chardonnay

My friend was telling me today about a flight with turbulence so bad that she had to hold onto the seat with both hands like she was riding a mechanical bull!

She had me in stitches!
Tell us your experiences!

jnn1964

January 1995, Tulsa to Atlanta. On a Delta 737 flying through a wicked thunderstorm. I was flying with my brother on our way home from a funeral. We really thought it was going to be ours too.

Just imagine lighting flashing outside the windows, thunder so loud it drowned out the engine noise, the plane jerking violently in directions you didn't think possible, drinks and small bags flying about. I honestly thought the plane would break apart it was creaking so loudly and shaking so fiercely. Every passanger on board was pale as a ghost.

Once we got through the storm there was an eerie silence throughout the cabin. People were frozen in their seats with their hands gripping the armrests. No-one made a peep until we were on the ground!

I have never again come close to a flight that scary. My brother hasn't flown since.

Chardonnay, are you sure you really want to hear these stories?

chardonnay

Good point, it is like I want to hear them and don't at the same time, like peeking through your fingers at a horror movie!

Yes, bring 'em on!

candyqueen

I was on my way to Cancun in December... We were only about 15 minutes away when we hit some MAJOR turbulance! It didn't freak me out all that much, until I saw a tornado (or is it a hurricane when it is over water?) just to the left of the plane (which was the side I was sitting on!). THAT is when I freaked out!!! Luckily we were only experiencing major turbulance for like 10 minutes, but I swear, nothing has ever freaked me out more than seeing that tornado!!!! I had visions in my head of getting sucked into it and thinking, "I'm going to die!". Needless to say, of course I will fly again!

yk

November 2003, flying British Airways from London to Philadelphia. It was extremely windy that day in Philadelphia (50mph). Even though it was a jumbojet, it was still shaking a lot. The worst part was we had to cruise for a long time to wait for our turn to land.

So how bad was it? The passengers in front, next to, and behind me were all throwing up. I was on the verge of throwing up (due to the smell) when we landed. When we finally deplaned, everybody looked like :-&

Ryan

I was on a Delta flight heading into Newark for a landing when we must have hit an unexpected windshear just a few hundred feet off the ground. The left wing dipped significantly down for what seemed like several seconds. I was sitting near the window and could hear the engines being throttled back up.

Interestingly enough, when my Dad met me at the terminal he said "You should seen this plane trying to land a few minute ago. The wing...."

Ani

My sister and I were on a flight from west palm beach into houston during a major storm. They warned us that it was bad near Houston, but WOW! Lightning everywhere, kind of like that Twilight Zone episode with the creature out on the wing...you know the one I mean! Anyway, it was harrowing.

Nidwaldner_Chris

Coming into land after a 11-hour and very full Swiss Airlines flight from Africa into Zurich last January there was a major wind storm (160km gusts) and the plane went into a hold-pattern for 45-minutes in major turbulence while the pilot made up his mind whether he would be able to land! To make it worse we were going in circles in the turbulence. Lots of sick people on that one. They finally decided to divert us to Geneva for the night instead.

jnn1964, my husband is an aerospace stress engineer. He's the guy who figures out how much turbulence a plane can take before it "breaks" apart. He always reassures me that they waaaaay over-engineer the planes. I only get worried if he looks worried-LOL.

Melnq8

I shouldn't be reading this as I'm already a nervous flyer....

Worst turbulence for me was actually wake turbulence. On a flight between Houston and Las Vegas our plane hit the wake turbulence of the plane in front of us. One wing dipped suddenly and the plane made a jerky motion as the pilot corrected it. A few people screamed. I just shook with terror and slunk down into my seat while I quietly awaited death.

It took forever but the pilot finally announced what had happened. When I asked my husband what took the pilot so long to respond, he said "he was cleaning the **** out of his pants".

I found out later that if we'd been in a smaller plane, we could have flipped over. Yikes.

I also hate the flight between Denver and Colorado Springs because of the turbulence. I'll re-route all my flights and spend hours on end in airports just to avoid those 17 minutes of sheer torture. Hubby thinks it's funny, but turbulence really freaks me out.

easytraveler

South of France in a small plane when we hit the wicked mistral wind. The plane dropped like a ton of bricks, my stomach rose to my head, everything on the tray tables suddenly rose up in midair and hung there for what seemed like minutes.

Nobody screamed. I think it was because with our stomachs where our heads were, our vocal cords must have risen to the roof of the plane and gotten stuck there!

Then the dropping feeling stopped and the plane started climbing again, only to drop suddenly and precipitously again!

The plane did this suddenly dropping and slowly rising thing several times. By the time we reached the airport, everyone was white like a sheet and totally speechless.

fairfax

Two flights:
One coming from London to NYC during a rare January thunderstorm. We were flying the length of Long Island, and twisting from side to side with lightning all around us, going up and down. People were shrieking (there was a school trip on the plane), throwing up, etc. I had taken a lovely anti-motion pill called "joy ride", so it didn't bother me at all. But when we landed in NYC, we had to sit on the tarmac until the storm subsided because there was so much lightning.

Second: Flying from Providence to Martha's Vineyard early Thanksgiving morning, in a six-seater, and me sitting in the co-pilot's seat (not qualified for that, by ANY means). Forgot to take the Joy Ride, and we kept hitting pockets, where the plane would suddenly drop a hundred feet or so (watching the altimeter) over the ocean. (this was a couple of months after JFK, Jr.'s plane had gone down there) After about the 10th time, i asked the pilot if he had a barfbag, and he looked at me with sheer hatred and said that the co-pilot usually didn't need one. Thankfully, I found a plastic bag.

SLHogan

American Air - DFW to Calgary, Alberta. My friends and I were in the very back of the plane and we hit some major turbulence. It was as if we were on a roller coaster - going up and going down. I've never felt any turbulence like I did that time. I knew it was bad when I looked to my left and saw the flight attendant holding on for dear life! She couldn't get into her seat fast enough.

However, at the front of the plane, there was a big group of people (who were a bit intoxicated) and when we went up, they held their drinks in the air and cheered! I guess they made the best of hitting a bad pocket of turbulence.

wealthy_backpacker

I was flying on

JMM

Flight to London; in the back of the plane, coffee had just been served; sudden turbulence; hot coffee in my lap; stewardess could not help since she was holding on for dear life. The person sitting next to me acted quickly and poured his juice in my lap - so I was not badly burned. I sat there for 20 minutes covered in coffee and fruit juice, bouncing wildly. Not a great memory.

Christina

For me, I think it was when I flew from Dublin to Edinburgh in a very small plane (about 24 seats at most) at the tail end of hurricane Charlie. This was rather rough and several people got sick, although most of the storm had passed over the night before or they wouldn't have flown (flight was delayed 4 hrs even then). It was a little troublesome when the flight attendants starting passing out next-of-kin forms for you to fill out, though, although I suppose that was standard procedure.

As a note of seriousness, I know someone who was permanently disabled during a flight to Hawai that encountered turbulance because there was a sudden drop and she hit the ceiling or something and permanently damaged her neck/back because she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. After that incident, I am sure that I always have my seat belt on during the entire flight, except when getting up to go somewhere. I know a lot of people don't take that seriously, but you can get hurt.

DiAblo

Although I?ve made the trip several times since, in 1997 I was on a plane from Chicago to London and it was my first trip by air in over 20 years. About 5 hours into the flight we hit the turbulence from hell. I was flying with friends, two seasoned veterans, and they were white knuckle all the way as was everyone on the plane.

Eventually the pilot announced that Heathrow was closed due to fog (fairly unusual these days, as I understand) and that they would let us know where we would be re-routed to. Nearly an hour passed with intermittent violent shaking of the plane, when the pilot came back on and said we would be arriving soon at London Heathrow!

The fog was so thick that I could not see more than midway to the tip of the wing! When we "TOUCHED DOWN" it was like we?d hit the side of a mountain! Literally, no one saw it coming, as one couldn?t anything out of the windows. There was quite a chorus of screams, yelps, and whimpers.

In fact, when the plane finally came to a stop we couldn?t see the ground from our seats! Harrowing and it scared me silly. I honestly didn?t believe that I would ever be able to fly again and was immediately stressing about the trip back home two weeks hence. (Thank god for Valium!)

The beauty of the situation was that Heathrow was as near to empty as you can imagine, customs was a breeze!

m_kingdom

Whatever next? How about Mile high experiences?

HeatherH

Well, since m_kingdom wants to know, there was this flight from...

ms_go

Actually, I had a very bumpy ride out of Chicago this morning into a howling headwind. Somehow, I can usually deal with the turbulence when we are cruising, but during takeoff is another story.

My worst experience was probably about three years ago, departing Heathrow. We took off heading directly into a thunderstorm, and about three minutes into the flight the plane was hit by (or very close to) a lightning strike. There was an extremely loud bang, a bright flash of light and the plane kind of jerked and shuddered. We were in the clouds and at a low enough altitude that you just hoped it was lightning and not something else. I was sitting right in front of the flight attendants, and even they were frightened.

Second place goes to a flight about seven years ago from O'Hare to Orlando. It was a big plane and completely full. We took off during a storm, so there was a lot of turbulence to start with. On top of that, it became clear that we were not climbing, the engines sounded strange and there was a bad smell in the cabin. The captain proceeds to tell us that the de-icing fluid had gotten into the ventilation system, causing the smell. And, there were engine warning lights on, so they had decided to fly slowly and at a low altitude (still in the storm) for the next 30 minutes or so, until they could determine whether they would have to turn the plane around. Needless to say, the barf bags were out all around, and my then-four-year-old threw up all over herself. It eventually returned to normal, but I was never so happy to get to Disneyworld.

SeaUrchin

My worse experience wasn't so much turbulence but the foolishness of a pilot!

Years ago, we were in a small plane touring over the island of Hawaii, when the pilot went "off" on us and started diving the plane and swooping over the mountains. I think he had just had it with his job and dealing with tourists and wanted to scare us. Well, he did.

My purse flew up and I had to grab it or it would have flown out of the open window. I couldn't help but scream and I am not a screamer! He tipped the plane and I could have reached out and touched the mountain. My husband luckily had been in the Air Force and was calmer, so he calmed the pilot down and persuaded him to land us.

I went crying off the tarmac and never found out what discipline the pilot got, if any.