I've probably told this story on pprune before but here we go again
Many years ago my wife and I were on our way to spend Christmas with my parents on the Fylde Coast. We took off from BHD for Blackpool on a Jersey European F27. An off duty member of cabin crew was sitting at the rear of the aircraft and the wheels had barely left the ground before she was on the telephone speaking to the flight deck. There was a general flurry of activity and the aircraft levelled off. As it was a very windy evening it was pitching around quite a bit and the cabin crew immediately made an announcement to the effect there would be no refreshment service because of the turbulence. Then it emerged we were returning to BHD because of a problem with a door at the rear which was coming open. During the approach and landing someone was holding on to the door, someone was holding on to him and someone was holding on to him. Before we boarded the aircraft engineers on ladders had been examining the door closely.......
The roughest approach I ever experienced was on a BA Express ATP into
Manchester from BHD on Christmas Eve 1997. There was a howling gale blowing and the last 20 minutes or so were hell. My wife tried to be sick but because of the G forces was unable to actually lean forward to use the bag. We constantly felt as if we were sitting in mid air and then dropped into our seats again. It was hard to believe the plane was not going to break in two. I don't mind admitting I was terrified.
Another alarming incident also occurred on the approach to Manchester over Stockport Sewage Works on a perfect summer morning. The flight from BHD on an Embraer 145 had been beautiful until the plane literally rolled on to its side in one direction, righted itself and rolled on to its side on the other. There was screaming in the cabin and much consternation. The pilot immediately applied a great deal of power and climbed. He contacted the cabin crew member at the front and asked if anyone had been hurt before explaining we had been caught in the wake vortex of a much larger aircraft.
Many years ago Mrs. FF and I were returning from London Gatwick to BFS on a Dan Air 1/11. It took something like four goes for the pilot to land the plane because of poor visibility. He used the intercom to say if he failed again we would divert to Dublin but in the end a BD jet's engines blew the mist away sufficiently to allow us to get down. This by the way is what he told us word for word.