Ever had a fright on a flight?

Question

Ever have the plane run out of gas, cause bad weather prevented landing or mechanical problems?

Answer 1

Mm-hm. Flying commercial from Halifax, Nova Scotia into Toronto on a stretch DC9. Ontario and Quebec were socked in under fog, so the tower in Toronto was bringing planes in completely on instruments. After being in the holding pattern for about 20 - 30 minutes it was our turn to land. The plane touched down and you could feel the plane just begin to brake, when suddenly the engines SCREAMED with a surge of power and we were lifting off the runway again. Labouring to get off if the truth be told.

Being in a window seat ahead of the wing, I looked down to try to see anything, and saw the tail of an Air Canada 747 passing directly below us...we must have cleared that tail by about 10 feet.

The plane was put into the holding pattern again, to burn off fuel they said over the P.A. system. I think the pilot and co-pilot were just as freaked out by the near miss as I was, and needed that time to get up the courage to bring us back down again.

That near miss NEVER made the news at all. I laugh nowadays when they call 1/2 mile separation a "near miss".

Answer 2

October 1st 2001.
It was the day after my wedding and we had to take a ferry from Hyannis MA over to Nantucket Island. We got a phonecall early in the morning from the ferry operator telling us that the weather was so bad that all shipping had been canceled.
Well, we had a honeymoon to start so we drove down to Hyannis to see what we could do. We found the airport and learned that we could take a small prop plane to the island for not much money at all. It was the kind of flight service where they don't just weigh the luggage, they weigh the passengers too so they can figure out the safe laden weight for the plane and how much fuel will be needed.
That flight was the most scared I have ever been. The wind was so bad that the small plane was flying sideways for much of the flight, that pilot must have had the rudder all the way over compensating for the wind shear.
We was bumping up and down, wobbling all over the sky, you could hear the prop struggling...it was truly that bad. It was only about twenty minutes long, but it felt like a lifetime. I'm sure that my hair started going grey there and then

I made the vow there and then that if the weather is bad enough to stop shipping......then DON'T TAKE A SMALL PLANE INSTEAD!!!!!

Answer 3

I've been through an aborted flight, an aborted take-off, and an aborted landing. The worst was the flight that was aborted...not knowing what was wrong. Once we landed, they worked on the plane for nearly five hours after-wards, and I just prayed that we didn't have to get back on it. Finally they brought in a new one and no sooner did we get in the air and start out over the mountains, and we hit an air-pocket! At that point I think we ALL let out a squeal...even the men... as we were all on edge after a very long day.

Answer 4

No not yet. The worst so far is when we passed through an air pocket but the shake was not as bad as what my friend experienced. She was on this plane and they were serving spaghetti for meals and suddenly, yes an air pocket. They were shaken so hard that some of the sauce got splattered on the ceiling, then the oxygen masks went down. So whenever i am on a flight and there is an air pocket, i just try to remember my friends story so i wont get scared.

Answer 5

Was flying from Indianapolis to Los Angeles back in 1966 and we had a broken fuel line at 39,000 feet. Landed at an Air Foce Base in New Mexico, they fixed it and we were on our way. A 2hour and 55 minute flight turned into a 7 hour one.

The thing is, when they knew something was happening, the Stewardesses (that's what they were called back then) started passing out all the alcohol you wanted -- FREE. That's when I learned to love Bourbon.

I guess they figured if we were higher than the plane, we wouldn't feel it if we crashed!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Yep, flight from jfk to ohara. Landing gear did not fully retract. Circled out over lake michigan dumping fuel then landed safely on an emergency vehicle lined runway. All was o.k.

Another flight landing at Midway Chicago. I had taken roughly 5 hours single engine instruction. I didn't agree with how the plane driver made his landing approach. But since we landed shiny side up, I guess everything was o.k. Just my own white knuckled hysteria.

Answer 7

Worked at an aircraft facility for years. Took off from San Franciso once and the plane was struck by lightening--pilot came on and said, don't worry just a bit of a static discharge. Ha on that one. Sat in the aircraft in Salt Lake for 4 hours because they said there was a bad wiper on the wind screen--I finally asked the stew what was really wrong because the pilot could not see out of the windscreen anyway--she brought me 3 free drinks.

Answer 8

Yes. The plane had to make an emergency landing at an unscheduled airport because of some mechanical trouble and we had to come out through the emergency exit. Thankfully that was ages ago, but I still feel queasy about flying.

Answer 9

Once many years ago when flying out of San Francisco, the pilot came on the intercom while we were still parked at the terminal during a severe thunderstorm and asked if eight people would volunteer to take the next flight out, because the "sink rate" of the wings was increased due to excess water loading on the wings, and removing eight people were just enough to fly. We took every inch of runway to get airborne.

Answer 10

Yes, one time i was going to L.A. with my bro and my dad. After the plane took off , like we all heard an explosion on the left side of the plane. I think they said one of the engines blew up or something. I was so scared, i thought the plane was gonna crash. Then the plane turned around and we had to land. Last we got off the plane and switch planes. It turned out that the engine had something wrong.