A few years back, any flight involving Indian Airlines was guaranteed to relax the sphincters. Fortunately, I don't travel in that part of the world anymore. Have they improved?
Impressed indelibly on my memory is a go-around at HYD, conducted at a very low level; at one point the port wing (which I was looking out over with horrified amazement) went "thump". I think it sliced a few centimetres off the top of a tree, or possibly a peasant, the scenery was going past so fast it wasn't possible to see what had happened. I took the train back to Delhi (which took most of a day), and have never flown with IA since. That was February 1988.
Favourite airline? Aer Lingus, on safety, service, in fact every criterion except punctuality. The approach to Sligo has to be the most poetic aviation experience a pax is going to see out of the window, now that Kai Tak is a thing of the past.