re: Whats you worst airplane experience?

On an 8 hour flight to Qatar my wife and I sat next to an old lady in a burka from Pakistan who didn’t speak a lick of English. She wouldn’t let my wife lean her head on my shoulder to rest. She would tap on her shoulder and wag her finger at her then try to demonstrate to her how to rest in her seat. We both thought it was so surreal

I also recall one time i was headed to Italy from Houston for this study abroad trip with LSU architecture department. I was just one guy out of about 8 chicks who were in Interior design. Either way, we catch our connecting flight in ATL for the long trip to Italy.

The captain said we're about to hit turbulence so everyone prepares for it. However we actually went into what felt like free fall for like 1-2 seconds. Not once but twice. Mind you there's nothing really between ATL and Italy except water. Scary...

One chick was balling tears when we got off

Spirit

My best one….

Flying to ATL for a connection (regional jet). A lady a few rows back calls the stewardess over and claims the lady behind her took her wallet. Stewardess approaches the alleged thief who decides to bolt to the bathroom and locks it and refuses to come out. Captain diverts to an airport en-route (why he didn’t go on to Atlanta I don’t know). Lady will not come out so cops and maintenance come on the plane to take the door off. Lady ends up attempting to flush the wallet down the toilet which now renders the plane un-airworthy (I guess they require a working toilet). Missed connection and a missed meeting and a lot of wasted time.

Our flight attendant broke the plane.

First time flying on United, had a great flight from Hartford to Dulles, then boarded a 50 seat CRJ for the next leg. It was hot and the ground a/c was connected. When it's pumping air, you're always supposed to leave a cabin door open on these smaller planes. Well, the FA closed the main door without verifying that the a/c was off. Immediately, everyone's ears started hurting as the plane slightly overpressurized above ambient. You could hear the air whining as it tried to escape through the overflow valves of the pressurization system.

If this happens, and it shouldn't, the accepted procedure is to have the cockpit crew radio the ground and tell them to turn the a/c off. Nope, the FA was committed to mistake no. 2: she then opened the small galley door opposite the main cabin door. BANG! It SLAMMED back against the stops and that fixed the airflow problem. Except when she went to close it, she tried 4 or 5 times and it wouldn't close. It had slammed open so hard that the door was bent. At that point, hell no was I flying on that plane, because one thing you never do is fly a pressurized aircraft that has a damaged pressure vessel. But of course, we had to sit in the heat for 20-25 minutes while a mechanic came out to look at the plane. We deboarded and had to wait several hours for the next flight. Not a big deal

TL,DR: FA closed door, FA opened door, FA broke the plane.

Flew in a 6/7 passenger Mitsubishi Fat Boy turboprop headed home and dropped off a guy in Little Rock where we landed in a driving rain storm at about 10 pm. Wind had to be 25-30 mph or better, rain appeared to be falling horizontally. I thought we were dead. Instead of getting back on to go home, I rented a car and drove all night back to Baton Rouge. Could not make myself get back on that plane. Never bothered me after though.

Flying from Atlanta to Shreveport. It was the last flight out - departure was about 10:30.

We all board the plane and the pilot announces that there would be a little delay while they did some housekeeping. It turns out that the housekeeping needed was more like a complete decontamination of the lavatory. Somebody on the previous flight destroyed it so bad that it was unusable. The crew first called the airport or airline maintenance and didn't get an answer. All the staff was gone because it was so late at night. They had to keep going further and further up the ladder to get some help. At one point, the pilot himself was back there trying to clean it. By this point, we were all asking if we can just take off and promise not to use the bathroom until we land.

We departed about an hour and a half late. Shitty experience.

Wife and I flying first class (subtle brag), she in a window seat and me on the aisle from Frankfurt, Germany to Amman, Jordan in a Lufthansa Airbus. We were about 39,000 feet above Turkey. Clear skies and we could see the ground. Suddenly the pilot dings the bell several times and tells all to return to their seats that we were about to experience some clear air turbulence.

Turbulence was an understatement. The plane was tossed around seemingly almost doing a roll (I know a couple of times we rolled at least 90 degrees). The wings of the Airbus were actually flapping. The engines were making a funny whining noise and we were losing altitude rapidly. Many of the passengers were screaming. My wife calmly grabbed my arm and asked "Are we about to die?" I told her yes, I thought so, but about then the plane leveled off and everything was calm again.

After a few minutes the pilot explained (first in German and then in English), that we had encountered a violent wind shear - very unusual at that altitude. He said we had lost about 2300 meters in altitude. I did not need to change my pants, but I'm sure some of the passengers may have needed to do so.

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You fly out of a busy airport to another busy airport a week before xmas and show up about 90 minutes before departure time?

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As someone who frequently flies out of Logan, I'd say I'm pretty familiar with how long it generally takes to get through security. 90 minutes is usually 45 minutes longer than needed. They don't actually start processing people until 4, so the best I could have done was 120 minutes, and that wasn't going to make a difference.

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You are very lucky that the gate agent didn't have "a computer error" and you be forced to fly coach in a different isle from your wife. I hope your luggage got destroyed as well.

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First, it's "aisle" not "isle." Second, I guess I was lucky because I sat first class and had free drinks and breakfast on my flight. The flight itself was rather pleasant. And don't worry, our luggage made it in one piece and we had a wonderful trip.


Now kindly go frick yourself.