Any bad/good situations people have had flying

[james solomon]

When your flying what sort of situations have you been in like i have any interesting ones or bad ones people want to share. Ill start

Return klm 744 flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam new years eve half way into the flight about 3 hours before landing the crew over the pa ask is there any doctors onboard cos an old man has had some sort of medical problem and about 9 doctors went up but the best thing is we got in an hour ahead of schedule but this was new years day when the man had the attack

[Skyfan]

I'd have to choose between flying as baggage with a very experienced microlight pilot who knew how to put the wind up you, and as SLF avoiding T-storms/sev turb on a flight back from Ibiza in the mid 80's.

The first was bloody scary but at least you got the sense the pilot was playing with you. The second, you got the sense that someone was playing with the pilot.

[Seat62K]

Emergency landing at Detroit on a Northwest DC9-30.

[G SXTY]

We ran out of coffee once.

[JEM60]

Ran out of coffee twice.

[james solomon]

I got another one when my dad worked for BAMC and we flew standby. London airport going to egypt we go up to the desk they offload us again and again 9 times on the same day untill we said F**k it and we went to cyprus instead

[smudgethecat]

Exciting life you lead james ....yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn

[CJ1234]

week ago - did 3 long sectors and nightstop with captain who collects bottle tops, and decided to talk about it with me in detail. All day.
:{:zzz:

[Avman]

:eek: WHAT?!! A bottle top collector! What an anorak - and they run down plane spotters! :sad: ;)

[DeeCee]

We had three attempts to get from Orlando to heathrow with the number 4 engine fire alarm sounding two and a half hours into the flight leading to the engine having to be shut down. This period of time covered more than two days in Orlando Airport which, at the time, had no facilities in the evening and night. We had two small children as well. You might think that this is leading to a rant about the airline, but actually both the airline (BA) and the crew were superb and looked after us very well. On the last attempt when the alarm went off again, the Captain told us that he was taking us to New York and we could catch the next morning's flight to Heathrow.

[james solomon]

Ouch guess the 744 was playing up and had teathing problems

[gsky]

A few years ago, trying to get out of Orlando, got bumped by BA ( long story)
managed to "blag" a ticket off KLM (even longer story)..

Boarded, great welcome, invited to take business class seat on the upper deck.. offered "any" seat..
("take your pick, you are the only one up here")

It had been a very long day, and was a delayed flight so only wanted to sleep, crew kindly showed me how seat could be lowered to almost flat (pre flat bed/seat days!).

Passed on the efforts to ply me with food and drink.

Took off , lights out, and went fast asleep, woke up over Southampton to a superb breakfast..

Best flight ever

(then waited 5 hours in AMS for my connection to MAN).. such is life!)

[JustOccurred2Me]

Couple of years back, LHR - MEL via Singapore. Quite bumpy so seatbelt sign had been on for hours, no drinks service. Finally lights went off, captain announcement that all should be smooth for now. Trolleys came out, and a nice can of beer duly poured into the glass. And then it was just like in the cartoons: plane dropped a mile (i.e. about 20ft), beer hovered in mid air for a while, then plane (and my lap) came back up to meet the beer. Judging by the screams, and then laughter, everyone was in exactly the same (damp) position.

[PA38]

My worst is a couple of thousand feet over rural yorkshire in a Warrior, and the three nav aids read something different:sad:!!!!
The best is bursting through a low overcast into a brilliant sunshine:O

[boe777]

Flying from MCO to EWR 737-800, all ready to rotate on runway.. pilot informs bad weather at NWR.. headed back to terminal, got off, had a beer and then back again on our way.. while landing we encountered the worst turbulance that I have ever experienced.. it felt like we were in a boat, swells and troughs sideways.. felt we were going to meet the maker on that day.. landed with wings almost scraping the runaway.

[glhcarl]

Back when I was in product support and a operator requested assistance with a problem, I always went along on the test flight after the problem was corrected. However, several times no matter what we tried we could not duplicate the problem, so it was a hard to prove you corrected it. That always made for an interesting test flight.

[Invicta DC4]

Flying as a PPL, ATC telling you "too late to take avoiding action"

An encounter with 4 RAF Jaguars south of Birmingham at 2000' back in 1983

[FantomZorbin]

As a student, downwind at 'Biggin on the Bump' - struck by lightning!:uhoh:

[Capetonian]

Being invited to sit in the cockpit of a 747 from Santiago to Buenos Aires for that wonderful flight over the Andes.

[JEM60]

Ok. Following on from my fairly facetious reply much earlier, best was returning from Oshkosh Airshow, my wife at home, empty seat next to me, and me thinking 'Now this is when the 18 year old blonde comes on board and sit's in this seat'. Believe it or not, it happened, except she was 17, on her first trip out of the States, and the most delightful nights company to Heathrow. Made my night [and it's not what you are thinking.] She was beautiful and excellent company. Thankyou, Denise.

[james solomon]

Nice one there

[Tercarley]

Coming out of cloud at 30K ft out of Tehran and a fighter came straight across the nose of the aircraft - 747!!!!

[Tercarley]

Another one was on our way to Beirut when 2 Israeli military a/craft came up after forays into Syria I think. They were off home leaving the VC10 in the sky. Suddenly we saw these trails around us in the sky and they were heat seeking missiles and us witrh these 4 engines there on the tail. We managed to manouvre the aircraft safely into Beirut and spoke to the Station Officer whose reply was that - its nothing missiles were coming across the airport at low level yesterday!!!!!!!

Managed to get the Cabin Crew to continue the journey - they didnt want to - but did in the end. As soon as I landed at LHR was on the phone to BALPA who demanded that BOAC stop operating into Beirut. They did!!!

[james solomon]

Scary but its wise to ring about the problem as then airlines dont operate in a warzone and get fried

[Checkboard]

I wrote down some of my stories here:

https://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/360003-few-flying-stories.html :ok:

[Mike X]

Check, great stories. Thanks.

1992, JNB to CPT, B742 (SAA Swartberg). Only 8 pax. Asked to sit upstairs with friend. Cockpit door open all the way. In cockpit (10 mins) during cruise - could hear a pin drop. Pilots unbelievably cordial. Standing in the cabin stealing a view through cockpit window approaching large cloud. Pilot banks hard left. Yours truly ends up slumped over seats. Got a good view of approach and landing (I know, should have been buckled in).

1996, Jnb to CPT, A300B4 (SAA). Captain's announcement : "Good evening ladies and gentelmen, I'm your captain, Ken Tuck...and we'll be serving chicken this evening..." Confirmed with cabin crew at a party a few years later. Ken Tuck(y) indeed. Nothing was served as turbulence prevented this in spite of a few altitude changes.

[aviatordom]

Good situations have been flightdeck visits for me!

One was on the way back from JFK to LHR with BA, B747-400, got to sit in the captains seat (quite an achievment I think!)

Second time was on a BA 757 from BCN-LHR. Sat in the deck for ages and was given some flight paperwork as a souvenir (this made me over the moon!):}

Other great experiences include going through a massive patch of turbulence whilst on the way to JFK when we were flying over the tips of North Canada. I was in absolute awe and excitement at watching the wing flap about, needless to say, my Mum was quite frightened, so bad experience for her.

Other cool memories come back when your stomach drops when there's turbulence and hearing the engines spool up suddenly when the clouds rush past:}:}

[james solomon]

Nice stuff there

[JEM60]

:)Aerobatics in a Vampire T.11 at Shawbury as an Air Training Corps Cadet. Jump seat BA747 into Toronto, all the way to the stand. Jump seat 757 into Fuertaventura, Jump seat Trident 2 into Heathrow. On the Flight Deck of Concorde G-BOAB at height and speed, with my video camera, DRUNK!!!!. [well, slightly. Free champagne!] and my PPL of course, long since lapsed, and meeting hordes of very special people from all walks of life in the aeroplane world. Me, I'm just an ordinary guy with a bit of luck, right place at the right time.:):)

[barry lloyd]

Sitting in the exec lounge in Stockholm one dark wintry evening many years ago, when in walked the four members of Abba, who were also flying to London. They were so friendly, and we had a great chat, and it carried on all the way to London - oh and I finally found out what a 'Super Trouper was!

[scudpilot]

spent xmas 2005 in Canada with some relatives, flew LHR - Montreal, remarked to the Mrs that the flight we remarkably smooth, spoke too soon, all hell broke loose, we were at the back of a BA 777, so probably felt worse than it was, overhead lockers flew open, the man sitting next to my mrs was praying and crying, and I spent the last 20 minutes gripping onto the seat in front staring at the countdown to landing.
When we finally did land, we spent 30 minutes on the runway while the snow ploughs came out to clear a path to the terminal!

[aviatordom]

Wow JEM60, those must be some pretty cool memories indeed!:eek:

3 jump-seat rides, and getting to look in Concorde's "deck" whilst in the air!

Pretty neat:ok:

[james solomon]

Lucky man I would have liked to have a fly on concorde before it was grounded

[james solomon]

2007 return from Cologne the time of the christmas markets into Manchester and the door was frozen shut. I think the Germans understood the anouncement but the brits had no clue hlx flight before it became TUIfly