I once waited and waited for a friend to arrive in Detroit on a little Allegheny flight that didn't come and didn't come. When they finally arrived it was late because the only flight attendant broke her finger trying to close the door. The took her to the hospital and couldn't fly until they called another flight attendant to come from her home to replace her.

We once sat on the ground in a plane at Miami for almost an hour before even going out to the runway to get into our usual position of the couple dozen of planes waiting to take off. Finally the pilot said it was because we were going to Laguardia, and they couldn't take off in Miami until Laguardia could guarantee a landing time (even though we had been a regularly scheduled and on time flight). The sad part is I think he was telling the truth.

Great thread!

Best excuse was for an unscheduled landing in Chicago on a Dallas to London nonstop. Full plane, only 1 working toilet. I was very grateful they made that decision, even though it kept us on the ground for hours.

Anything EVER flying out of LaGuardia, particularly on a Friday night, especially when it's windy, cloudy, or even gasp - sunny. Have sat for hours on the runway trying to get from LGA to Detroit (a weekly occurrence) but likely the WORST story was one this past weekend involving a Canadian airline (there only is ONE left now so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which one it was)...

So, I was trying to get from LGA to Toronto - my flight was at 7:30pm this past Friday night - I left work super early because it was Friday and the traffic was bad and the weather, I admit, wasn't great. I get to the airport to find out ALL the flights to Canada have been cancelled for the evening (but only mysteriously this airline's flights - none of the others) - and they have to rebook me on a flight at 6:30am the following morning. Too bad there were NO PLANES there at 6:30 in the morning! So, that night, at 9pm, I book myself on the 8am figuring that the first flight would leave Toronto and get to New York and that would be the plane I take back to Canada. BUT ALAS - the phone wakes me in the dead of night (12:30am) - my friend, who was in the same predicament as I (but had actually waited until midnight at the airport in the hopes that the last flight out which was not cancelled at the time I was there would leave... it didn't) called and woke me up to tell me that both the 6:30am AND the 8:00am flights were cancelled the following morning. To add insult to injury, all the rest of the flights for the day were already booked - the earliest flight (he told me) was now 5:30pm.

So (yes, I know - you can stop reading now if you are bored) I now have to call this Canadian airline at 12:45 in the morning - wait on hold for 30 minutes until someone picks up the phone and find out that I have been placed on the 7:30pm flight on Sat night without even being told. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTIBLE of course, as I am flying back to New York the following day. Finally, I end up switching to a 6:00am flight out of Newark. I go back to bed for like an hour, and then it's up again and another $50 later, back to the airport ( I spent more on cabs then on my plane ticket I think).

Upon arriving at Newark, I find a long line that is NOT MOVING because not one ticket agent is at the counter checking people in... it's now 4:30 in the morning and of course, they TELL you to be there over 2:30hrs before an international flight - but there is no one there to check us in. Someone finally shows up at 4:55am and has the nerve to yell at us all for being there so early?!?!?

When I finally get to the check in counter (there are no self serve check in computers) I ask when the flight is going to leave and I am told very rudely that "we will get the flight out on time". Needless to say it is now 5:45am, there are still dozens of people in line behind me, and of course, the plane had not yet begun boarding (obviously).

It was, needless to say, one of the worst experiences I have ever had with flight delays, airports, and customer service.

Finally, at 7:30am we left the ground. Halleluiah! And no, my return flight was not nearly as eventful ;-).

Not airline, but train. On many mornings when I was commuting between Edinburgh and Glasgow on old British Rail, the 45-min. trip would last an hour or more, occasionally 2. My fave announcement upon arriving in Queen St. Station (I am not making this up) was, "British Rail apologise for the late arrival of your train. This was due to its running behind schedule."

Ya think?

Well here is #2. Last year we had a hell of a time trying to get to Dublin from Athens, Georgia.
We were re-routed to Philadelphia, a day behind schedule. In Philly, first the plane was late. Then we were sent to another gate. Wrong. No airplane there.
Finally, we got the ultimate excuses that was actually a valid reason.
First, the aircraft is not cleared for flying by the mechanics.
Second, we don't have an airplane.

Third, we don't have a crew.

Finally we found an airplane, then we found a crew that was literally Shanghaied into service. The plane backed away from the gate 5 minutes before the crew became "ineligible" to fly.

Then, the ultimate. About an hour off the Irish coast, we were told that we were landing at Shannon rather than Dublin. The reason: the aircraft was on fire.
It really was. I got a glimpse into the cockpit and it was full or smoke. The pilot and co-pilot had on oxygen masks.

I wanted to top this but had trouble pulling it up with the search words I was using, so I typed in "swarms of bunnies" and voila!

bob_brown-

If I were you, I am not sure if I will ever want to fly again! Especially after watching the Swiss 111 show on PBS last month...

a business associate and i waited on the tarmac for close to three hours in new orleans (in august!!!) while the maintainence crew worked on a VENTILATION problem...

by the way, this was when one could still smoke on airlines...you get the drift?

Years ago, we were told that our flight to the Bahamas was delayed because the originating flight was hit by a bird.

About 35 years ago, our flight from Seoul to Cheju island was delayed a day because of North Korean infiltrators lobbing mortar shells into Seoul. Nobody attacked the airport, but they didn't want to take any chances.

Moose on the runway in Anchorage, Alaska in about 1970.

Once flying from Hastings, Nebraska to Denver in a DC-3, the Frontier Airlines pilot took a vote of passengers to see if we wanted to proceed to Denver from the Grand Island stopover--because thunderstorms were causing such terrible turbulence. And it was like a roller coaster ride.

Since Bob is doing repeats, I'll toss in a couple more.

Couple of flights in Alaska canceled due to volcanic eruption;

San Francisco earthquake (we were at Candlestick) closed the airport, a reasonable excuse;

Got bumped off an Aeroflot flight in Tashkent because the entire Central Committee of the Uzbek Communist Party needed the whole plane on short notice. We watched them (and their wives and assistants and courtiers) get on the plane, laughing, while we were made to wait in broiling hot weather for a replacement plane. Seven hours.

With any luck they're all driving cab in New York nowadays.

On a trip from Boston to Florida (changing planes in Newark), the pilot had to land in upstate NY because we were "running out of fuel". They said they had been hoping to refuel in Newark where fuel tax was lower. Needless to say we missed our connecting flight (they didn't hold it even though it was same airline and several passengers in the same boat). Then to top it off, they lost our luggage for 3 days!

Couldn't get the door shut...I was right there and they couldn't.....

When leaving Paris right before New Years we took a cab to CDG and arrived almost 3 hours early. We got in line to check our bags and waited... and waited... soon airline personel started going down the line checking our names on the flight list and placing stickers on our bags and passports to indicate that we had been asked the question about checked luggage. Finally after watching the line grow behind us for an hour they announced that the baggage system was broken so they could take any checked bags, but they were going down the line checking people in and tagging bags so we could just drop the bags when the system started working again. By the time we dropped off our bags it was 15 min until flight time. We made it through security quickly and got on the plane, but there was a whole 777's worth of people still waiting to check bags and go through security. Despite all this the flight was only 15 late leaving!

The charter flight I was on that left Tampa immediately following Super Bowl XXXV in 2001 was delayed about an hour. Apparently, there were so many private planes trying to leave at the same time that the airport was looking at delays of up to 6 hours in order to clear all the traffic.

The catering truck is stuck to the side of the plane! They finally let the air out of the wheels and DRUG the truck away. Then they had to investigage for damage.

this may sound far-fetched but it is true.....deer all over the runways at philly international airport......

The windows weren't heating efficiently!... But I'm not really sure if that's a serious problem...? It sounded funny at the time.

This is good stuff :D

1. A US Airways flight from Charlotte to SFO. We had such bad headwinds that we had to stop for fuel in Las Vegas. We just hoped they had the right credit card!

2. An Eastern Airlines flight [remember them??] from Philly to Syracuse that slide off the taxiway because of ice -- they made us all get on the "uphill" side of the plane so the plane wouldn't tip further. Ended up driving the next day.