flying over the Atlantic Ocean on the way home from Italy.
It was 2 weeks after the destruction of the World Trade Center and the entire trip had been somewhat marred by that- lots of check points, soldiers, many manchine guns in the US airports and the Italian ones...
strange all the way around when juxstoposed against all the tremendous Art and landscapes in Italy.
Anyway- the plane started experiencing some pretty strong turbulence and I think I kind of flipped for a couple minutes- I felt like we were all going to die, my entire family would be dead together and there was nothing we could do about it. I started crying even. My sister had to calm me down.

Of course, everything was fine afterwards, but I've never been freaked by flying- I enjoy it- just that time- I felt like, I never want to be on a plane again.

there, Spike- your turn.

probably being stuck on a tarmac in mexico for repairs. it was 100F, the sun was beating down on the vessel, and they had to turn the engine off to do repairs, meaning no a/c. this lasted for close to two hours.

I also nearly missed a flight from Boston to PA one time, and they gave me the last available seat - all the way in the back, in the very middle seat of what amounted to a 'bench seat' that 4 other people were sitting on as well- two on either side of me.
ugh.

anytime i've been stuck with the middle seat is a candidate for worst experience.

I was about 11 years old and we went to Florida for Easter break. I had come down with swimmer's ear from either the hotel pool or the ocean. Flying home, the pressure change was actually causing pain and was probably the most uncomfortable I've been on a plane. Nothing major, so I guess I've been lucky. The only problems I've ever ran into is being seated next to someone else with broad shoulders; one person kinda has to lean forward and things like that mess up my lower back pretty easily.

I've never missed a flight, but I was worried about it a few weeks ago on a return trip from LA. Had a connecting flight in Detroit, but there was rain in LA that was delaying flights (not even a good rain, which I got a good laugh at being from a northern city with bad weather) so by time we landed in Detroit, I had about 5 minutes until the departure time for my flight back home. I found which gate I was supposed to be at and it was in a whole nother terminal. I pretty much decided at that point that there was no use in running, but I still made my way there quickly. Made it to the gate and handed the woman my boarding pass only to be told that they weren't even boarding my zone yet.

Coming back from Iraq in 2003. Was put on a military charter flight, which was an MD-11 I think, so not so big. I was the first stop, with about 8 more stops around the Middle East. Then to Frankfurt, then to BWI. We were not allowed to get off the plane at all, even in Frankfurt. Ended up spending 28 hours on the plane. The worst part was, they had monitors to show movies but didn't show any. Instead, they showed a screen relaying where we were and how many more hours we had to go to each destination.

I would have rather been back in the desert riding camels than go through that.

Rebar wins this round- Jesus, 28 hours!
that's sick.

aeroflot prop job from helsinki to moscow. felt like we were flying through enemy fire.

broken "no smoking" sign was out & they needed to repair it, causing a two-hour delay
which they didn't fix anyway.

Missed the connecting flight

Dead of winter and my then two year-old was sick.

Delta made me cry.

I've never had a bad time on a plane.

i think it was either 84 or 85 my grandparents bought tickets for me and my brother to surprise my father since he lived in california. i think about three weeks to go to our flight and there as an extremely horrific delta crash in texas.

our flight was on


delta


my seat

window seat


my view

the planes wing

ever watch a wing ripple cause of the air...thats the norm, but i was convinced we were going to die

Prague to Dublin..worst turbulence ever..white knuckle, lights flickering people screaming everytime the plane did a big lurch punctuating the being constantly knocked around, which it did every few seconds..that sort of turbulence for three hours, nearly made an emergency landing in the UK it was so bad. The applause upon landing wasn't corny at all, but hearfelt.

taxying on the way out from JFK only to have the pilot tell us there was something wrong with the engine, then on the way back to the terminal, they 'fixed' whatever it was and off we went. that was the longest flight ever.


That or Little Rock to Council Bluffs/Omaha on a 15 seater twin prop in july. really smooth flight but do you really wana be in tornado alley in july in a lane that size? I didn't.

oh and poxy ryanair, Dublin to London, the left engine failed about 20 seconds after take off! did he turn around and land? did he fuck! went the whole hour on one engine. That was effin frightening and the cause of my plane fear actually.

i was in the bathroom, mid stream, and the fucking plane started to bounce.

and

every notice how the toilet in an airplane has like this metal flap. its so that shit doesnt come flying at your face when the plane starts to rock and roll.

snakes

On a plane?

Yeah, that couple trying to join the mile-high club in the bathroom wasn't too thrilled.

Are you a member of the mile-high club, Christopher?