Have you ever experienced a terrifying experience while flying?

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Denise O

Not exactly while flying but while landing. last year we flew down to Orlando Fl and as we approached the pilot informed us that we would be coming in for landing in approximately 15 minutes but as we neared the airport he picked up speed and altitude he did this about 3 or 4 times but no one knew what was going on so as you could imagine the entire plane went silent... and every one was wide eyed... finally he informed us that there was an indicator light on that indicated that one of the landing gear tires had gone flat so that our landing might be a little rough.. and he also informed us that there would be some fire trucks and ambulances awaiting the airplane... they were there for just in case... turns out the indicator was faulty and the landing gear was just fine...

papars

Narrated this often on YA Travel, but here it is once more.

The worst experience I had was while flying in Indonesia, from Batam, which neighbors Singapore, to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta in June 2006.

My local business contact in Jakarta had booked us on Wings Fly, a very very budget carrier, which is a division of another low cost carrier, Lion Air. As I boarded the aircraft- an MD-8 which looked straight out of the aerospace museum, I noticed that the red paint on its nose had chipped badly. Inside, the scene was even worse as the cabin appeared like the interiors of a rickety bus.

Somewhere at around 35,000 feet AGL, we hit a severe weather turbulence and the plane was shaking real bad. The seats were also making a creaking sound and I felt that the aircraft would be ripped apart anytime. Down were the seas that had once raged as the Asian Tsunami...so you can imagine my fright.

A few minutes into the turbulence, a female stewardess made an announcement in Bahasa Indonesia and some heavily accented English. Almost instantly, I saw other passengers reach into their seat pockets and draw out something to read...something alarmingly called 'Invocation Card', which had the Moslem crescent, Christian cross, the Hindu aum and some Chinese symbols printed on its front.

Curious, I pulled out the one from my seat pocket to and found it contained prayers. Moslem, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese prayers...all asking for God to guide our pilots, hold the aircraft safe, protect us from air crash, to bless friends and relatives awaiting at the destination and so on. The words..aircrash, death etc were repeated quite a few times.

Reading that and seeing some other passengers spread their arms in prayers....I just cant describe how terrifying it was, in plain words.

When we finally landed I the Soekarno-Hatta airport, Jakarta, I almost kissed the ground. And swore never to fly any of those Indonesian budget carriers EVER AGAIN.

BTW... I took the Invocation Card from the plane as a memento of this trip.

Psych0Bug

Well I wasn't scared but it was my first time flying.
And some electronice near the back of the plane caught on fire just as we landed.

speakingofwitch

yep...i had to fly through the same storm 3 times in one night...it wasn't so bad on the larger jet, (from FL to PA)...but then i had to turn around & get on a smaller plane & fly back through it (from PA to WV)...the, we got fogged out & couldn't land in WV, so we had to fly through it AGAIN to go back to PA to land. on the WV to PA leg, it was so rough they had to stop serving drinks, because the drinks were jumping up out of the cups, and the flight attendant fell into my lap. (did i mention this was only the 2nd time i'd ever been on a plane? yeah.) by the time we got back to PA, if i'd had the cash, i would've rented a car & driven the 5 hours home, just so i didn't have to get back on the plane again in the morning...but i had to sleep in the floor of the airport and get back on in the morning (i kissed the ground when i finally got back home, and i haven't flown since!)

Cabal

My plane tried to land on a motorway at night. The pilot realised the error as he was landing, with flaps and wheels down. The engines howled as the plane fought for altitude, we landed safely a few kms later on the runway. As I always look outside while landing and was seating behind the wing I saw it all. I clenched the arms of my chair so hard my fingers hurt.

fatkatn

Yes! On take off from Guam back to the Phillipines some years ago, there was a loud BUMP, the plane shook and we had to sit back down. I nearly peed my pants. We were stuck there for 2 days while they sent for a part. By the way, I still love to fly.

judapuh

No not really. Turbulence is about the "worst" I've ever faced...personally I love to fly. Well...there's always the time when someone uses the "lavoratory" for awhile, and then walks out and leaves the door open...for all of us in the plane to smell...

Steven H

No nothing terrifying so far. Just the normal turbulence and storms. Being a pilot myself I am almost certain one day I will be put in a bad situation but thankfully it has not happened yet as passenger or pilot.

xandi 1

yeah, the guy sitting in front of me smelled like a **********, Ihad to endure that smell for the whole flight

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