Have you ever been on a scary turbulent flight?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I'm curious what it was like? I've been on quite bumpy flights before, but the flight attendants always looked fine/ bored, so I wasn't worried and just kept watching whatever film. But I'm lucky as have no fear of flying in general, so perhaps easy for me to dismiss it.

Has anyone been on a really frightening flight where you were worried things might deteriorate? Did you get on a plane again after?

Flying into Borneo during a tropical storm it began to feel like we were on a rollercoaster, up and down rapidly. I did feel queasy but I don't think anyone was sick.

Interesting to hear a lot of people saying that people were screaming during their experiences....

I was on a flight from Mexico to Manchester and the Pilot warned us before hand that there were storms in the area and he might have to divert/take a longer route.
Jesus H. It was terrifying for around an hour. Huge drops in altitude, everyone strapped in including cabin crew, cabin darkened, window visors down but the weirdest thing....it went deathly silent on the plane for the entirety. No one dare so much as breathe. Occasional hushed tones and the odd shriek/gasp but I'll never forget how quiet the whole plane went (aside from stuff banging/flying about). I'm not a religious person but I remember coming out of it with white knuckles having prayed for a long time.

When it passed and the lights came back on, the cabin crew started about their business and I remember this tangible wave of laughter and relief spreading up through the cabin.
Everyone thought we were f**ked.

@1forAll74 you describe a situation where not just one, but 2 engine set on fire, independently of each other but at the same time. Then the plane dropped, then the pilots fixed the situation and carried on flying to destination. Are you absolutely sure about that? A fire in an engine is such a rare occurrence, and so extreme, that most pilots would have heard about it. It is also what we call a ‘land at the nearest suitable airport’ event, ie likely an emergency landing. An engine that has been on fire would be shut down. For a second engine on the other side also to be on fire would be major news in the piloting world, an event we would scrutinise and study to learn from. What would never, ever happen is for the flight to merrily carry on its way once the fires are put out. I am fairly sure the situation you were in may have been frightening for you but nothing at all irl like you described.

Secondly, demanding that someone speak to the pilot during an emergency is not going to do anything except distract the pilot. The locked cockpit door reduces the ability to communicate with the cabin, but is excellent at removing unwanted distractions. The priority at all times is the fly the aircraft first and foremost, then fly the correct route, then communicate with people - usually in the order ATC, then cabin crew, then passengers. Our job is to get passengers from A to B safely, but we don’t necessarily have to speak with them to achieve that.

Just reading this thread has my stomach churning. We fly a lot and I hate it every time.

Have gone through some terrible, white knuckle turbulence and I now know that flying to Asia over the Bay of Bengal is usually one of the worst stretches of air for turbulence, it is terrifying. It can go on for hours, feeling like you are being tossed around in the air. One time we could see on the map that the captain was flying around in circles and then backtracked for a bit and took a different route, he was obviously waiting for the new routing to be approved to avoid the awful turbulence.

Asia in general is often turbulent, flying over the Alps in summer can also be quite turbulent. Some parts of the US can be pretty rough. I have never flown across the Pacific but I believe that is another area where it is really likely to hit strong turbulence. Crossing the Black Sea on the way to the Middle East is another area where I have regularly experienced strong turbulence.

I have experienced aborted landings and aborted take offs, one time they were having difficulty retracting the landing gear, omg the noise of the grating and the motor whirring as they continuously tried to retract it, they eventually managed to get it up and he continued to the destination, I was sick with fear that it wouldn't come down for landing, thankfully it was fine. .

A friend was on a flight that developed technical issues halfway across the Atlantic, so they turned back to the departure airport, so had to endure another 3 hours back to where they took off from. That would be one of my worst nightmares.

There is a website called Turbulence Forecast and you can find maps of predicted turbulence, I often look at those before I travel and it does help prepare me, if I know that we will be going through areas of turbulence.

Flying into Vegas - as we started to descend the plane was all over the place, dropping quickly, rising up again, getting knocked from side to side, another massive drop, a woman screamed ... then a kid started screaming ... I fixated on the crew who were all smiling but looking slightly nervous ... when the plane hit the runway it landed with a thud and then bounced back into the air again ... more screaming ... I thought we were going to die and started picturing my mother watching the news and wondering if I was on that plane ...
it finally landed again and went tear arsing down the runway before finally coming to a stop. All the passengers started whooping and cheering and the captain came out and took a bow!!! Only in America 😂

@backinthebox just curious, what's it like reading all these stories from a pilot's perspective? Do you think we're all overreacting with our horror? I bet it's not nearly as scary from where you're sitting on the plane?

Not turbulence no but the only time I flew with my dd we flew out to Romania and as we got close the atmosphere changed seat belt sign came on and I was sat listening to people praying , the pilot came over the intercom to tell us that we needed to circle the airport as they had had serious snow fall over night and we're trying to get the runway clear he said we would circle for 30 minutes but had 40 minutes fuel left so we're fine , as we finally landed after what seemed an eternity with an 8 year old child asking why people were praying and what was wrong ,we skidded to a halt and the entire plane cheered and clapped apart from the man I was sat next to who took out his wallet and kissed the picture of his wife and kids

[quote Welikebeingcosy]@backinthebox just curious, what's it like reading all these stories from a pilot's perspective? Do you think we're all overreacting with our horror? I bet it's not nearly as scary from where you're sitting on the plane?[/quote]
I get the reactions, and we do know the perception is worse in the passenger cabin, and in some case it does actually feel worse "down the back" because of the dynamics of the aircraft.

It helps that were also lucky enough to occasionally get to see inside the guts of these machines and see how strongly they are built and some appreciation of the engineering involved...so I don't think many of us worry or get scared by it being bumpy but OTOH turbulent areas are to be respected and you certainly avoid getting into the areas where really bad turbulence is forecast or is likely to be (particularly the core of thunderstorms)

FWIW worse turbulence I've been involved in was over southern Australia and even then it wasn't scary, just chuffing annoying......and as mentioned upthread over several decades of flying the worse physical damage I ever experienced due to turbulence was coffee stains on the uniform...

Finally a public service broadcast on behalf of those still flying for a living...The pilots always fasten at least the lap strap elements of their harnesses whenever sat down "just in case of unexpected turbulence", please do the same.

Quite why some people feel the need to automatically cast their seat belts to the wind the moment the seatbelt light goes off after take off I do not understand.

Yes on a flight back from LA. Drinks spilling and stuff falling out of lockers. Also landing in a crosswind at Heathrow on a flight from Brussels. The aircraft was rattling so much I thought it was going to fall apart.

One of the scariest flights I have ever been on was from Heathrow to Dublin, my husband who travels all the time, has been on a plane hit by lightening, and even he still rates it as the worst flight he has ever taken.

As we departed, the pilot announced he was expecting strong turbulence and there would be no drinks service, crew strapped in for the whole flight. I always carry some relaxing pills in my bag for flying, just in case, but usually don't take them. On this occasion, I popped one of the pills, but the closer we got to Dublin the worse the turbulence was and the pill was not working, so I popped a 2nd one. We were bouncing up and down and sideways over the sea, coming in to land, then an aborted landing and a go around due to cross winds, the wheels were almost touching the ground when he took off, I thought I would collapse with the fear. Then take two of bouncing around over Dublin Bay coming in to land. The bloody pills didn't work.

We arrived in the airport and DH went to get the bags, to come back and find me stretched out on my back, across 4 seats totally zonked out from the pills, he struggled to wake me, had to practically carry me out of the airport, he was considering taking me to A&E, but I was talking and responding. When we got home, I slept straight for 15 hours. I have no recollection of anything after the flight landed. I really didn't consider that it is only a 60 minute flight and clearly the first pill didn't have time to take effect.

You really have to be careful with calmers. You’d never have made it off in an emergency.. When I was crew we had a guy who wouldn’t come out of the toilet when we were preparing for take off. Eventually we opened the door and he was slumped on the loo slurring his words. The plane was turned round and we headed back to stand to offload him. We thought he was drunk. Turns out he had taken calmers because he was nervous.

@Honeyroar

You really have to be careful with calmers. You’d never have made it off in an emergency."

Agreed/seconded.

Several times I saw paramedics called to Long Haul flights after they had arrived because a passenger has succeeded in so deeply calming themselves that they couldn't be aroused enough for them to safely leave the aircraft ( and no, alcohol had not been involved).

@Honeyroar

You really have to be careful with calmers. You’d never have made it off in an emergency.. When I was crew we had a guy who wouldn’t come out of the toilet when we were preparing for take off. Eventually we opened the door and he was slumped on the loo slurring his words. The plane was turned round and we headed back to stand to offload him. We thought he was drunk. Turns out he had taken calmers because he was nervous.

You are so right, I would never take them if I was travelling with the kids, and in general I don't take them, as I do worry about not being reactive if something did go wrong. I have taken them on a few occasions over the years, when a flight was extremely turbulent and I felt I was going to panic badly.

Yes. I was asleep (I'd taken sleepers - long flight) and woke up groggy to all the lights out and everyone around me in the brace position. Thought for a second the plane was going down there was that much force.

I just googled this (so no idea if it’s accurate), but interestingly one site says that the most turbulant routes are:
New York to London
Seoul to Dallas
Flights near the equator, monsoon or hurricane hotspots
London to Johannesburg
Into Reno, Nevada
London to Glasgow
Over mountains / trans asiatic/ european

Any pilots or cabin crew - is it better to take overnight / early morning flights as there is less turbulence?

Other than turbulence due to thermals (heat rising from the ground) the timings pretty random...I think some people perceive it as being worse at night when they might be trying to sleep

I just googled this (so no idea if it’s accurate), but interestingly one site says that the most turbulent routes are..

Or to summarise -

Anything crossing the equator ( thunderstorms).

Anything crossing/travelling along temperate latitudes (jet streams).

Anything taking off/landing at an airport that is downwind of hills/mountains if it is windy...

Think that covers most of it

Once on easyjet... It was extremely turbulent for about 20mins and all the pilot said at the start was 'we're going through some turbulence' with a whisper. There was no support, no guidance, the flight attendants were strapped in their seats. It was horrible.
On Virgin, the pilot kept reassuring the passengers, telling us how long we'll be in for etc.

On Virgin, the pilot kept reassuring the passengers, telling us how long we'll be in for etc.

Sounds fine but doing that (on a Long Haul flight) usually ends up with lots of passengers who really aren't worried about the bumps getting p**d off that you keep interrupting the films to make announcements ....

Mine was our delayed honeymoon. We flew to Thailand with Thai Airways then to Hong Kong with them. Then we flew on an old 747-200 of Garuda Indonesia who were later banned from European airspace from HK to Bali. There were several rivets missing from the wing, but the flight was ok, even though it was only around a quarter full. Then we had to get the same aircraft from Singapore to Jakarta. OMG! We flew through a thunderstorm. Here pilots generally go round them, but not in Indonesia. Even the hardened Aussies on the plane were going pale. It was terrifying, bucketing about for around half an hour.

I have also experienced a go-around at Bangor, Maine on an old B-Cal Tri-Star. I was coming back from a cheap girls' holiday with my cousin and we were on final approach to land to refuel when suddenly we were climbing away. The captain was brilliant. He got straight on the intercom and told us that "someone was messing around on the runway" and he didn't fancy the paperwork, so we were going to climb to 3000 feet and circle. If anyone desperately needed the toilet, they could go (a few did!)

I have flown in and out of Manchester many times and not had any issues there. However, once I was returning from Spain with the DDs, we landed at Exeter in our Flybe Embraer 195 and as soon as we touched down the plane almost stood on its nose. The pilot managed to slow it enough to turn it down the taxiway half way down the runway, rather than rolling to the end, turning round & backtracking. Lots of people on the plane were scared but I told the DDs in a loud voice that he probably had a pint of beer waiting on the bar. DH has a PPL & flies out of Exeter so we know the layout & taxiways well.

One question I have for the commercial pilots here, is the "shed effect" at Heathrow on approach to runway 27R really something you prepare for? It certainly looks dramatic.

@loginfail, I know everyone says planes are built to withstand turbulence, however a lot of fatal air accidents have been as a result of bad weather, with investigations usually finding fault with how the pilot reacted to the airplane during the bad weather incident, ie. Air France, Fly Dubai, a few of the recent Asians ones.

What is your opinion on that ?

One question I have for the commercial pilots here, is the "shed effect" at Heathrow on approach to runway 27R really something you prepare for? It certainly looks dramatic

You couldn't really do anything to prepare for it but we were aware it was probably going to experience it. You just had to make sure you "drove" through it and stayed stable....if you didn't you went around;

(For those not in the know - landing from the east/towards the west on the northerly of Heathrow's runway pair on a day when there was a wind from the south west put you downwind of all the central terminal buildings and as a result right into all the air that's been lifted/deflected/churned up as it's gone over and around the buildings.. it could make for a rough few seconds.)

I've only ever been abroad once, the flight there was fine but the flight back was really turbulent, I assume others must think so too because once we got out of the bad turbulence the whole cabin applauded. It was very sweet but never something I thought people would do!

Dh twice with civvy air. Once when flying plymouth to glasgow, once when approaching baltimore and the light aircraft landing in fronts undercarraige broke on landing and his dc10 had a rapid abort and "battleclimb" which focussed his mind, he said. Mind you as ex navy he has had one or two hairy moments landing on warships from lynx helicopters.

The pilots are used to this. Ours had to try a landing a couple of time in high winds but all was ok.