the wings bob about but that is actually a GOOD thing because the wings are doing what they are supposed to be doing - keeping the plane aloft, albeit in fluctuating pockets of air (which is what turbulence is; hot and cold air fluctuations, oh and storms too) so sometimes understanding how that the plane can handle it, the pilots train for this over and over again, and that you are in a new airliner that is well built. I imagine once about a time that turbulence bothered me but if it did, I can't remember; now, when it happens, it kind of almost relaxes me (you'll think I'm nuts) but I like the shaking motion; the vibrations somehow make me feel comfy (I would know if we were in danger and hence skip the comfy feeling) so I don't know, it doesn't bother me. Also, as I said, having the information from my pilot relations - and flying with them in much smaller aircraft, kind of makes it no problem for me because I understand why it's happening and I trust that the pilots have things under control.

More often than not, the pilots will request a change of altitude to avoid the weather (and be able to make the adjustment) from the controllers but if there is a full pattern, especially on a busy route, it can be tough to avoid sometimes. JetBlue has the DirectTV on board or if you have an MP3 player or whatever, just carry with you the kind of music that relaxes you (or something on the TV) and try to take your mind off of the bouncing. Don't worry about it too much; it's very, very common.

I hope this helps a little bit!

Actually, Bonjour, I wasn't all that nervous at first. I've been taking plane trips since I was a little girl, so I have faith in the flight crew. I just got a little frightened when I remembered a conversation my father and brother had in a similar situation:

Eric: "If lightning hits the plane, will it kill us?"
Dad: "No."
Eric: "Good."
Dad: "No, the crash will kill us!"

[kamakazi_joe]

I was flying from Denver to Moline, IL. via Chicago O'hare, waiting at the gate they kept on telling us that the inbound flight was delayed, they finallly had the ground crew bring over a spare plane for us to board, they started boarding the plane then stopped and we then had to wait almost an hour while they put an oxygen bottle on the plane for a sick child, they then boarded the plane, now almost 2 hours late. When they were to the point of closing everything up, a thunderstorm went through, and they had all of the ramp personell go indoors as not to be hit by lightning, after another 20 minute delay, we finally took off. Because of the delays in Denver I missed my connecting flight, when I got off of the plane I went to the counter and asked what I need to do to get a hotel room because of being stuck there. The counter person told me that the airline was not responsible to provide a room because the delay was caused by "weather", I told her about the oxygen bottle was the cause of the delay, and the pilot that was standing next to her said it was because of the bottle being placed was the delay, she said "sorry, but it shows as a weather delay" so I ended on getting a room for the night and called the airline the next day after finally getting home and they offered me a $50 voucher for towards another flight, the hotel room cost me $75, so I said that wasn't good enough, after being transfered to a supervisor I was told the same thing. After writing the CEO of the airline a nasty letter they said that they would give me a $75 voucher, I told them where they could put it and said that I would never fly their airline again, and will go out of my way to avoid them.

[JIMBO]

Flying from Sioux Falls, So. Dakota to Denver on May 22, 2005, I asked a United Airlines agent for permission to carry on an extra item (a cooler containing frozen So. Dakota pheasants!) and received verbal permission. However, when I reached the security checkin, a single employee (Moe Rieber) of a private security company (Globe Airport Security), who was acting as gatekeeper for the security area, refused to let me pass. I asked both this person and the TSA staff working adjacent to contact UAL to confirm my authorization, but they did nothing while giving me the impression that they were trying. They suggested that I go back to the UAL ticket counter myself to get an agent to come to the gate.
The inevitable result was that I missed my flight; fortunately UAL had another flight to Denver that I was able to catch. The local UAL manager had to escort me to the gate and authorize the Globe employee to let me pass. The scary thing is that a single dolt was placed in a position of authority to impede a traveler's progress despite an airline's authorization to bend their regulations. Altho Globe Security claimed that TSA insisted that their gatekeeper enforce "their" rules re number of carryon bags, TSA personnel paid no attention whatever to the number of carryons I passed through security. It is my understanding that these rules are imposed by airlines, not TSA, and that the airlines can authorize exceptions. Travellers, be alert if passing through Sioux Falls airport!

[snowbird_pg]

My airplane horror story: On a recent flight home I was treated to a seat with an armrest that would not raise. I am not a small person and have a mobility impairment. Getting into the seat was not a problem but getting out of it was a nightmare. The flight attendents were at a loss as to how to help me. I eventually(after all the passengers had already left) had to literally climb over the armrest to get on my feet. It was not an easy task and was very painful. From now on I will check the armrest before i sit down and request a seat change if it does not work.
snowbird_pg

[Jeanie821]

Two stories: First one was when we lived in OK and were coming home from a visit to PA. I forget which airline it was but I won't forget that we went through some terrible, frightening turbulence. The flight attendant was serving meals (that's how long ago it was!) and she'd gotten to our row when the bumpy ride became a roller coaster and the pilot announced that all flight personnel should be seated and secure all items. The woman threw a few meals at me because I was traveling with young children and rushed to lock up her cart and herself. A few rows behind us, a woman started screaming, "Hey, where's MY meal? I'm a diabetic and I NEED to eat NOW!" The stewardess told the screaming woman to shut up and sit down or she won't have to worry about getting another meal! I passed my tray back to her because I didn't figure my food was going to stay down. I think I kissed the ground once we were off the plane.
Story

Hi, Cruisin'cats...

Having once been married to a diabetic, the woman in question may have been going into insulin shock, or experiencing a drastic drop in blood sugar. Diabetics going into insulin shock can become quite agitated and do things that seem very irrational; sometimes it can be mistaken for drunkenness. You did the right thing by passing her your tray. However, she should have been carrying an emergency supply of sugar, such as glucose tablets or hard candies.

[prideoftheyankees]

Last November my wife and I were scheduled to take an americanAirlines flight from Newark NJ to Nassau Bahamas connecting in miami. We boarded the flight 30 minutes late only to be told that lightning was in the area and takeoff would be delayed. Then we were told that there was no fuel in the plane and takeoff would be delayed. Then we were told that the fuel was in the wqrong tanks and the plane was not balanced and they could not take off the gas cap. They called Houston and eventually we took off. we missed our connecting flight and we had to sleep on the flor of the Miami International Airport because there we no more rooms ,due to Hurricane Katrina, left in Miami.

[MaskedBlogger]

I was on a flight from Sioux Falls to Denver, it was one of those totally booked flights. I took my assigned seat on the aisle and there was already another female passenger sitting in the window seat. We both commented the maybe we'd get lucky and not have anyone in the middle seat. We thoughts we had lucked out because it was just about time to take off when this HUGE guy (about 6'2 and had to be at least 350 pounds) comes down the aisle...and yes he had the seat between the other woman and myself. I had to unbuckle and get up to let him in. He wedged himself between us and pulled up both armrests (we both ended up sitting in 1/2 of our seats). She was squished up against the window and I was squished against the aisle armrest. He couldn't even fasten his seatbelt. The flight attendent came by checking seatbelts and trays before takeoff, and never said anything to this guy. There wasn't another vacant seat on the plane so we had to fly from Sioux Falls to Denver like this. I ended up with a big bruise on the side of my left thigh from being pressed against the aisle armrest. I think the flight attendent chose to ignore the fact that he was unbelted and both armrests were up because the flight was already behind takeoff time. From now on, you can be sure, I won't ever allow that kind of thing to happen to me again.

[GenevieveS]

This just happened to me on Monday (I know we've all been there)

On a flight from Miami to New York, I sat in front of a drunk man (that was bad enough but I could get over it) who had the mopst horrible, disgusting cough I have ever heard. He hacked for more than three hours. I mean, he hacked. I thought he would lose a lung. Every time he would start it made my skin crawl. When the fasten seat belt light went off I lept from my seat and scrambled towards the door cutting off several rows of passengers. I just couldn't take it anymore.