Travel Worst Flights Ever

[rdhopkins2]

Have you ever survived a flight thinking it was the "worst flight ever?" Tell us about it.

Two spring to mind for me:-

Egypt Air Luxor- Abu Simbel 2007
where we "dive bombed" in to land as a terrorist missile avoidance tactic. Freaky landing.

Sempati Air Jakarta- Singapore 1993 where parts of the engine fell off mid flight, met by full emergency services on the SIN runway.

Must admit to slight nerves in September when I had 4 Malaysian Airlines flights.

 

[bresker]

I was served nuts in bag instead of on a plate once.

 

[iDon]

Travelling from Hong Kong - London. QANTAS

Plain was delayed by over 3 hours due to storm. We take off it what seems like a storm. As we lift off lightning strikes the plane, followed by worlds worst turbulence. We circle a little to assess if we are going back down to land but continue on. We miss our landing spot for Heathrow and then have to circle another 3 hours above London. (might have been 2 can't remember).

Entertainment system was turned off, only bottled water and nuts provided and all the female airhostess were nowhere to be found. Once we proceeded to descend we were informed it could be bumpy. Bumpy was an understatement. Felt like we landed on the moon, jumping all over the place. Even the air hosts commented it was the worst landing they had experienced.

But ey number 1 QANTAS! Whoop.

 

[Gasometer]

Saw Darryl Somers on a flight.

 

[Gasometer]

Flew internally in India in late 90's.

Plane lands somewhere.

Instead of disembarking I was allowed to stay on board as the cleaners cleaned, plane was restocked, maybe refuelled and several doors opened out to the tarmac.

Not the worst flight, just different and pre Sept 11th.

 

[Paul Kersey]

Saw Darryl Somers on a flight.

Think most famous person I've had right near me is Sam Soliman.

 

[Gasometer]

Worst was landing in Dallas in early 1990's in a winter rain/storm.

Prolly the only time I thought this is it.

 

[Gasometer]

Think most famous person I've had right near me is Sam Soliman.

Still asked for Daz's auto...I was 10 yrs old and HHS was still on Sat mornings.

 

[Gough]

Air Zim from Kariba to Harare on an old Air Namibia DC10 because Mugabe had commandeered the entire Air Zim fleet to send soldiers into the Congo.

 

[craigos]

Flight from Perth to Brisbane. An hour left until we landed,, needed to shit, decided I'd hang out until we landed. As soon as the seatbelt sign went up the turtle began to poke it's head out, started profusely sweating and praying to any God that would listen. Finally land and I think I'm home free only to discover that we were required to wait on the tarmac for 15 minutes because of lightning strikes in the area.

like dis if u cry evertim

 

[The Coup]

Air Laos... just any time you're on Air Laos.

There are also some very dodgy regional airstrips in Australia, let alone PNG, without being too specific.

 

[Scotland]

Accra to Takoradi flying Antrak Air.

At no point was confidence inspired.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Flying back from Perth to Melbourne around the time of that volcanic ash cloud. Was bored and had frequent flyer points to kill so changed my flight from a 4pm direct to Melbourne to a 2pm to Sydney then to Melbourne. Figured a couple of hours at Sydney airport would be better than a couple of hours in Perth.

Because of the ash cloud we went from Perth to Sydney basically via Alice Springs, they showed the thing on the screen and we were taking a massive loop around SA. So my 2 hour gap between flights in Sydney became 15 minutes. Fortunately the gates were right next to each other so I was okay. Unsurprisingly, my luggage didn't make it to Melbourne until the next day.

Got to Melbourne around 10pm (the time my original direct flight was scheduled to get there). But on the way out I got a look at the Arrivals board, my original flight now wasn't scheduled to arrive until 4am.

So, bad flight, but a huge bullet dodged.

 

[Gasometer]

Flight from Perth to Brisbane. An hour left until we landed,, needed to shit, decided I'd hang out until we landed. As soon as the seatbelt sign went up the turtle began to poke it's head out, started profusely sweating and praying to any God that would listen. Finally land and I think I'm home free only to discover that we were required to wait on the tarmac for 15 minutes because of lightning strikes in the area.

like dis if u cry evertim

Always drop the kids off at the pool early.

 

[Paul Kersey]

Board flight in Vietnam with a case of the shits. Load up on imodium.

Proceed to lightly sleep until plane starts to descend. Thinking that's the best I've slept on a flight, can get home and seek medical help for the shits etc, only to be told we're landing in Darwin due to an ill passenger (hope they were ok). Ended up losing five kilos and two weeks off work.

 

[Nothing]

Flying Merpati Air (?) from Jakarta to Medan in the 90s. The passengers clapped when the plane landed.

It was at that point I realised that a safe landing was an achievement for Merpati.

 

[DrKrieger]

I was served nuts in bag instead of on a plate once.

I certainly hope they didn't allow the flight to continue after such a horrendous event

 

[rdhopkins2]

Flying Merpati Air (?) from Jakarta to Medan in the 90s. The passengers clapped when the plane landed.

It was at that point I realised that a safe landing was an achievement for Merpati.

That's not uncommon worldwide (clapping) but Merpati are colloquially known as "The flying coffin."

 

[rdhopkins2]

Don't

I certainly hope they didn't allow the flight to continue after such a horrendous event

worry he sacked the purser & had the aircraft back to the gate to load up on Samboys & Pizza Shapes

 

[Bomberboyokay]

I certainly hope they didn't allow the flight to continue after such a horrendous event

Hope he kicked off the crew chief.

 

[RolandF1]

10 years ago I did a job interview over the phone for a place at Mildura and it went quite well so they wanted to fly me over there for a 2nd. I was to pop on the plane and do the interview that morning. It had been a while since I had been on a plane but that was okay, was excited for the opportunity. Turned out it was a small plane and it was foggy and really windy the whole way, knocking the plane around something fierce. Was a white sheet by the time we set down. Disaster of an interview. The flight back was ****ing smooth sailing of course.

 

[Gough]

10 years ago I did a job interview over the phone for a place at Mildura and it went quite well so they wanted to fly me over there for a 2nd. I was to pop on the plane and do the interview that morning. It had been a while since I had been on a plane but that was okay, was excited for the opportunity. Turned out it was a small plane and it was foggy and really windy the whole way, knocking the plane around something fierce. Was a white sheet by the time we set down. Disaster of an interview. The flight back was ******* smooth sailing of course.

Roxby Downs to Adelaide on a six seater in turbulence is pretty bad, I puked my guts up. My mother has memories of my old man getting off the plane carrying two bags of my vomit, with a very pale Gough trailing behind.

 

[RolandF1]

Roxby Downs to Adelaide on a six seater in turbulence is pretty bad, I puked my guts up. My mother has memories of my old man getting off the plane carrying two bags of my vomit, with a very pale Gough trailing behind.

Yeah this was 6 seater too. Been on a few of them since to Eyre Pennisula but nothing like that flight to Mildura. Must be the way it is flying North of Adelaide.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

10 years ago I did a job interview over the phone for a place at Mildura and it went quite well so they wanted to fly me over there for a 2nd. I was to pop on the plane and do the interview that morning. It had been a while since I had been on a plane but that was okay, was excited for the opportunity. Turned out it was a small plane and it was foggy and really windy the whole way, knocking the plane around something fierce. Was a white sheet by the time we set down. Disaster of an interview. The flight back was ******* smooth sailing of course.

On the upside you didn't have to live in Mildura.

 

[rippersnipper]

This year, Qatar airways from Paris to Doha on an A340-600. Remember about 30 mins in the pilot comes over the com, "we're expecting a little bit of turbulence soon" or something along those lines. Within 10 seconds of him saying that the plane went from FL340 to FL330 in one go. I thought we were going to crash it was that abrupt. The next 20 mins was filled with huge fluctuations in height and I am not ashamed to say I was scared shitless