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Anyone else ever had a bad/disturbing flight experience?

Smaller regional jet - a lady went back to the bathroom and never came out. Flight attendants tried to talk to and find out what was going on, but they never got a response. When we got off the plane there were airline people waiting to get on a figure it out. Maybe she'd had an accident and was embarrassed, but I'm pretty certain she died.
The Mile High Elvis Club!
 
Not many people telling better stories than the ones on Honolulu Air Flight 243


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Remarkable how that stayed intact. That incident had a big impact how the age of aircraft are measured and maintained. Before that their maintenance was mostly about hours. Everytime the plane takes off and lands is a cycle. Every cycle the plane is pressurized and depressurized and stresses the fuselage. Those island hoppers did that a LOT of times compared to other airliners. It literally wore the skin of it out over time.

Just like in a car, always wear your seatbelt on a plane!
 
I used to fly every week and never had anything crazy happen until one flight from Omaha to Denver. The people coming off the plane looked sick and nervous. The ticket agent said over the loudspeaker that anyone that can't handle turbulence should not fly. About 15 people stayed.
There was a huge storm half way between and it was really high. The pilot said we can't go over it so we have to go through it.

The first bump we fell about 100 feet I would guess, it was like being on one of those rides where it drops you from a high point. It did that maybe 5-6 more times. My fingers were imbedded in the arm rests until I looked across the aisle and there was a pilot sitting there calmly ready his ipad like it was just a normal flight. Really calmed me down.

I've been on two flights that were coming in to land and had to go back up again because they didn't get down in time.
 
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Was landing in Minneapolis and right as we were about to touch down we pulled up quickly due to heavy wind shear. We go up and make a loop to land again. Winds and turbulence really picked up. Dropping quickly, slowing down and speeding up. Almost got sick and I've flown well in excess of 1mm miles.

Years ago, a coworker missed a flight. That flight ended up crashing and everyone onboard passed away. It was during the time when the ATR planes had multiple crashes.
 
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Was landing in Minneapolis and right as we were about to touch down we pulled up quickly due to heavy wind shear. We go up and make a loop to land again. Winds and turbulence really picked up. Dropping quickly, slowing down and speeding up. Almost got sick and I've flown well in excess of 1mm miles.

Years ago, a coworker missed a flight. That flight ended up crashing and everyone onboard passed away. It was during the time when the ATR planes had multiple crashes.
Huh?
I don’t remember any crashes the last decade. How long ago?
 
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When i worked for the corporate headquarters for a retail store, i would travel to different locations every week on one of the company planes. 21 seat prop planes. Had some very turbulent rides, but the most memorable was flying across minnesota in the evening and seeing the northern lights from above the clouds.

one of the closest calls is that we were going down the runway to take off and a tire blew. I was glad we did not take off as of yet
 
When i worked for the corporate headquarters for a retail store, i would travel to different locations every week on one of the company planes. 21 seat prop planes. Had some very turbulent rides, but the most memorable was flying across minnesota in the evening and seeing the northern lights from above the clouds.
Just remembered one of my worst.
Alaska air seattle-yakima turbo prop. Starting 6 month project.
Climbing over the mountains was a roller coaster. Got near the top and the plane started shaking and loud popping sounds. Pilot came on and said relax - just ice hitting the props and wings. Wtf.
Never flew that again - drove.
 
Just remembered one of my worst.
Alaska air seattle-yakima turbo prop. Starting 6 month project.
Climbing over the mountains was a roller coaster. Got near the top and the plane started shaking and loud popping sounds. Pilot came on and said relax - just ice hitting the props and wings. Wtf.
Never flew that again - drove.
I edited my post to include the worst experiences…we were going down the runway, picking up speed and about the time we normally would take off, we started slowing down. Tire blew as we were going down the runway. Might have made landing interesting had we taken off
 
I edited my post to include the worst experiences…we were going down the runway, picking up speed and about the time we normally would take off, we started slowing down. Tire blew as we were going down the runway. Might have made landing interesting had we taken off
I was taking off from Appleton and we hit a deer. Probably 30 years ago.
 
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Funniest was a little puddle hopper from, I think, San Angelo TX to Dallas. Some little airline whose name I don’t even remember. We were taxing out for takeoff, but at one point we stopped for a couple of minutes, then turned around and started heading back. Captain came on and said there was a gauge that appeared to not be functioning so we were going back to the gate for maintenance. Said it shouldn’t be a big delay.

Before we got back we stopped, then turned around again. Captain comes back on chuckling and says, “You know how sometimes if you just give something a little smack it starts working again? That seems to be the case here. The instrument is working fine now and we are going to proceed to takeoff.”

We were a pretty nervous group of passengers.

EDIT
It was Rio Airways
 
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Sat in row 1 on a CRJ once and apparently the cabin door did not seal as we were ascending towards 10,000ft the cockpit received a pressurization error. The F/A was still strapped into her jump seat since we were only a few minutes after takeoff. She gets on the phone to the cockpit and her face turned pale and she immediately tightened her straps. We leveled off right at 10,000 and I could hear the air and see the door shake a little. I tightened my seatbelt and said a few prayers. We had to circle for about 50 minutes to burn off fuel and return to the airport. Proceeded to nearest bar to down some Jager. CSB.
 
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First time flying into Cancun. Started our decent. Lower and Lower. Could actually see individual trees. Then plane abruptly accelerated back into a climb, we reached altitude and flew straight another 45 minutes to airport.

What the actual F?!?! What airline?

My bumpiest was probably SF into Denver. We must of had the C team that day. I remember the pilot just yelling "SEATBELTS" over the intercom. Never wanted off a plane so fast. Little skittish ever since.

Flew a puddle jumper from Cozumel to Cancun. They even left the cockpit door open so I watched us land. This was like 2 years ago so way after 9/11. That was pretty smooth however.
 
Once I was denied boarding on an American flight from DFW to Knoxville because they oversold the flight and no one took the voucher offer. American cut me a check for about $1,200 (a function of my fare price and hours of delay, per FAA regs) and I got on another flight about 2-3 hours later.

Wait, that was a good flight experience. Never mind.
 
I had 2, both in military planes.

One was in a C23 Sherpa coming back from Ellsworth AFB. Flew through a thunderstorm over Central SD. Felt like someone was shaking the plane trying to get pieces to fall off.

The other was landing in the Azores on a KC-135 during a tropical storm. 80mph winds made landing a bit.. weird.
 
While in the AF we had a plane come in reporting smoke in the cock pit. three of us, and a partial crew volunteered to take it back up and find where the problem was. After taking off a few panels we found a small leak dripping on the air conditioning unit.
 
What the actual F?!?! What airline?

My bumpiest was probably SF into Denver. We must of had the C team that day. I remember the pilot just yelling "SEATBELTS" over the intercom. Never wanted off a plane so fast. Little skittish ever since.

Flew a puddle jumper from Cozumel to Cancun. They even left the cockpit door open so I watched us land. This was like 2 years ago so way after 9/11. That was pretty smooth however.
It was an American flight from Dallas to Cancun.
 
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