Worst Flight Nightmares

Y

Youngie

Well-known member
What's your worst flight nightmares?

I have had three with one that I would call a very close call... I was never a nervous flyer up until about 13 years ago... Now I hate it.


1. The last flight taking off from Jamaica as a Hurricane it... diabolical turbulence and crosswinds during takeoff and for the first hour of the flight until we broke free.

2. Landing at Bristol Airport.... the pilot slammed it down like he was landing on an aircraft carrier

3. (the close call) Coming back from Majorca into Birmingham in 2019 with Jet2.... I could feel the plane getting lower and slower as we came into land.. the pilot announced we were 10 mins out.... for me to look out the window and be looking at the tops of the trees getting very close and a realization we were too low to be 10 mins out. Que a panic look on my face and a few others I could see.

Next thing you know the pilot pulls up sharp and whacks the power on before we have 8 mins of panic as the plane is moved up and down continuously and the engine power is adjusted more times than i could count. before a heavy landing just inches onto the runway and bouncing the length of the runway.


Turned out it was a rookie pilot on his first approach to the airport and as jet2 informed us "made a slight error of judgement on his approach"

We all got £50 worth of vouchers by way of an apology.

What's your worst flight nightmares?
 
Coming back from Goa about 6 years ago with Lufthansa, during extremely high winds +80mph. Coming into both Frankfurt and Heathrow was fine till you dropped below the clouds and it was like being on a rollercoaster. People were crying and praying.

Worst was an Air India take off from Mumbai to Delhi. Flight was running late and the pilot turned onto the runway and put the burners on as the plane was still turning. Plane rolled violently from side to side all the way down the runway. It was genuinely terrifying. As soon as we were in the air it was okay but after landing on the ground I have never been so grateful and swore never to fly Air India again.
 
Wasn't the flying itself, more the on-board experience when sat in the exit row close to the khazis. A poor elderly lady had a massively explosive diarrhoea episode about an hour into a JFK to schipohl flight. The poor lady had to be helped out of the cubicle, covered in it, it was everywhere and she had the indignity of having to change into a KLM tracksuit type thing and the cabin crew had to do their best to clean both her and the cubicle up. It did not smell good, but thankfully she was ok, or at least not seriously ill

It was one of those incidents where they ask if there's a doctor on board, then after no response, if there's a nurse. Which my wife was, so ended up helping as best she could as nobody else came forward. We ended up getting moved to 1st class with more champagne than we wanted to drink, but they gave us half a dozen little bottles to take with us, plus a bag of miniatures
 
A mate of mines Mam was due to have her 60th and had never been on a plane before. She had read Prague was nice so it was decided they would have a long weekend there. Flight from London takes a couple of hours but after about 45 minutes longer than expected and they were still at 10,000ft. Over the tannoy they hear, Is there a doctor on board? Followed by, Is there a pilot on board? Lots of worried passengers and as they came into land they could see a lot of emergency vehicles along the runway so people were praying, crying etc. It was a Boeing and the passengers were all told to assume the brace position with a women’s voice repeating Brace, Brace, Brace as they approached the runway. Landed fine and apparently one of the pilots had had a heart event, plus the light that confirms the landing gear is locked was not working so they needed the doc to check the pilot and another pilot to go into the planes body to manually check the landing gear. They got a train back.
 
Flying back from tenerife with a brutal hangover 20yrs ago, hit a thunderstorm above the alps, rows of heads jolting side to side in unison to the turbulence with cabin lights flickering on and off, fear of flying began.

Landing in Medeira, bumpy approach, just about to touch down when crosswind caught the plane, one wing tip about 10ft off the tarmac, the other pointing to the sky. Cold sweats and applause upon landing.

Return flight from Greece, taking off one engine roaring, the other engine sounding like a buckled rover metro, whole way back the engine sounding like it was going to implode, panic attack ensued, upon landing and disembarking an airport engineer pulled up and began to pour 10 litres of oil into the noisy engine.

I'm not a good flier 😔
 
Erimus74 said:
I just don't like flying full stop, infact I would sooner never step on a plane again

Not a good flier
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Same with me, I hate it, but if I want to go places, I need to. A few stiff drinks are a prerequisite.

I'm giving serious deliberation to getting the Eurostar to Bourg St Maurice when I go Skiing so I can at least do that without flying.
 
I’ve never understood nervous flyers I love it and always have

I love the the fact you step into a metal tube and in 12 hours later you are in a totally new world, new culture.

it’s an incredible invention.

I’ve had some no moments as well took off in thunder storm in Bangkok at night, fog bound landings and even a lightning strike in the engine on a 777 in arrival into schiphol losing an engine.

but modern aircraft are amazing things and it takes a lot (terrorism aside) to bring one down, look at the recent incident where the engine all but imploded mid flight en route to Hawaii but they all made it back safe.

there are literally millions of flights across the globe (or were) and yet how many disasters are there.

Planes are by far the safest form of travel there’s ever been.

I can’t wait till I’m back on one ✈️
 
I usually love flying and Covid willing I have a long haul and a short haul awaiting me this year!
The only real bad experience I have had is coming from Girona to Liverpool on Ryanair. We didn’t know but John Lennon airport had actually been closed because of high winds. That didn’t stop the plucky low cost Irishmen taking off. Landing in high winds and looking down the runway out of the window as we come in to land sideways is something I’ll never forget.
Slightly less dramatic but I have the smallest bladder known to medical science. On a flight back from New York the seatbelt sign was on for practically the duration of the flight. I did NOT like that eventually I had to ask if I could use the skykhazi despite the signs being on. The flight attendant said “well, if I don’t see it I can’t tell you off “ then went behind the curtain” I could have kissed him!
 
I've been very lucky in that I've done a good number of flights, both long and short haul, and whilst I've experienced some pretty bad turbulence and a few ropey take offs and landings, I've not been put off. For the last 15 years I've never flown without my wife next to me, so if something horrific does happen, it happens to us both
 
Erimus74 said:
I just don't like flying full stop, infact I would sooner never step on a plane again

Not a good flier
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Did you not go to any European games away then? What a bummer.

have experienced planes getting the landing approach wrong quite a few times iver the years and then pulling up out of it.

Heavy turbulence is not pleasant especially over south Asia. Can be a roller coaster ride at times.
 
I feel as though I've led a very sheltered flying life after reading this thread!

Felt so sorry for the lady on that JFK/Schiphol flight. You'd just want the earth (albeit it miles below) to open up and swallow you.
 
jeff_potato said:
I feel as though I've led a very sheltered flying life after reading this thread!

Felt so sorry for the lady on that JFK/Schiphol flight. You'd just want the earth (albeit it miles below) to open up and swallow you.
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It was awful Jeff, she was with family too but they seemed very disinterested to be honest which made it all the sadder. I really felt for her
 
I'm the least nervous flyer you could imagine, but I've taken a decision not to fly for environmental reasons and haven't flown anywhere since Stuttgart. I think it was then that I realised I could have done it by train and wished I had. Rail travel is much more pleasurable anyway. I've reached Poland and Czechia by train and hope to go further when circumstances allow.
 
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