re: Whats you worst airplane experience?

Loved watching that big bastard land when I worked in Denver.

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How long have you been in the airline industry? I'm near 20 years into this. If you admit to being drunk or hungover the flight crew has the right to deny you boarding.

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Ive been noticeably drunk or hungover on too many flights to count and never had an issue.

Been cut off on a few planes too.

Only person I’ve ever seen not allowed on a plane for this was being carried by his buddies and couldn’t speak.

1. The flight to San Angelo where the baggage handlers only loaded 1/2 of the checked baggage (had to go back to the airport later when the last flight came in to get my bag, of course)

2. The three-delay flight to Denver (pilots showed up late for inbound flight from Houston to DFW, in-flight emergency on said Houston-DFW flight, and the ground stop in Denver due to snow)

3. The 4.5 hour delay from DFW to Knoxville due to a mechanical issue on the plane (but it's better to have the issue on the ground than at 35,000 feet--usually if it happens there you're dead). Though when the truck showed up the first time it didn't have the part. (And on the return trip that flight was delayed and we had to go to outer Pigeon Forge for de-icing)

Landing gear trunnion fractured and had an unsafe gear indication. Put the hook down, gear collapsed, almost slid off the side of the runway.

Seriously, checked a bag on the way to water survival training. Agent came over the PA, asked me to grab my stuff and come to the front. I thought I was getting upgraded. Asked me "Do you know you had a hand grenade in your bag?" Somehow WWII surplus pineapple from kids' Army Man birthday party ended up in my luggage. They let me stay on, but had to wait for my bag to show up on the next flight. I'm sure I'm on a TSA watch list somewhere. I love my kids!!

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food poisoning

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I couldn't imagine having this and flying.

On a flight to Las Vegas, kid (appeared to be about 5 or 6 y/o) goes into the crapper and stays there for about 10 minutes. When he gets out, I can smell the remnants of his BM 5 rows back IN MY SEAT.

A woman TRIES to go in to use the restroom and IMMEDIATELY comes out. Looked like a revolving door. She calls the flight attendant who investigates the event. Flight attendant brings in some industrial strength air freshener and sticks ONLY HER ARM into the area of concern and sprays excessively.

I wanted to meet the kid and shake his hand....epic.

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FieldMink
Whats you worst airplane experience?

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1. The first flight I ever took in my life was on a twin engine Piper Navaho. Left from Tupelo headed to Siloam Springs Ark. Raining, drizzly weather the whole way. Unbeknownst to me, I had gotten on the plane with a stomach virus. Was struggling to keep it down the whole way. We get to Siloam Springs but we are under visual flight rules - it's just a strip, no real airport. The pilot tries to find the strip by cutting big donut circles in the sky looking for it, I make the mistake of looking out the window at this storm we are in and the clouds are just rolling. He turns around and says "Hey, I can't find the airport. Any of you guys see it?" Ohmigawd, I was about to puke and die. Ended up diverting back to Fayetteville to their old airport. I have never been so happy to land as that first flight.

2) Had to travel from Muscle Shoals to Iola Kansas. The travel was Muscle Shoals to Tupelo, Tupelo to Jackson TN, Jackson to Memphis, Memphis to Springfield MO, Springfield to Joplin, then a 2 hr car ride from Joplin to Iola. I flew in Embraer turboprops the whole way - including an 11-seater from Memphis to Springfield. Halfway there at about 10k ft, we hit some wicked wind shear and the plan dropped about 500 feet in two or three seconds. I can remember hitting my head on the ceiling of the plane, I was in the back. Briefcases, charts, puke, you name it, it was all flying all over the cabin of the plane. I think the three or four of us on that flight straggled off looking pretty bad.

3) Had to fly from Huntsville to Salt Lake City. My 8AM flight out of HSV connected thru ATL (Delta) and was scheduled to arrive in SLC at about 1030AM local time. But noooooo, my flight from HSV had an instrumentation problem. They flew a part in from ATL, had to wait to get it fixed, etc etc - all other HSV-ATL flights were full. Didn't get out until early afternoon. By then, of course, missed my connection and all other ATL-SLC flights were full. They ended up connecting me through LAGAURDIA to make it to SLC and my hotel by midnight. That SUCKED.

Edit: Honorable mention: Was on a flight from London to Johannesburg on South African Airways. At the time, most South African flights were restricted and prohibited from flying over a lot of countries. So many of their flights were inefficient and flew a lot of time over water. This flight had a refueling stop in the Cape Verde islands. The pilot took this big 747-400 into a virtual nose dive at 5 AM and swooped in to the airport on Ilse de Sol. I had a sinus infection and was miserable anyway - this swooping in caused so much pressure differential that the blockage in my upper sinuses broke free and my nose started running blood and other fluids. Soaked my shirt. Had to buy a shirt in a gift shop in an island airport at 5AM, threw my shirt away. That sucked as well. I was dozing at the time and dreamed that someone hit me in the forehead with a hammer. Because that's what it felt like.

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Coming back from our honeymoon

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start to have my very first panic

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A coincidence I think not.

Somewhere over the Atlantic en route to London, we finished off the Johnnie Walker Blue Label on our Gulfstream. Had to settle for Black Label the rest of the flight. I fired the pilot when we landed. He should've prepared the galley better.