Flight Horror Stories

[leitmotif]

1992 or so Boeing set a 747 on jacks under wings to enable removal of landing gear. Had a windstorm, plane lifted off the jacks shifted a bit then came back down on the jacks punching holes in the wings. Until then no one thought you needed to tie down a 747.

We also had several boats in the marina yard roll out or off (?) of jack stands. Bent one mast.

Dan Bentler

 

[rwy34ils]

Toronto to Tokyo about 15 years ago. 3 hours into the flight, a lady is having chest pains---heart attack. The plane does an emergency descent into Edmonton, the nearest airport. Because the tanks are full for the long flight to Japan, they dump fuel all the way down and apply maximum brakes on landing. Paramedics take the woman away. Had to wait over an hour for the brakes to cool and to get re-fueled. Just as we are ready to leave, the door opens and in comes the woman "Hi everyone, it was just indigestion!"

 

[mordred]

try transporting x ray equipment via air the customs ppl typically hold it regardless if its going into the cargo hold or not. Tried getting a rush transport of an x ray tube from the states as soon as it reached The Canadian airport customs held it for 3 weeks

 

[Steve Bailey]

At the risk of sounding rude, both of rwy34ils' posts in this thread tax one's ability to suspend disbelief.

 

[leitmotif]

try transporting x ray equipment via air the customs ppl typically hold it regardless if its going into the cargo hold or not. Tried getting a rush transport of an x ray tube from the states as soon as it reached The Canadian airport customs held it for 3 weeks

I dont understand this. If they were sources of ionizing radiation I can understand customs being conservative.

As far as I know an Xray tube is not a source - until you energize it ???? Why would customs hold it for 3 weeks?

I have severe doubts about my ability to ever understand all this Homeland Security / Chicken Little stuff.
Dan Bentler

 

[rwy34ils]

At the risk of sounding rude, both of rwy34ils' posts in this thread tax one's ability to suspend disbelief.

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[mordred]

I wish I had an answer to that Dan or can say it was a one time event. This has actually happened on several occasions. With both Anritsu products and Loma products. One time they even held back a transducer which has nothing to do with an Xray machine

 

[Robobob]

Flight from Bristol England to Amsterdam over the North sea the day after a 100 MPH gale,in a puddle jumper. The winds were over 50 MPH on the ground then we left Bristol. The turbulence was horrible. The plane was pitching violently the whole flight over the North Sea. Half of the passengers were sick. The barf bags were full. I have to give the KLM pilot kudos for a wonderful landing in terrible weather.

 

[LadderLogic]

Back in 2002 I flew from Warsaw, Poland to Kiev, Ukraine - a short 1.5 hour flight in an old B737. When we approached the destination, a summer thunderstorm has covered the airport area - and would not move out.

For about two hours we were circling around; a couple of times the pilot was trying to descend, but had go up again: the turbulence was getting too violent.

Don't know how much longer could we hover around and if they considered an alternative landing place - after two hours we finally managed to land in one piece. The LOT pilot got his well-deserved applause.

 

[downey18]

I've got you all beat!

This is a story, I'm sad to say, I had a front row seat to. I was flying from Dallas to, I think, Phoenix and a very large gentleman was sitting on the inside seat while I had the window. I'm like the other poster where takeoff = fast asleep. However 30 minutes into the flight I was awakened to the sounds of horrendous vomiting. The very large gentleman next to me was puking violently into an airline vomit bag (which smelled like peanuts), while facing me. THEN, after his fits of puking are done, there is a smell of s**t that starts to fill the cabin. The poor guy actually puked so hard, he soiled himself.
So by now the flight attendants are aware of it and are helping him. Luckily he has a change of clothes in his carry-on. As he gets up to change I cannot begin to describe the smell, the amount of dry heaves, and coughing that began. While he is changing, the attendants are frantically scrubbing the overhead bins with some flowery stuff to try to cover the smell while another is changing out the seat cushion. The worst part is this poor soul had to sit in his seat for another 1.5 hours, or however long the flight was, with an entire plane full of people who wanted to strangle him.
I must have looked like I witnessed a train wreck when he left for the bathroom because a little old lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "are you ok dear?"

 

[Roy Matson]

Auckland to Vancouver, one of the newer planes I don't know which the entertainment center broke down. After several attempts the attendant came on and said we are on the phone to Rockwell to sort thew problem out.
I thought OMG, Rockwell software, I hope this is not fly by wire.

On more serious note I was just reading that several recent crashes have been atributed to the Pitot tube freezing up and the pilots/control system looses track of the speed. Pitot tube, in this day and age? We don't even consider them as a serious flow device. One crash was even blamed on the pilot forgetting to turn on the pitot tube heater.
Regards
Roy

 

[robertmee]

This is a story, I'm sad to say, I had a front row seat to. I was flying from Dallas to, I think, Phoenix and a very large gentleman was sitting on the inside seat while I had the window. I'm like the other poster where takeoff = fast asleep. However 30 minutes into the flight I was awakened to the sounds of horrendous vomiting. The very large gentleman next to me was puking violently into an airline vomit bag (which smelled like peanuts), while facing me. THEN, after his fits of puking are done, there is a smell of s**t that starts to fill the cabin. The poor guy actually puked so hard, he soiled himself.
So by now the flight attendants are aware of it and are helping him. Luckily he has a change of clothes in his carry-on. As he gets up to change I cannot begin to describe the smell, the amount of dry heaves, and coughing that began. While he is changing, the attendants are frantically scrubbing the overhead bins with some flowery stuff to try to cover the smell while another is changing out the seat cushion. The worst part is this poor soul had to sit in his seat for another 1.5 hours, or however long the flight was, with an entire plane full of people who wanted to strangle him.
I must have looked like I witnessed a train wreck when he left for the bathroom because a little old lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "are you ok dear?"

Yeah, that's bad...

 

[Lancie1]

Well one day he was off again from the uk and booked on a BA flight from heathrow, he managed to get a seat by the door near the front for more leg room.

This is a story, I'm sad to say, I had a front row seat to....

Those front row seats are in big demand. I remember getting a seat in the front row only once in my life. But another time on a Delta flight out of Atlanta, I did manage to book a seat over the wing, which also has more leg room on some planes. I was tired, sun-dried and wind-burned from a 2-week job in the Nevada desert, in pain from a pulled muscle in my right shoulder, and anxious to get home to a comfortable bed.

Imagine my surprise when the young ear-ring wearing steward comes up and says "you can't sit in this row, you have to be able to open the door in an emergency." I replied that I could certainly open the door in an emergency. He says but you have your right arm in a sling (which I did to relieve the pain of the shoulder). I pulled my arm out of the sling and waved it around and said, "yes, but my arm is not broken and I can still use it if I must". At which point his dark eyes bugged out and he took off up the aisle. About 10 minutes later these two very large men with guns and badges came onto the plane and said to me, "come with us. We are escorting you off the plane." Then they proceeded to throw me off the plane, and I found out later the steward thought that if someone was wearing an arm sling and didn't have a broken arm, that meant he was a terrorist threat. A medical doctor he was not.

I spent an angry, miserable time in the Atlanta airport, trying to find another flight on a different airline. I finally gave up and went on the next Delta flight (scrunched in a regular seat with my knees under my chin), but I have never flown on Delta since that time 7 years ago, and plan to not ever again. I never got any apology from Delta either. Apparently they thought the steward was correct in throwing me off the flight, instead of just plain old dumb.

 

[LadderLogic]

BTW, that's another of my pet peeves: more and more male flight attendants. No, I understand: it is equal opportunity and all; also, not every female flight attendant is actually pleasure to look at, it is a physically demanding job and so on, and so on...

But, I mean, come on.

 

[leitmotif]

Back in the days when ships were made of wood and manned by men of iron,,,,,,,,,

I know that equal opportunity and PC are all good things, but after sailing all over the Pacific Ocean canned up in a submarine with nothing but a bunch of men for 65 days, who the hell would not want to get on an airplane and be served by good looking women.

OOPS homo sapiens femalus non uglius - uhh is that PC??
Dan Bentler