After landing in London, we sat dead on the runway for 2 hours while firemen walked around on the wing to ensure that we wouldn't explode if we taxied to the terminal.

People were FREAKING OUT at first, then we just all got really sweaty and grumpy with no AC/bathrooms

is more dangerous than evacuating it. An engine fire isn't usually a danger to passengers because there are systems on the aircraft that allow the crew to extinguish the fire and shut off fuel valves. The fire personnel will always show up to be sure the fire is out, but most of the time the airplane's engine fire suppression system will take care of the problem.

On the other hand, evacuating from an emergency exit and going down the slides guarantees that at least a few passengers will get hurt. The slides are very steep, you go very fast, and it's hard not to tumble in a heap when you arrive at the bottom. I've been down those slides (A-330 and 727) and it's damn scary. Somebody is going to break an ankle, at least. So evacuation is pretty much a last-ditch decision.

I think it would be a blast to go down the big yellow bouncy slide.

And you can get rug burns on your elbows.

Lucky, too.....

Of course it's even worse if you don't immediately get to a standing position and land on your tailbone instead. Had to actually intentionally blow one ( inflate it ) for an ops check and I couldn't resist sliding down it. I'm very sorry I did because my ass landed on the concrete hangar floor AND burned my elbows.

always see first when there are troubles

the plane flew over a rainbow. That was a fantastic sight. I wanted to break out and sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."

I think in 1980, flying on SW in a 737. As I recall, there were thunderstorms around Houston, and I guess in our flight path to Hobby (south Houston.) So, we went around, and presumably under! I say we were under the storms because at one point I swear we were no more than a few thousand feet up, over countryside, and bouncing all over the place. It was 'fun' but scary.

A spare engine was being delivered to Hawaii from San Francisco. The jet engine was lashed under the wing. After taking off, the jet engine started knocking around like it was coming loose. I was happy when a decision was made to return to SF. United promptly put me on the next flight to Hawaii, sans the jet engine.

My stewardess friend (United) said it wasn't common, but she saw it too. I'd be happier if the engines were shuttled on the wings of cargo planes.

Honest to gawd, the plane was SO small the luggage was in a plastic bubble hanging off the under side of the plane. We hit "some turbulance" and we could hear alarms going off behind the curtain between the pilot and the passengers. The plane would be flying along and then it'd feel like it just dropped about a mile. I have never been that scared on an airplane before or since. I have refused to use commuter flights since that trip.






Laura

The stall horn goes off quite often in turbulence in my plane. It's not a big deal. Flying at low altitude, turbulence is pretty common, especially in the summer when there's lots of convective currents. I've flown for hours in turbulence with the plane getting tossed around like a rag doll. It's especially bad in the southwest part of the US where there's lots of hilly and mountainous terrain.

In the summer, usually flying early in the morning is the best time for smooth air. I usually try to leave at first twighlight and get to where I'm going by noon.

'circling'...I had no idea..but the man next to me 'wondered why' we were circling...thought he was an experienced traveler? ....I do believe that was when I obtained my claustrophobia and anxiety attacks.

It doesn't happen as often as say 20 years ago or before because the FAA is much better at flow control. If they know you're going to be delayed at your destination, they just hold you from departing which saves on fuel that would otherwise be spent circling. It can still happen today if unplanned events happen like a plane blows a tire on the runway and they have to tow it off or the weather is not as forecasted.

We were bouncing around like crazy. I was sitting next to a guy in the Air Force, so I kept glancing over at him to see if he was panicking, LOL! He stayed calm though, so that helped calm my nerves a bit.

in a single-engine airplane. The power failure wasn't complete so I was able to keep the thing in the air (it couldn't climb at all) and bring it back to the runway, but it scared the crap out of my student. I wasn't too thrilled, either.

I'd say you beat the odds on that one.

I've lost electrical power a couple of times. I've had a couple of tires blow. I've been stranded a few times with a plane that wouldn't start or wasn't airworthy. I had a brake failure on one side. It could have been worse than a total brake failure but I realized it pretty quickly on landing and had plenty of runway. I lost my airspeed indicator on my 3rd solo flight as a student pilot. I had a big oil leak that threw oil all over the windshield, but fortunately I was right over an airport. I had a valve stick on a cylinder. I've had a couple of icing encounters, but they were fairly minor. A frosted over windshield was the worst of it.

an airspeed indicator failure, a radio failure (light gun signal time), and then there was the time the transponder caught fire and I had to shut off the master switch (light gun signals again), a directional gyro failure at night over an unpredicted overcast (had to get no-gyro directions from ATC), several bad transponders, and a few more little odds and ends. The airplanes get a little beat up at a flight school, so when your students aren't trying to kill you, the airplanes are.

Fortunately I haven't had to work as a general aviation CFI for awhile.

My plane is 40 yrs old, but I keep it well maintained. I don't fly that much in the soup, but I have two AIs, one electrical and one vaccum, which is comforting. I lost my alternator once while I was in marginal VFR between the Big Horn mountains and a thunderstorm. ATC was more worried than I was. I had an extra comm antenna with a connection for a portable radio installed. I've done the light gun thing before and would rather not again.

I don't remember where it was, but it looked great.

there were a few memorable flights. I'd say the most beautiful was going the polar route to London from L.A. and the pilots let me sit up in the cockpit to watch the Aurora Borealis show. It was breathtaking.

Two of the scariest: from Kansas City to St. Louis and the we were in a thunder storm we could not get up the entire flight (even though it was short, it was terrifying). There would have been broken bones if we had.
Another was from D.C. to San Francisco and we lost the hydrolics on one of engines and the pilots told us to prepare for an emergency landing. We ended up being alright but everyone was scared. Another flight from San Francisco to D.C. and one of the windows cracked. Luckily we had space to move the to others seats and the window made it.

Doesn't get much more eventful than that.

It was at night and I had already diverted once to get around a pop-up thunderstorm. Another one popped up right in front of us and we diverted again to get around it. In the process we got very close. We were looking down watching the lightening strikes. They were so close we could clearly see the electrical transformers blowing down below us and we heard the static on the radio as each strike was occurring. They seemed as if they were so close you could reach out and touch them.

of course we got diverted to a closed airport since they probably thought we were going down...long story...and it wasn't even my most eventful flight

let me tell you about the nixon masks...or let me just admit that i must fly too often if being "hijacked" or struck by lightning doesn't even rate as the most colorful flight

I had to spend the night, but I was expecting I had to before I left LA and I got there. So I get to the hotel in North Carolina (flying US Airways) and I discovered that the hotel they put me in had a bar. So I'm in my room - bored as shit, so I go down to the bar to have some beers. And I get in the bar, and I'm staring at the beer menu for like two hours wondering what the joke is.

This was the beer list:

"Domestic:

Coors Light
Bud Light
Miller Light

Import:

Samuel Adams
Killian's Irish Red
Yuengling Lager
Fat Tire"

So let me get this straight - the beers that they have listed as imports are brewed in Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Ft. Collins.

And then I started talking to two guys who were sitting at the bar across from me and they were going to Houston and they had stepped outside for a smoke, and by the time they got back the TSA had gone home for the night.

Needless to say that was a very weird chain of events.

He went into atrial fibrillation mid-flight when his pacemaker conked. Ironically he, and the son who was flying with him, were/are thoracic surgeons. My b-i-l literally had to use the inflight defibrillator on his own father while they diverted for the nearest airport.

I'm kinda glad I wasn't on that one. Btw it's now about ten years later and he's still kicking ass at 88.

I fed my toddler purple grapes to keep her occupied. A LOT of purple grapes. A couple hours into the flight she barfed them up all over my shirt. Traveling 8 more hours in purple stinky vomit was probably the low point of my flying adventures.

One time the pilot broke in on the PA system and said that the engines were spitting out fire and we were all going to die, despite being too young and too pretty to die and...

Oh no, that's right, that was an Albert Hammond song.

on a smaller plane. The flight attendant Bernie said she would not be serving drinks. Everyone on the plane protested this development. Then someone in the small first class area pulled back the curtain to show off their drink. He then picked up a big clear plastic bag filled with little bags of peanuts and started tossing them to the rest of the plane. Bernie then announced she would serve drinks after all. The whole plane cheered and started singing, "Bernie Bernie you so fine, you so fine you blow my mind, yay Bernie. Everyone was served drinks and sang all the way back.

If that had happened now, everyone would have been arrested.

I had a memorable flight going from Misawa to Narita in Japan where we hit turbulence so bad the orange juice that was being served ended up everywhere including the ceiling. The service was stopped and the flight attendants had to strap in for the rest of the trip it was so bad. My poor cats were in the cargo hold. It was awful.

The pilot announces he's not rated for ILS landings. As the only passenger (besides a load of fish) I'm in the co-pilot seat and try to talk him through it from my experience with Flight Simulator but he's simply not grasping the concept. We diverted to another airport and they sent a truck

I should have known there was going to be trouble. When we started the flight he was confused about which airport he was at.

1. Engine power loss on takeoff. The CFI took control of the C-150 and nursed us around the pattern at FTY. Parked the plane and called it a day.
2. First solo XC, first leg. A flight of four F-4 Phantoms flew underneath me, opposite direction. There and gone.
3. Flew with my father into OSH for the big show. On close final, the controller requested expedited departure from the runway. Dad barely slowed the Mooney down and swerved to the grass on the left. Just in time to see the thrust reversers of a MD-90 deploy off our right wing tip.
4. Compressor stall on a Delta 727 departing ATL. That was a loud "boom" and a very quiet cabin as we continued the climb.
5. ATC asking my dad "Where are you going?" There's this thing called magnetic declination that's higher out west than back east. Oops.

Once was a "mechanical", a oil feed line to the turbine failed, pilot shut it down and set er down. We evact the bird and set up a perimeter and waited. Another bird set down with a mechanic and another hose. Fixed and filled it. We continued our patrol in the new bird and the other left with the mech. back to base.

Second time was a hot LZ, self explanitory!

Third time was another hot LZ. Bird caught a dose of lead poisoning, about 100ft up. Little warning, less time. Autorotate does NOT work at that altitude! When I was pulled out of the remaines my left leg was twistes 180deg, with my left foot looking the wrong way. Woke up in Siagon, again in Japan, 4 months work stateside to get it working right.

Oneshooter

Let one be out of place and they all become a rock!

Helicopters are also the only machine built with a "Jesus Nut".

Oneshooter

Being the one that holds the thing in the air. It breaks and you meet god!


Years ago I was the parts manager at an FBO in Miami which owned a fleet of Cessna's and some Bell 47's as well as 3 or 4 B 206's. Initial Helicopter training was done in the 47's. There was another flight school which used the old Hughes 300 as a trainer. I asked one of the instructors about the differences between the Hughes and the venerable old Bell. He said "Well, if you go into an autorotation in the 300 and drop a brick out the door at the same time, the 300 will beat the brick to the ground!"

I had a buddy who hated helicopters with a passion - his motto was "Never fly in anything that is more than 50% moving parts."

I ran a 104+ fever for over a week. I didn't like that trip.

for a heart patient.

Which was okay... obviously the person was seriously ill.

However, we had to stay on the ground (stuck on the plane) another 4.5 hrs as the food ran out and the toilets filled. We eventually got to DC (of course everyone missed their connections). Fortunately for us it was the beginning of our vacation, so we took the opportunity to visit Washington, DC for a couple of days. We got to stay in our 5 star hotel for airline rates for the extra days.

and headed for home in Florida. Boss said he was feeling funny right before boarding but thought it was just the whisky he just had.
On the plane and in the air he started getting feverish and sweaty and having pains in his chest and at first the attendants moved him to the back of the plane because it was empty back there and they could tend to him more privately. He kept getting worse and the pilot decided he was going to land right effing now because they didn't know if it was a heart attack or what but he wanted my boss in a hospital...and when I say "right effing now" it felt like he pointed the plane straight down and hit turbo-boost and I and the other passengers just grabbed the armrests and squeezed tight until we stopped - which was maybe 7 seconds after we started descending. Well, it damn sure felt like it.

Anyway we stopped and he was met by an ambulance and taken to the hospital and it turned out he needed to have emergency gall bladder surgery.


But that quick descent was scarier than any roller-coaster I have ever been on.

at the age of 22 (yep). I flew first class in 1979 courtesy of a free upgrade from Cleveland to San Francisco. Real china, real flatware (including a serrated knike), and a tender/juicy filet mignon paired with a great red wine. Also had passes to United's Red Carpet Lounge. I thought it was the way everybody flew.

It's been downhill ever since.

really rough turbulence. Bad movie turbulence. Everything was shaking, the plane was adjusting altitude, people were beginning to get really scared and my little sister, who was maybe a year old and had been sleeping, woke up, and started laughing. She LOVED it.
And once she started giggling with delight, everyone around us calmed down.

We are both still here, so I assume that we eventually flew out of the bad weather. All I remember from the flight was the initial fear, her laughing, and everyone else calming down and laughing too.

He was across the aisle from me. I locked in on him. His mother was freaking out.

It was pretty severe turbulence. Probably thousand foot drops and lots of whipsaw.

"These silly people don't realize this is a just a fun ride." "WHHEE!"

Kid was giggling the whole time.

I was pretty scared too but at least the kid would have died laughing.

When they started the engines a ground crew stood by with firefighting equipment. This was after they had to jump start the engines. The seat next to me had a rather large potted plant strapped in with the seat belt. The co-pilot came back during the flight to give us a box lunch and a orange drink. The cargo/luggage was separated from the passengers with a cargo net, which looked like something used during the war.
A least we had a good view of the area we flew over from the altitude we flew.

Cat shot from a carrier!!!

Cubana Airlines from Havana to Montreal. An old dilapidated Soviet-made Ilyushin-62

First take-off attempt: out to the end of the runway, engines rev up for take off. Then they
rev right back down again. "Por razones técnicas, tenemos que regresar al terminal (for technical
reasons we have to return to the terminal)."

An hour and a half later, try try again.

This time they manage to take off. After about an hour and a half, the plane banks, and again "por
razones técnicas," they have to return to Havana. I asked one of the flight personnel what the problem
was this time. He said it was navigation equipment. A Canadian from Québec next to me asked what he
said. I translated. He looked out the window and said the Cuban was lying through his teeth. The
Canadian was a pilot, and he pointed out that the plane was dumping fuel like crazy at the ends of
both wings, which means the crew feared a crash-landing and wanted to avoid the ensuing fire being
too big should it come to that. We practically glided back into Martí (Havana) airport, and debarked.

I asked how long it would take to repair the plane this time. The ground staff told me I should be glad
we made it back to Havana alive, and that we would have to wait until another plane became available
that could take us all the way to Montreal. That took some five hours, but we finally got in to Mirabelle
at 3:30 AM.

There was another time I was on a commuter flight in a tiny Brazilian plane slightly bigger than a mosquito
flying a commuter run from Düsseldorf to Brussels. The were huge wind gusts, and I was really nervous about
any landing attempts. The pilot attempted it, and about 200 feet before landing, a huge gust of wind turned the
plane from horizontal to vertical. I thought to myself, "that's it, bye bye birdie." At the last second, the pilot
managed to turn the plane horizontal again, albeit at a right angle to the runway. Their was an access runway
close by, and the pilot made a successful attempt to land on it. His face, as well as all of ours, was rather pale
for a while.

Or that time in the 1970s when a 727 I was on landed at Kansas City in a hailstorm--just barely.

I've had some hairy ones!

On the other hand, there was a flight I took with my future wife from New York to Barbados on Christmas, 1981.
New York was so frozen that the BIWI plane had to be towed to another jetway as ours was frozen solid.
They put us in first class for some reason. Pity, maybe? We saw the movie "FAME" for the first time, and by
the time it was done, we got served some fabulous curry creole meal, opened the windows and saw one
emerald island after another in a turquoise sea.

Yin and yang of airplane travel.