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Question of the Day: What is the ultimate French toast topping?
What's your worst flying experience?
- Thread starter BCoetzer
- Start date
theratman
Honorary Master
Have had many bad experiences with cancelled flights, stuck in terminal for 24+ hours etc but one or 2 stand out.
One was a TA flight from Cologne to Istanbul, and the German security was striking. All the other flights were cancelled except for TA, they told everyone the flight was going ahead as usual.
Spent about 8 hours standing / sitting in a line for security, one that wasn't moving. Then eventually TA decide to cancel the flight, chaos ensued with the entire flight lining up to see the 2 desk agents that could help.
People fainted in the line, paramedics were called etc. Utter chaos. Spent a few hours in that line to be told come back tomorrow to get rebooked. They handled the situation incredibly poorly.
Other notables were being stuck in the Eurowings terminal in Cologne for a flight to Namibia, think we were there for around 24 hours before they let those who could leave out. Some poor souls on visas (so they couldn't leave the terminal) were stuck there for 2 days iirc.
Think I have about 8 to 10 more similar experiences, haven't had a bad one for around 2 years now fortunately.
I also no longer fly internationally through Cologne.
Bad experiences during the flight itself are fortunately very few, mostly light turbulence, annoying passengers, being stuck on a runway etc.
One was a TA flight from Cologne to Istanbul, and the German security was striking. All the other flights were cancelled except for TA, they told everyone the flight was going ahead as usual.
Spent about 8 hours standing / sitting in a line for security, one that wasn't moving. Then eventually TA decide to cancel the flight, chaos ensued with the entire flight lining up to see the 2 desk agents that could help.
People fainted in the line, paramedics were called etc. Utter chaos. Spent a few hours in that line to be told come back tomorrow to get rebooked. They handled the situation incredibly poorly.
Other notables were being stuck in the Eurowings terminal in Cologne for a flight to Namibia, think we were there for around 24 hours before they let those who could leave out. Some poor souls on visas (so they couldn't leave the terminal) were stuck there for 2 days iirc.
Think I have about 8 to 10 more similar experiences, haven't had a bad one for around 2 years now fortunately.
I also no longer fly internationally through Cologne.
Bad experiences during the flight itself are fortunately very few, mostly light turbulence, annoying passengers, being stuck on a runway etc.
Last edited:
Moosedrool
Honorary Master
Kid crying for 11 hours to schiphol.
My parents were boarding their flight in Istanbul when the coup started. The were forced to disembark and hide under chairs and in corners for the rest of the night in the airport, while gunshots and bombs were going off. In the morning, once things had settled down, they were stuck in the airport for a few hours till finally they were allocated a hotel room for a night or two and added onto another flight back to JNB.
Trying to get a hold of them during those 48 hours was extremely tough.
Trying to get a hold of them during those 48 hours was extremely tough.
Poor man's business class.
Getting on a plane having had no sleep and incredibly hung over. Couldn't get to the toilet and had to throw up in that little bag they give you. That was not fun.
Only consolation was
Only consolation was
- they let us on the plane in the first place - they very nearly didn't
- the guys next to me were as hung over as me, so we only irritated each other and didn't really impact anyone else. Well I'm sure we did but I mean would've been worse if they were sitting right next to us
Lupus
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Flight back from Durban. Coming into JHB international still at the time, massive storm over Edenvale, weather is intensely bad, as we start descending the plane just hits an air pocket and starts dropping like a stone. I'm looking out at the wing and it's flexing in ways you'd expect a yoga instructor to know how but never actually try.
The plane makes a sudden bump as if it's hit something and in doing so the whole fuselage sways left and right to the extent that the pilots door burst open and the noise of all the warning alarms and stuff was the only other noise we heard throughout the plane.
The air masks dropped, the pilot seemed to wrangle us out of whatever we were in and we steadied out, the stewardess ran to go close the door between, we all made a sigh of relief until the plane veered sharply to the right and swung back the other way almost as quickly, looking out the window I just saw dark thick black cloud. We recovered, eventually we are stable and continue to circle around the airport and than the news from the pilot we have to divert back to Durban as they cannot take us.
So we fly back to Durban, pilot never takes us above 15 000 feet, as we come into Durban what do we see a massive storm blowing in from the ocean, pilot goes over the intercom and just tells us to brace cause he has to land, we're out of fuel and we have no choice.
He comes in from the ocean somehow managing to keep the plane straight, I am peaking up now instead of bracing, looking out the window, we hit the tarmac, in the window there are just rainy reflections of emergency vehicles chasing the plane as we start aquaplaning on the runway, at one point it felt like the plane was facing the airport instead of the end of the runway. You could hear tyres trying to grip, pilot was trying to slow us down with reverse thrusters by the sounds of it as the engines were screaming.
Plane swings back to normal direction I don't see the terminals anymore and the water does seem to have subsided a bit, the plane comes too a sudden halt as if it got grip again and we started slowing down nicely. We stop finally, outside there are all the emergency vehicles waiting and they've got the stairs to come to the door. We file out, upon checking we were very very close to the end of the runway, just a few meters more and the plane would've hit the end of it.
Quickest I've ever seen pilot and crew go to the bar
, but come to think of it a lot of us did too. Airline arranged a flight back, a lot of the passengers didn't want to fly straight afterwards. I was like hey what's the worst that can happen, I rallied some of the people to get on the new plane, for that I was bumped to business class, sadly for only like a 15 minute flight. But on the way back second time mild turbulence was all we had.
Oddly enough the plane was dead quiet through it all, besides the plane noises and the groans and creaks, maybe some muffled prayers here or there, but not like the movies, no screaming at all.
The plane makes a sudden bump as if it's hit something and in doing so the whole fuselage sways left and right to the extent that the pilots door burst open and the noise of all the warning alarms and stuff was the only other noise we heard throughout the plane.
The air masks dropped, the pilot seemed to wrangle us out of whatever we were in and we steadied out, the stewardess ran to go close the door between, we all made a sigh of relief until the plane veered sharply to the right and swung back the other way almost as quickly, looking out the window I just saw dark thick black cloud. We recovered, eventually we are stable and continue to circle around the airport and than the news from the pilot we have to divert back to Durban as they cannot take us.
So we fly back to Durban, pilot never takes us above 15 000 feet, as we come into Durban what do we see a massive storm blowing in from the ocean, pilot goes over the intercom and just tells us to brace cause he has to land, we're out of fuel and we have no choice.
He comes in from the ocean somehow managing to keep the plane straight, I am peaking up now instead of bracing, looking out the window, we hit the tarmac, in the window there are just rainy reflections of emergency vehicles chasing the plane as we start aquaplaning on the runway, at one point it felt like the plane was facing the airport instead of the end of the runway. You could hear tyres trying to grip, pilot was trying to slow us down with reverse thrusters by the sounds of it as the engines were screaming.
Plane swings back to normal direction I don't see the terminals anymore and the water does seem to have subsided a bit, the plane comes too a sudden halt as if it got grip again and we started slowing down nicely. We stop finally, outside there are all the emergency vehicles waiting and they've got the stairs to come to the door. We file out, upon checking we were very very close to the end of the runway, just a few meters more and the plane would've hit the end of it.
Quickest I've ever seen pilot and crew go to the bar
, but come to think of it a lot of us did too. Airline arranged a flight back, a lot of the passengers didn't want to fly straight afterwards. I was like hey what's the worst that can happen, I rallied some of the people to get on the new plane, for that I was bumped to business class, sadly for only like a 15 minute flight. But on the way back second time mild turbulence was all we had.Oddly enough the plane was dead quiet through it all, besides the plane noises and the groans and creaks, maybe some muffled prayers here or there, but not like the movies, no screaming at all.
Was on a flight to PE and we could not land due to extremely bad fog. The pilot tried to descend multiple times but we just could not see the ground. After multiple attempts, the flight was diverted to EL airport. We sat in the plane, on the tarmac for 3 hours before flying back to PE. Only landed after midnight.
Sinbad
Honorary Master
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Gatwick to Joburg on Air Gabon.
Got on the flight at Gatwick at 9pm. This was the final leg of a flight from somewhere to Brussels via LGW. The plane absolutely stank of unwashed bodies...
Land in Brussels - 2 hour layover, the airport is basically closed. No shops, no vending machines, nothing.
Lift off on at least a clean plane, land at Libreville.
Have to deplane and go through a security check to get on another plane. Absolute chaos in the airport, temp in excess of 30 degrees, and people in that part of the world have zero concept of personal space...
Lift off from Libreville, land in Brazzaville. Fortunately, we could stay on the plane as guaranteed it was a lot more pleasant than the airport. Finally, from Brazzaville to joburg was relatively pleasant.
But jesus, never again.
Got on the flight at Gatwick at 9pm. This was the final leg of a flight from somewhere to Brussels via LGW. The plane absolutely stank of unwashed bodies...
Land in Brussels - 2 hour layover, the airport is basically closed. No shops, no vending machines, nothing.
Lift off on at least a clean plane, land at Libreville.
Have to deplane and go through a security check to get on another plane. Absolute chaos in the airport, temp in excess of 30 degrees, and people in that part of the world have zero concept of personal space...
Lift off from Libreville, land in Brazzaville. Fortunately, we could stay on the plane as guaranteed it was a lot more pleasant than the airport. Finally, from Brazzaville to joburg was relatively pleasant.
But jesus, never again.
Bigjay84
Expert Member
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Left San Fransisco on the first plane out at 05h45 flew to New York, then spent 12 hours there because the flight to London as cancelled because of snow in the UK. Arrived in the UK then still had an hour on the tube to the train station and then 2 hours on the train north, fell asleep and missed the stop had to come back, worst trip of my life
WollieVerstege
Expert Member
Trying to outrun a cyclone on my way from Cape Town to Reunion a few years ago in my TBM930.
Last month we went from OR Tambo to Margate airport, extremely bad wind that day, pilot said the gusts where 110KM/h and he has never seen that at Margate before.
Food trolley came out from its storage place and fell over, pilot tried a landing once and then said nope, going to King Shaka.
Cemair organised a bus for the passengers to margate.
Food trolley came out from its storage place and fell over, pilot tried a landing once and then said nope, going to King Shaka.
Cemair organised a bus for the passengers to margate.
Moosedrool
Honorary Master
Customs in SA was also super confused at what a xbox original is when I landed. This is before the 360 and wasn’t super popular in SA.
I have yet to have a bad experience
Jean Claude Vaaldamme
Honorary Master
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2nd year varsity, first time smoking pappegaaislaai. Climbed a tree and thought I was Superman. Was not a great flying experience.
SauRoNZA
Honorary Master
I’ve had some crazy turbulence or rather air pockets on a flight back from London to Cape Town with Virgin Atlantic where my wine literally went up in a stream in the air as the plane dropped and I had to catch it.
But even that wasn’t bad just a bit of fun compared to the local Cemair air flight I had sitting right at the back where I swear the pilot was whacking his foot on the rudder in some kind of spasm response because it was the closest I’ve ever come to hurling on a flight. And every noise the plane made I thought it was going to fall apart.
But even that wasn’t bad just a bit of fun compared to the local Cemair air flight I had sitting right at the back where I swear the pilot was whacking his foot on the rudder in some kind of spasm response because it was the closest I’ve ever come to hurling on a flight. And every noise the plane made I thought it was going to fall apart.
