Bad Airline Experiences

nothing could be worse then economy in a 130 , went on a round the world trainer flight twice in a 130 , I slept on the back seat of the Squadron van .....lots..... as the the window seat sucks ....

True Les, the only thing better then a dumb terrorist is a dead one.

Its a story that I have mentioned before so forgive me those who have heard it. It happened at work back in the mid 70's when the cold war was pretty cold. A guy I work with had to go to China on business which was pretty unusual and then had to go to a province within China that was almost unheard of.
For the internal flight back to Nanking a Trident was brought up to the terminal. There was a lot of activity then it was towed away and he was told that there would be a delay as the plane was broken. An old prop aircraft was brought up, there was more activity and this was towed away and the Trident was brought back to the terminal. His 'Guide' told him that the flight would be taking off shortly, when he asked about the aircraft he was told that they would be going in the Trident as it was less broken than the second aircraft.
He didn't ask what that meant but it was the longest short haul flight of his life.

So I think the moral of the story is don't fly on China airlines, from the stories I heard.

We were coming back from vacation once from Aruba. We were probably an hour or so into our flight over the Gulf of Mexico and I don't know what happened, but it sounded like the engines just shut off and we dropped like a rock. Flight Attendants were diving for their seats. I'm only guessing but we probably dropped for 500-1000 feet maybe.

Then the engines spooled back up and we flew on. Made it home with no further problems but that flight scared the crap out of me.

Wife and I decided to hit Portland Oregon for vacation in December of '07. When she first broached the idea of Portland, I laughed, knowing what the weather was going to be like at that time of year...until a quick Google search pulled up the Evergreen Air Museum (Evergreen Aviation Space Museum). We had a brief layover in Salt Lake City, then on to Portland. About thirty minutes out of SLC, the pilot came on and reported other pilots complaining about the turbulence near Portland, and so he put on the seatbelt sign just as a precaution. Come to find out, a storm system was just blowing through Oregon, with gusts topping out at 129mph (saw some of the coast later, and whole stretches of forest looked like Mt. St. Helens had erupted again...trees snapped off, blown over, etc). The approach and landing were more along the lines of a roller-coaster designed by a crack addict on a nine-day RedBull bender than anything resembling a smooth ride. The pilot did a superb job despite the weather, in my opinion. What made the whole trip worse was the fact that a friend I worked with sent me a link to a Youtube video of planes landing in the worst crosswinds possible (airport in NZ, I believe it was?)....with every bounce, both myself and my wife cursed his name....

Youtube video of planes landing in the worst crosswinds possible (airport in NZ, I believe it was?)....

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aah, that'll be Wellington. The only place I've approached at 110 kts (in a cherokee) and still landed and taxied off in under 500m.

Nope, but then again:
My flight experiences are limited...to a holiday in Sicily when I was 14 years old (Copenhagen-Catania and back), a flight in a small sports plane when I was a kid (- a short sightseeing trip at the local airfield), and a flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen a few years ago.
No problems experienced on any of those trips, all went as it was supposed to do, smooth and nice.
I've had bus rides that was worse!
For example:
The bus trip from Catania to Taormina on Sicily: Narrow mountain roads - and a bus driver who seemed to think that he was Niki Lauda!

lesofprimus said:

Thats great Matt, I love it....

I had so many bad moments on airplanes, Ive just about lost count....

Had a front gear collapse on landing into Sigonella, had an engine disintegrate during flight on the way to Orlando, engine ingested an Albatross in Greece, and got shot down in Somolia while strapped into the back of a CH-47...

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When was a CH-47 shot down in Somalia?

Mine are very mundain compared with the **** you guys have had. Futura air (spanish bucket airline) lost brakes landing at Gatwick bounced 30feet on touchdown and had the fire crews doing their thing on the gear.
First flight in a Cessna and the rear seat moved revelling a bloody great hole in the fuslage.Yugoslavia VC10 swung round too close to the then ramshackle terminus building at Pristina and blew the corregated roof off which i was in at the time.
Only Parachute drop I did missed the DZ and ended up in a pig farm. what you could call a real crap PLF.

I love your last one, Trackie.