Flights From Hell

Got a story?

http://travelskills.com/2017/02/09/uniteds-4-hour-flight-to-nowhere/

 

The one that immediately comes to mind is many years ago when I had to take a trip on short notice. The only seats available were center seats in the rear.

Then a couple with a baby came and sat on opposite sides of me. I asked if one of them if they wanted to switch with me, but noooooo, they wanted their assigned seats and to pass the child back and forth over be several times..

Fortunately it was a fairly short flight. I assume they booked aisle and window in the rear expecting a free seat inbetween.

 

Sock puppets would've been the logical next step!

RICHARD

 

That looks like my best Etch-A-Sketch artistry!

RICHARD

 

I was on a flight from Shanghai to Beijing that loaded up and left the gate. As soon as we left the gate, they announced that the flight was delayed due to weather in Beijing. We sat on the tarmac for 6 hours. That was not great.

 

Did they provide food and drink for you, WichitaMuskie?

RICHARD

 

You can find the exact (or at least close) flight patterns for just about anyflight online. When flights have these issues, it can get crazy.

 

I had to deal with extreme turbulence one time flying in to Springfield, MO
It was very similar to this clip. It lasted for about a minute, but it seemed forever.

 

I've never had any particularly bad experiences in the air, but on a trip home from Cancun several years ago we had a layover in Punta Cana. Apparently the charter company we booked with had booked a full flight from Punta Cana even though the plane was already half full. They let ALL the passengers on the plane before realizing that half the seats were occupied. So we sat at the gate in 90+ degree heat for 2 or 3 hours listening to dozens of passengers berate and even yell at the flight attendants because of the incompetence of coworkers whom they'd likely never met.

All the while, I had a 7 month old on my lap getting more and more agitated by the minute.

EDIT: This was early in our layover before the baby passed out.

 

That ain't right - in so many ways.

 

This was a domestic flight within China, so they fed us something, but I have no idea what it was.

 

That was just so if his dentist asked, "Have you been flossing daily, Stuart?" he could answer, "Why, yes I have, Doc!"

RICHARD

 

Flying over the storm that destroyed Joplin Missouri in an MD-88 was a less than pleasant experience.

 

I don't often laugh so hard that my belly jiggles around but this did it. Thanks Sonya!

 

I was routed way out over the gulf once getting from Destin to Houston (maybe Dallas). The idea was to avoid some nasty weather. I don't know that we avoided much. We were in a CRJ. It felt like a numbered ball in the keno cage. Screaming, praying, people hurling, oh joy. I turned up the tunes on my phone and wedged my knees (or I should say further wedged) into the seat in front of me. That was a crazy hour or so.

I had a kamikaze approach to PDX on the N-S runway -- yes, there is one of those -- shooting a gap in a horrific wind storm that then shut down operations for hours. We circled Adams and St. Helens for a while as the pilot plotted out if he could get us in instead of heading off to SEA like everyone else.

 

Providence to Chicago O'Hare: 13 hour flight.
Some quick highlights included:

• Ground Stop in O'Hare after we pulled back from the gate in PVD at 2pm. We sat for about 2 hours on the tarmac before taking off
• Circling O'Hare looking down on the extreme thunder storm below us
• After a couple of hours of circling, there was a very sudden hard right bank, followed by the engines suddenly kicking in full steam
• After about 20 minutes of this, the pilot announces that O'Hare is closed, and planes are being diverted to refuel. Our destination: Grand Rapids, MI. The pilot apologized for the hard turn and acceleration, but explained that fuel was first come, first serve, so he wanted to get there quick
  
• (at this point I plugged in my earphones: one of the channels was pilot-air control communications. Pretty sure they don't do this anymore, but was something I used to do when I could)
• Finding out that the Grand Rapids, MI airport closes at something like 10pm, so it's chicago air traffic that's coordinating all of the landings
• sitting on the tarmac in MI for a couple of hours until we got refueled, then got to take off
• Taxiing for takeoff, I saw so many planes around that not only was the tarmac full, but swear I saw some parked on grass
• Finally took off and got to land in Chicago
• This was my first trip to Chicago. We landed at 3am. Got to the hotel, ordered room service, went to sleep, then got two hours of sleep to make our 7am meeting
• Flew out at 4pm

Basically, I had no idea what Chicago was like until I went back for the first time this year (happened to be when the cubs won the World Series, which I got to celebrate at a bar near the stadium, so a much better experience)

 

Military flight, C-141 from Kadena, Okinawa to Elmendorf, Alaska after Vietnam tour. I see the crew chief hustle to the huge cargo door with a flashlight and inspects the door seals. He hustles back to the cockpit. He returns a few minutes later with the co-pilot. They both go back to the cockpit. The crew chief returns a few minutes later to talk to our C.O. C.O. passes the word that the hydraulics have failed on the cargo door and the only thing holding it on is air pressure. Tells everyone to relax, the door rarely falls off in these situations. Consequences of door falling off are left to our imaginations. Spend 6 hours daydreaming about being sucked out of plane into the North Pacific. Land at Elmendorf unscathed. Cheers are just as loud as when we took off from Phan Rang, Vietnam.

Red eye from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Less than 10 passengers on entire flight. I'm watching out the window when I see one of the port engines erupt in flame. Flame goes out after about 30 very long seconds. Stewardess informs everyone there is nothing to worry about. Except we are flying on 3 engines, my 17 year brain keeps repeating. Land safely in SFO and are surrounded by crash gear.

Within an hour of this, while futilely searching for the bus to Travis AFB, I fail to salute a General, who is also traveling to Travis. I am more scared now than I ever was on the plane. I open my mouth to apologize but nothing comes out. He just simply ignores me.

We finally make it to Travis. My cousin, an Air Force captain, picks me up and I spend the night at his house in Napa. He takes me to Travis the next morning and I am bumped from my original flight. The very next flight is a chartered Saturn Airlines DC-6, a four engine prop. It takes 36 hours to get to Kadena, Okinawa. Along the way, we have refueling stops in Hawaii and Wake Island. Must wait for low tide on Wake Island before we can take off.

Finally arrive at Kadena with no idea of where to go or what to do. Air Police Sergeant finally gets me a ride to Air Police barracks, which are a collection of quonset huts on a former SeaBee base. NCOIC demands my I.D. because he says I look like I'm 15 years old. Things finally return to a somewhat level of normalcy as my Air Force career begins in earnest.

 

Guessing I have been on 2,000 or more flights. The one and only VERY ROUGH flight. Enough that drinks hit the ceiling and were still dripping on arrival. During a period when thought the rough stuff was over, a guy goes to bathroom. Then we hit the shit again. By time he came out he was rather wet.... and guessing it was not from the faucet.

 

Once, many years ago, I was on a Republic flight from Vegas back to Houston.
Drinks had just finished being served and all of a sudden, the plane goes perpendicular & banks hard for about 3 seconds... drinks spill everywhere...overhead bins open and stuff tumbles about everywhere.
Pilot very quickly levels out & gets on the PA: "Sorry about that ladies & gentlemen. Came a bit closer to a private jet than we generally like to. Drinks will be on us for the duration of the flight."

...and, yeah - I did see the small, private jet zoom by when we were sideways.
Everything happened & ended so fast, I really had no time to become frightened....but I did enjoy the free cocktails for the remainder of the flight.