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?

Yes, flying into Seoul Kimpo airport in the 90s. Half empty plane as the flight originated in Hong Kong and loads of people got off in Taipei. There was a thunderstorm, plus approaching Seoul is over mountains which create updrafts anyway. I had a 6 year old and 3 year old with me and had to pretend it was all absolutetely fine , but it was so up and down and juddery that I was petrified. I was saying things like ' ooh, it's like being on the bumpy bus' to my kids, in a wierdly high sing- song voice that wouldn't have fooled anyone!
Despite the emptiness of the flight we had a poor woman right behind us who was just throwing up for what seemed like forever. Fortunately we had 3 months before flying anywhere again so I could get my nerve back!

I’m ex cabin crew.
Landing into Barcelona one crew member broke her finger as she grabbed a passenger seat during turbulence.
I was sick in landing into Bilbao 🤮
I’ve been struck by lightning landing into Frankfurt.
Lots of dips over the Atlantic.
The flight crew know when we hit turbulence or about to. Sometimes it’s difficult to predict, but they pilots will contact air traffic control to descend or ascend on the height depending on where the turbulence is.
I’ve never been thrown around as such as ‘went with the aircraft’ as in I move with the plane.

Yes twice, once when I was about 15 going on holiday to Majorca and we had to land in a thunderstorm and then again at 23. Flying back from Venice on my birthday, hit an air pocket over the Alps and the plane took a dive and the oxygen masks popped out

It was during the monsoon season and I had about 2 hours of a flight left into Singapore (from London). The flight had been really calm and then suddenly it went really bumpy. The seatbelt sign came on and pilot started speaking. He didn’t get to finish what he was saying as the plane dropped. I flew up into the air even though I had my seatbelt on. The woman next to me was still trying to put hers on and she flew up about one foot. I remember hearing trolleys crashing. Cabin crew came round to check on everyone and then they were buckled up for the rest of the flight. The pilot said we dropped about 5000 feet. Big round of applause went up once we had landed. As we disembarked I walked past a medical team with a stretcher waiting to board.

Also had a couple of bumpy landings (both into the UK) where we were caught in cross winds which felt as though the plane was rocking from side to side.

Yep, shortly after the air france plane crashed in the atlantic, in a storm in pretty much the same place. Dc and me all throwing up from the shaking, but cabin crew were firmly strapped in to their seats so couldn’t help.

Was awful, but I was more concerned with the throwing up than the fear of dying at that point.

Got back on a plane on same route two weeks later, wanted to come home!

Yep, coming back from LA flying through high winds and thermals above Nevada. I've always been fine so long as the cabin crew looked OK but this time the pilot announced "Cabin Crew, any seat, NOW" and they just dropped. The pilot then came on and gave a really technical explanation of what was happening and why, how the G forces were about half what the plane was tested to and basically demonstrating that he had more knowledge in his little fingernail than everyone else on board combined. I now need valium to fly.

Flying from Vienna to LHR when I was young free and single and on a weekend away with a friend
So bumpy that the cabin crew wouldn’t serve hot drinks , but we had a few GnTs and the world was grand
Coming back from Palma with DD and DH ( and DD was a nervous flyer )
Took off in a lightning storm , seemed to climb forever , DD sobbing with head in hands , me thinking we’d turn back and working out how to get back home by land as we’d never get DD on the plane again
Worst
Flight
Ever
DD has since got over her fear of flying , been to NYC whilst at Uni , then travelled to Thailand , Vietnam etc on her gap year
I’m still wary !

Yes, flying back from Florida during hurricane season. Stuff fell out the overhead lockers, staff were told to take their seats, we were told to fasten seat belts and a trolley flew up the aisle.
I've flown since.

I've had a few really ropey ones over the years, but then for the last 15+ years (other than covid) I've done 50+ flight legs per year.

Memorable ones include a 3rd attempt landing at Manchester (from Brussels) after major wind shear problems and some big drops on descent. The hysterical girls and women screaming weren't helpful, but we got down almost on time and I didn't miss my meeting.

Another one was a flight from Istanbul to Singapore which encountered some very rough weather and at one point it felt like I was floating as we dropped so far - I was in business class on a lie-flat bed at the time so the floating feeling was very pronounced.

I really don't worry on flights, if I'm honest, as I'm naturally pragmatic and air travel is inherently very safe.

Landing in Pisa late at night, were almost touching down, like literally seconds away when suddenly the pilot pulled up very steeply. Air traffic control hadn’t cleared the runaway...

As a child going to Hawaii, very bad turbulence, although I had just seen Castaway & my family were all sitting apart so I was on my own which probably made it seem worse than it was!

Also very very windy landing in Amsterdam, pilot came in extremely low for miles with an extremely rocky landing. Everyone cheered when we landed & then the airport was promptly closed due to high winds.

Lots of transatlantic flights ive been on have been really rough. However, none of them have been as bad as a P&O Ferry I crossed the Bay of Biscay on. Never again 🤢 Turbulence usually passes relatively quickly. Bad weather out there in the BoB lasts hours and feels like a lifetime. Thought I was going to die.

We flew through a thunderstorm once and the wing of the plane was struck by lightning.

Yep, on the way to Germany when I was late teens. Was sat next to a young German chap who was a first time flyer. We started doing slam drops like at Alton Towers and he grabbed hold of my hand in terror. I felt quite embarrassed as he was a stranger but he looked completely white and was shaking so I knew he was genuine.
When the turbulence had calmed down I remember trying to "cheer" him up by telling him that the brace position wasn't to save your life in the event of a crash but to stop your teeth flying out so you could be identified from your dental records...
Not my finest hour - I wasn't super sensitive as a teen! 🙄😆

Can't remember where I'd been but hit the turbulence and there were drinks flying everywhere like you see on films. Cabin crew told to sit down immediately - we had one across from us and she was trying to pretend it was no big deal when it clearly was. DH was nearly crying. I hit my head off the side of the plane, blacked out for a minute and had to be checked out by first aid before I could leave the airport.

Been on lots of flights since. God, I miss flying.

So I was so scared of flying, I hadn't done it for 8 years. Then 3 years ago had to go for work. 30 seater, propeller thing, sat in the back row. So windy the pilot warned us before take-off, gonna be a rough one folks!
Woman next to me nearly crying. Asks me, do you fly a lot? Have you ever heard that announced before. I breezily lie, oh yeah, all the time. Thinking 'shiiiiiiit'. We take off, I kid you not, plane is being thrown around like a ball in a washing machine. It was surreal, like a flight simulator! Everyone screaming, or silent, vomiting, screaming, screaming. Lady next to me so scared I say she can hold my hand, which she quickly does. Nearly climbs on my lap she's that scared.
And for some reason, I realised I wasn't that scared?!?! I had absolute faith in the confidence &ability of the pilot (clearly my therapy had worked!!) &since then it just doesn't phase me! It was that bad, and it was fine, iyswim!!

@torquewench ooh I've done that crossing a couple of times, it can be rough.
I once did a 12 hour North Sea crossing in the winter though < not envy.

Two.

Once flying back from Mexico when after about fifteen minutes of really horrific dips and dives, the pilot told the cabin crew to strap in and then a short while later, take the brace position. Stuff was flying around the plane and i was absolutely terrified. The captain was amazing though and kept saying it's just a precaution and that they anticipated we'd be out the other side within 8 minutes. We were. But seeing the cabin crew with their heads between their knees made my insides turn to jelly.

Second scary flight wasn't turbulence. We were in a tiny propeller plane (8 passengers) flying from Tanzania to Zanzibar. There was no division to the cockpit or anything - we were 'with' the pilot so were sat 'with' him.
About fifteen minutes in, he started breathing strangely and holding his chest. He was a big man and was also sweating profusely. And there was no co-pilot or even any other member cabin crew.

We were all literally asking each other if anyone had flying experience (no) and frantically watching him to try and 'learn' what to do before he keeled over. Obviously I'm still here and we landed ok but the pilot couldn't get of the plane fast enough and it was left to someone else to come and help us disembark.

We were once on an internal flight in India. The plane looked very old and tired. As we got on my husband said ‘every bone in my body says we shouldn’t get on this flight’ but we did. There was a seat missing in one row and then we noticed another seat that someone was sitting in wasn’t secured and was literally falling down so they had to sort of prop it up.

I can’t remember if it is Boeing or Airbus but there’s a plane that Ryanair uses that makes a sort of ‘swish swish’ sound before take off, after the engine has started. It made that noise but it sounded broken.

The landing was very shoddy!

This wasn’t even that long ago. It was 2016!

When I was a child we had an awful crossing across the channel. The 1.5 journey took about 4.5 hours and the wind and waves were too big so we couldn’t get into the docks. The boat was falling on to its side then bobbing back up so all the duty free alcohol was smashed - it smelt awful!

Flying home from maybe Zante and the plane suddenly started going up and down. Very deliberately, like the pilot was 'testing' something. Cabin crew strapped themselves in and we circled Kefalonia a few times before eventually heading on our way. Never knew what that was all about.
Taking off in a thunderstorm from Tunisia wasn't pleasant.
The flight into Corfu airport terrrifies me. Just so low in over the water.
A very bumpy landing into Manchester resulting in some casing from the rear of the plane coming loose, flying forward and smacking a passenger on the head. They were really quite badly hurt and had to stay behind as everyone departed.

Not turbulence, but most unsettling experience was a go around in fog landing at Heathrow - the previous plane had still been on the runway!

I have found all flights to India that go over Pakistan, to be awful. Presumably something to do with mountains. It's the plummeting that I find most terrifying. I've woken up when my seatbelt tightened across my lap because I was in the air.

You know it's going to be bad when the flight attendants strap themselves in.

Oh, I've also had a near miss go around and a crash on the tarmac at Kathmandu airport.

I bloody hate flying. Have to be V drunk these days.

I've had three pretty terrifying experiences, but only 2 on planes.

1. Flying some old Russian plane to Kenya years ago. We hit really bad turbulence over Egypt, and lightning, and dropped quite a few times (each time my stomach dropped too). I could see the lightning right out the window, and it was freaking me out. I was also sitting next to a nun, who then started praying out loud (really freaked me out). Never again.

2. Flying a tiny prop plane over the Cascade Mountains in rural Washington state. It was snowing, and I had been travelling for like 20 hours at that point. Our tiny plane was getting buffeted about by the wind, and once we cleared the mountains, the drop into the airport was horrific. We tried landing a few times, and for a while they said we might have to fly back to Seattle base, but actually managed it in the end. I felt so sick.

3. Not a plane, but a terrible tiny ferry ride, in which we hit awful waters, and everyone on the boat was heaving. I had to sit 4+ hours next to people just heaving into bags next to me, and seeing sick on the floors.

On first ever long haul flight going on honeymoon, there was mild turbulence. A lady a couple of rows back started wailing that we were all going to die. We didn't.

Another long haul, we were in the bulkhead seats near the toilet. I came back to my seat, saw legs protruding through the curtain and someone was passed out in the aisle. They had to do the "is there a doctor on board?" thing which my brother lives in fear of as he is a doctor.

I've had a few other bumpy ones and some rough landings. I can understand if you got one of those first, it could definitely be off putting.