What's your worst flying experience?

[Pax]

My worst experiences are trifle compared to most here. A crab-like landing in PE, some thunder storm turbulence several times flying into Jhb and Lanseria, a pilot dropping the plane hard onto the runway at Glasgow airport and screaming babies on an Emirates flight CT to Dubai (9hrs) are my meek bad experiences. I've had it mostly good.

 

[Rumple4skin]

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.

When was this, and on which airline?

Asking as out of all the wolhaar stories here, this one takes the cake by quite a margin.

 

[Lupus]

When was this, and on which airline?

Asking as out of all the wolhaar stories here, this one takes the cake by quite a margin.

Around 2005ish, maybe later and it was BA on an old 727

 

[Grant]

Trying to outrun a cyclone on my way from Cape Town to Reunion a few years ago in my TBM930.

same experience.
i used to fly between dbn and mauritius for school holidays every 3 months.
cyclone season - also trying to outrun the cyclone.
plane was bouncing about in the air.
what amazed me was the flexibility of the wings - the extent of the up / down travel - i was expecting one to snap off.
the mess inside the plane was quite spectacular.


another was landing in hong kong - furious cross winds.
the plane came down to the runway at what must have been 30degrees off the line of the runway.
at the very last moments the pilot managed to twist the plane back in line with the runway.
i think he may have put down the left side wheels onto the runway first - causing the plane to pull left and back in line with the runway - speculating on that tho.



**edit
fun at hong kong airport

 

[IamNoone]

Hit a potcrater with the motorcycle at about 70 and the flight was quick and OK but the landing was a b!tch.

 

[Mariner]

The second worst was on the Angolan border in a DC4 where half the tail was blown off by a missile. We landed safely.

Here's some pics of that incident:

 

[neoprema]

Can't believe my worst experience is worse than yours, given how you seem to live in the air :- o

Flying back to SA from Singapore, a massive thunderstorm right across the whole Indian Ocean. Wings of the 747-400 literally did flap, and without a break. About 10.5 hours!!



Thought I was going to become a

Argh no that would finish me lol.

 

[Grant]

and odd experience.
harare > jhb, on zimbabwe air (about 10yrs back)

going thru cistoms, the guy decides he wants to check my wallet - i hand it over.
inside there is a mix of notes: us dollars, uk pounds, zim dollars & zar - not of much total value, perhaps today a value of about R1000 or so.
the guy is slowly fiddling about with the notes and asking nonsensical irrelevant questions.
i soon enough i realise its game on - unless i give him the cash, he is going to delay me and cause me to miss the flight.
so i tell him i was running late, did not have time to exchange the currency - can i not just "surrender".
he looks at me, and with that removes all the cash and shoves it into a drawer.

of i go, into the lounge.
airport announcement - flight is slightly late.
half an hour later the plane pulls up from a hangar or somewhere - like a minibus taxi.
passengers are then hurried out the lounge, across the apron and to the plane - like herds of goats.

i'm in seat 1c - right up front, just behind the door.
next thing there is a commotion coming up the steps and into the plane - some youngish guy in handcuffs being pushed along by two other guys who turned out to be cops.
conversation goes down with the cabin crew, they then call the captain.
he appears, highly irritated, and looks at the passenger list - then peers into the cabin.
next thing he points to the seats behind me.

so now behind me is someone being extradited / deported, along with a pair of grumpy cops.
flight takes off, the guy then starts singing (pretty well), but clearly he is very drug fukked.
then he wants a drink - alcohol - cops refuse, and so the argument starts - turns out the guy is rather quick witted and pretty entertaining.
he is still insisting on a drink.
i turn to the cops and suggest for the peace and sanity for all on board, let him have a drink - in fact as many as he wants.
cops picks up the hint, let him drink until he passes out.
and so it begins, the drinks are coming and with each one he is flirting with the trolly dollys.
not sure how many he had - perhaps 5 or 6 within half an hour or so.
silence.

we are now approaching jhb - passengers are told to fasten safety belts.
guy behind me is out cold, trolly dolly fastens his belt and puts a few pillows on his lap.
passengers disembark.
eventually the cops arrive in the arrivals area, guy is in a wheelchair - out cold, legless !
no idea who he was, or what he did, but he provided some in-flight entertainment.

 

[Captain Slog]

In an Emirates Boeing 777, we were busy landing in Dubai, about 20 metres from the runway. Suddenly the plane went to full throttle and pulled up like a fighter jet, a nervous pilot announced a few seconds later that another aircraft had taxied onto the runway that we were about to land on. I nearly spilt my champagne!

 

[Ernabr]

Had the same experience with Saudi Airline. After that I decided not to ever fly with them.

Yeah, Saudi is the only airline that catches turbulence.

 

[Ernabr]

In an Emirates Boeing 777, we were busy landing in Dubai, about 20 metres from the runway. Suddenly the plane went to full throttle and pulled up like a fighter jet, a nervous pilot announced a few seconds later that another aircraft had taxied onto the runway that we were about to land on. I nearly spilt my champagne!

How did you have champagne available that close to landing?

 

[Brawler]

Nothing too special.
Around 2014 Dubai to Cape Town on a beautiful a340-500 that's cabin was in tatters. It was full, multiple seats around me were broken and the IFE was not working. Whats worse there must have been some u18 rugby tour or something so we were surrounded by 18 year old chops who hadn't bathed in about a week.

Edit: I am 99% sure this was not the scheduled aircraft. The flight was slightly delayed but we had to bus for 20 mins to the aircraft that was clearly still being "turned on".

 

[Captain Slog]

How did you have champagne available that close to landing?

Poetic license.

 

[JabiRider]

My first solo was one of my worst experiences...


At the flight school I attended, your own instructor cannot clear you for your first solo flight. You have to get another instructor to fly circuits with you, and only when they feel you are ready, will they send you on your first solo, with your own instructor standing next to the runway with a handheld radio.

I pitched at the airfield on the day I was to do my first solo. There was a heavy crosswind on the runway and the instructor flying with me wasn't confident that he could send me solo in these conditions. Nevertheless, we went up, and did an hour of circuits. I did well in the crosswind, but in the end, the instructor said that it wasn't safe to send me solo in those conditions. We made an appointment to try again the next day.

The next day, the conditions were the same. There was still a heavy crosswind. We did an hour of circuits again, and again, the instructor said that it wasn't safe to send a student solo with such a heavy crosswind. We made yet another appointment.

The following day I arrived at the airport and noticed the windsock looked exactly like it did the previous two days. I called my wife and told her that I probably won't solo again.

I got into the aircraft with the instructor and we started flying circuits again. There was an area in the circuit where the turbulence was really bad, and i started getting very nauseous. The instructor even asked if he should take control, so I could use the airsick bag, but I declined and swallowed it down. A few circuits later, the instructor said "Fancy having a go alone?". I just looked at him in horror. He said "You've been nailing these crosswind landings for three days now, I think you can go alone. Make a full-stop landing, drop me at the clubhouse and do your solo circuit."

I dropped him off and took off. I had cold sweat from nerves and nausea. I was literally swallowing vomit back. As I was climbing out after take-off, a call came over the radio for all traffic in the circuit to divert to another airport, as the runway was being closed due to the crosswind that was now blowing faster than the limit set out in the aircraft's manual. I started to panic, not knowing what to do. I've never felt so alone and helpless in my life. I really thought I was going to die. Then my own instructor's voice came in over the radio, telling the tower that he had a student in the circuit, doing his first solo, and that I couldn't divert. This gave me a bit of calm, and I proceeded to fly the circuit and do a perfect crosswind landing. As I got off the runway, I opened the door and vomited.

I walked with my instructor into the office and he told the chief instructor that I had done my first solo. The chief instructor didn't even congratulate me, he went off on my instructor for allowing me to fly in these conditions.

 

[Ernabr]

Here's some pics of that incident:

This is a DC-3, not a DC-4

 

[Stonemason]

This is a DC-3, not a DC-4

You are right. Officially it was a C-47 Dakota (or DC-3). It was a long time ago and at the time I have been a passenger in both. In fact, I now see that in the book The SAAF at War published in January 1989, the DC-4 was not even listed as an aircraft type in use by the Air Force. However, I know for a fact that they did use them and I have flown in them from Swartkop AFB in Pretoria. The brass usually used the DC-4's and the plebs the C-47's. In the missile incident, there was a number of senior officers on board and that is probably the reason why I remembered it as a DC-4

They also had a brand new Viscount those years with very few hours on it. That at a time when the Viscount fleet in the world had stopped flying 20 years earlier. I wonder what happened to that aircraft?

 

[Ernabr]

You are right. Officially it was a C-47 Dakota (or DC-3). It was a long time ago and at the time I have been a passenger in both. In fact, I now see that in the book The SAAF at War published in January 1989, the DC-4 was not even listed as an aircraft type in use by the Air Force. However, I know for a fact that they did use them and I have flown in them from Swartkop AFB in Pretoria. The brass usually used the DC-4's and the plebs the C-47's. In the missile incident, there was a number of senior officers on board and that is probably the reason why I remembered it as a DC-4

They also had a brand new Viscount those years with very few hours on it. That at a time when the Viscount fleet in the world had stopped flying 20 years earlier. I wonder what happened to that aircraft?

It crashed. A friend of my husband working in the aviation industry had a story about the incident, but I forgot what it was.

Viscount c/n 280 operational record

The Vickers Viscount Network is a Virtual Museum dedicated to the Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount that was powered by the revolutionary Rolls-Royce Dart gas-turbine engine.

www.vickersviscount.net

 

[LCBXX]

Sitting next to a woman on Emirates' 777ER, cattle class, who kept burping non-stop every 3-4 minutes, from JHB to Dubai.

The fsking smell...

 

[LCBXX]

2nd year varsity, first time smoking pappegaaislaai. Climbed a tree and thought I was Superman. Was not a great flying experience.

What kind of weed does this? Asking for a friend.

 

[Ernabr]

1. Flying el-cheapo from the UK to Johannesburg via Addis. The layover wasn't too bad, spent a fortune in a bar though. We hit serious turbulence not long before landing and then hail. The plane's nose looked like something from a WWII movie. We were literally green in the face. My father wasn't overly impressed meeting his future son-in-law smelling of vomit, sweat and booze...
2. Flying el-cheapo from the UK to Johannesburg via Abu Dhabi. Flight into Abu Dhabi was so late we missed our flight to Johannesburg, resulting in a 24 hour layover. The meal voucher we received was barely enough for a McD or KFC. At least there was a bar...
3. Flying from Singapore to Christchurch on a flight that departed 3+ hours behind schedule. There was a kid (guessed around 6/7) that screamed non-stop the entire flight - not a chance of getting some shut-eye! The airhostess gave us ice and water and we just about finished the bottle of duty-free whisky we bought for a host. We arrived seriously jet-lagged and under the weather.
4. Flying back to London just before Christmas 2013 Dad booked me in business class on BA. Taxiing to the runway the pilot failed to turn on the taxiway and the right wing hit a building. Stayed overnight in a hotel courtesy of BA and only left the next evening. Messed up our pre-Christmas plans in a big way. The fairly new 747 was scrapped.
5. Flying from Christchurch to Johannesburg via Sydney. (Bad part) Flight into Sydney was delayed. Kind airport security guy told us to follow him after he spoke to someone on the phone. We raced through parts of the the airport few people ever get to see to get us to the gate in time - I was literally sick from exhaustion. Arrived out of breath as the last 2 passengers to board. (Good part) Thanks to my husband's gold status she upgraded us to business class as the flight was overbooked in economy. The flight goes so far south we saw Antarctica!
6. Went to a varsity friend's wedding in Swakopmund. Return flight to Johannesburg fully booked. Only after takeoff were we informed that they had to leave some luggage behind as the plane would be too heavy to take off. Needless to say landing in Johannesburg our luggage was still in Walvis Bay. MAJOR fight at Airlink's counter about getting our luggage to London - our final destination. (They sent it at no cost in the end, Airlink FTW!!)