Worst sector ever?

[Mick Strigg]

I have just hear about a really scary flight around the edge of the recent Far East Typhoon, that scared the pants off the FA's and probably the pilots too. The a/c was struck by lightning twice and the passengers applauded when they touched down.

What was your worst flight?

[easy1]

Between India and singapore during the monsoon season is always intresting, 5+ hours in chop, does put you off your food!

[betpump5]

Around this time, every landing in the Far East is pretty interesting. The flyover just before Manila's RWY 24 scares the life out of me sometimes. Keep the speed up just in case of wind shear. Problem is with the wet runway and a high landing speed, it can get exciting. Many aircraft have gone overran in the past.

[ashlea]

Landing into Kathmandu (Tribhuvan) can be rather alarming.. it's only 6km from the city and it's very mountainous. Beautiful though!

[northern-light]

The worst flight I have had was a few months ago, going to Tunis. We were flying through a thunderstorm on approach, so it was getting a little bumpy.
The captain made a PA that the cabin crew should take their seats...
Needless to say, i put my seatbelt on straight away! I noticed a pax sitting in the seat opposite me, and he wasnt wearing his seatbelt! I told him to put it on, to which he replies: "Nahh... Im a frequent flyer, nothing ever happens!!"
Only a minute later the plane gets pushed down, and im forced against my seatbelt... (my crew idea is floating in front of my face) I see the man lift off his seat, and as the aircraft is suddenly pushed upwards again, he smashes down on the armrest. I have never heard a man scream so loud!! Turns out he broke his tailbone!!
So much for being a frequent flyer!

[tyer22]

serves him right for not following the rules :ok:

[jetset lady]

Bad weather? Turbulence? In Flight emergency? Pah! They are nothing. You want a really bad sector? Then try stepping onboard an aircraft full of so called football fans!

My worst sector ever was a relatively short hop from MAN-LGW. We were positioning crew, following a long haul flight into MAN and England had been playing, but if memory serves me correctly, had lost or drawn the match. However, due to some other team losing, England had made it to the World Cup or European Cup or whatever other cup was in question that year. The crew, it pains me to say, were woefully ineffective and the flight was carnage. Singing through the demo, abuse to the crew serving drinks and the underlying tension that always seems to be present whenever football fans get together. Sure enough, shortly before landing, a fight broke out amongst the passengers sat by the overwing exits. The crew did nothing, preferring to hide in the galley. I have never, in my life, wanted off an aircraft more desperately than I did that day. No one was there to meet the aircraft and the imbeciles carried on through arrivals and were last seen kicking eight bells out of each other in the road outside the North Terminal.

I now work for that same airline and am the one that has to contend with those football fans. I still dread those flights, to this day and follow the football calendars, solely in an attempt to avoid the flights. Club fans are usually not too bad. Once they've been given the facts of life on the jetty before I let em on, they'll usually keep a lid on it, although, for some reason, certain Rangers fans still occasionally need a clip round the ear to remind them of their responsibilities. The really big dread is reserved for when England or Scotland are playing and the rival factions come together. All those flights have one similarity. That same underlying tension. The knowledge that you are operating on a knife edge and that violence is just one wrong look, or one wrong word, away.

And it's all, supposedly, about a damned game! :ugh:

Jsl

P.S. Erm..sorry...got a bit carried away! :O

[Michael Birbeck]

Jetset Lady

You have summed up the air of thuggery that accompanies some of these games very well indeed.

You have my utmost sympathy and respect for having to deal with some of these barbarians.

MB

(Of course not all are hooligans or thugs but ...)

[tyer22]

well thank god we have a reinforced door to separate us at the front of the plane from the hooligans in the cabin.

[Parva]

Your cabin crew must feel so happy to have someone so caring and feeling for them up at the front.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Parva;

As a young P2 a P1 I was crewed with left the FD for a "comfort break" and was asked while out to help with a disruptive passenger. I ended up landing the aircraft alone as the P1 needed to go to hospital. Since then I've been very circumspect in involving FD crew in any form of cabin altercation.

An injured pilot is a major problem. I prefer a call from down the back, if its' really serious I'm happy to divert on the reccomendation of a senior CC member.

SND

[Lamyna Flo]

Your cabin crew must feel so happy to have someone so caring and feeling for them up at the front.

Perhaps you'd be happier if the flight deck crew left the cockpit and put their lives, and the safety of the entire aircraft, at risk, to get involved in whatever altercation may be going on in the cabin?

Use your brain.

[wiggy]

Come on guys (?), to be fair to Parva whilst we all, including our Cabin Crew colleagues know the logic behind the locked door :* policy that wasn't the most tactful of comments......

[VS-LHRCSA]

I remember a football charter some years ago - Prestwick Rangers supporters, I think - where the aircraft taxiing back to stand and flight cancelled due to the mood of the pax. The crew couldn't even get through the demo.

[Mister Geezer]

Calm down folks. I think Parva is feeling that such a comment is not showing very much concern for what may be happening in the cabin and the original comment was probably not supposed to be interpreted in that manner anyway!

We may have a locked flight deck door but we still have a crew in the cabin to essentially look after when we are locked in our pit! Our responsibilities as 'drivers' are still the same, it is just that adopting a hand on approach is now simply out of the question.

I currently work in a North African country where a government employed security official is always on board a passenger flight. It is not a bad idea really!

[Parva]

I do apologise for the tone of my original response as it wasn't as intended. I realise that those up front need to be able to retain control of the aircraft in the event of an emergency (such as a mass riot!) and I mis-took the reply to which I responded to as meaning he didn't give two hoots about the welfare of the cabin crew and for that I apologise.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Parva;

An elegant apology, something few people can ever manage. I personally hate the locked door policy. Since it was instigated we seldom get as many visits from CC, and we feel discouraged from just bimbling down to the galley to collect tea, have a stretch and a laugh.

FD value CC far higher than I think either party realise, because we are human we never communicate it properly.

SND

[Pilot Pacifier]

Flying low level between Gereshk and Camp Bastion in Afghanistan when local comes out of his 'mud house' and uses his AK47 as a form of a flying complaint.

Wouldn't have been so bad if the gunner on the ramp of the Chinook had replied in full, he was so astonished that he didn't even move :eek:

Passengers wanted to go back and 'sort the chap out.'

Just a different perspective on, 'What's your worse flight,' and that by far wasn't the worse!!!