Scary experiences
 

What was your worst?

I have had a few over the last years living in S.E.Asia. One that stands out occured in Indonesia between the small airport of Semarang to Jakarta. I forget the name of the airline but it was one of the smaller regional airlines that operate on the domestic routes.

The aircraft was a brand new ATP. So new that there were British groundcrew working in Jakarta to service and do the turnaround.

I was sitting in an aisle seat late at night and had a clear view through the open cockpit door as we started the take-off roll at Semerang. Half-way down the runway there was a chiming in the cockpit and a large red light lit up on the top of the control panel. The crew aborted the take-off and we returned to the terminal (Sorry I mean small building at edge of the field). After a short discussion in the cockpit, during which time the red light remained on, the cockpit door was closed and we proceeded back to the runway and took off. At this point a few of the passengers who had seen what happened were visibly disturbed.

After take-off the undercarriage was raised and shortly after lowered again. This was repeated about 4 or 5 times during which I lost track of whether they were up or down.(!) There was no announcement from the crew. The cockpit door remained closed and the stewardess remained strapped into her seat.

After what seemed like a long time we started decent into Jakarta and finally were on the final approach. All the passengers were very concerned about what was happening and there was a lot of worried faces and quiet discussion in the cabin. As we decended we all sat quietly and I waited for the undercarriage to be lowered, waited and waited but the familiar whoosh and rumble of the gear going down never came. (It never occured to me that we had flown the whole way from Semerang with the undercarriage down but that was the case.)! As the wheels touched down it was the biggest relief I can remember and was very happy to get off that flight!

I always avoided flying in Indonesia after that!

Anyone got a similar story to relate!

January 26th 1991 (it is seared into my memory!!)

Late evening departure from HKG (Kai Tak, Hong Kong) in the normal route which was out over Victoria Harbour and to the open sea.

BA 747-400
Lower desk, in Club on the Starboard side, by the window with a view out in front of the wing.

Just after we had rotated, there was a very loud BANG from the direction of the N0 3 engine :eek:

The aircraft shuddered and seemed to falter for a moment and then continued to climb away as if nothing had happened.

Two rather worried bunnies holding hands tightly!!

I have never experienced anything like before or since. For which I am very glad!

If anyone could make a suggestion as to what it was, I would be very interested to hear. Like too much Hong Kong soy sauce in the fuel mix ;)

Oh gawd, Maud dont these trades people realise its "Port out, Starboard home".

Aug '95 - last CX flight from Seoul to HK on a Friday night. Typhoon 8 with strong winds, producing very difficult landing conditions. Ours was among the last (if not the last) to land. Three attempts from the West over the buildings. We reached 500 - 1,000 ft each time only for the pilot to be forced to abort. On the third, it seemed for a moment that we were were not getting back-up. We circled for about 15 minutes and (apparently) as there was no where else to go for the time being the pilot tried one more time, this time from the East. He put that sucker down with emphasis.

Afterwards, I shared a taxi to our building with a member of the cockpit crew. When he very eagerly joined me for a stiff scotch at home ("I don't ever want to go through that again!", he said), then I knew it had been a bad experience.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

[ 23 July 2001: Message edited by: man in black ]

I remember flying back to Gatwick from Hong Kong in 1982. When we left Hong Kong, we knew that that UK had just had a slight covering of snow and the flight went ahead as planned. Again, after the stop-off at Dubai (I think it was) the weather was the same in the UK and we continued onwards.
However, during the latter part of the flight the weather took a turn for the worse in Southern UK with heavy snow blizzads causing havoc. When we got close to Gatwick, the pilot told us that we would need to hold for quite a while whilst the runway was cleared sufficiently to land. He also said that all other airports in the area were having the same problem. 45 mins later the pilot told us that Gatwick were having problems clearing the runway and there was no alternative airport available he now had no other option, due to low fuel, but to attempt a landing at Gatwick. We all had to get into the brace position during the landing, which was a bit bumpy and seemed to take forever to stop, but the guys up front got the plane down wonderfully. A round of applause went around the plane as we taxied in (just like in corney american movies!).

Seems to me Tailspin that guy made an error by risking goinging past his alternate fuel for clearer places (possibly in France). If what you say is correct then I wouldnt have given him a rousing cheer. More like a bloodey sock in the jaw for gambling with my life like that. :mad:
We are paid to use our superior skills to avoid situations requiring our superior skill. Its owed to our passengers and ourselves. The Buck Rogers and James Kirk predilection for getting into serious situations that couldve been easily avoided in the first instance have no place in the modern airline cockpit.

Paxboy,

I had a similar one to yours.

SQ A310 from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (only 40 mins) just as we rotated there was a loud bang followed by a lot of vibration. At first I thought it was the undercarriage leaving the runway but the vibration continued and we flew out level just a couple of hunderd feet above the sea towards Batam. After 30 secs or so there was a boost of power and we climbed steeply during which time the vibration was very strong. (A lot of worried bunnies!) After that we levelled out and cruised slowly around Batam with the take-off flap configuration still set. Pilot announced he had shut down an engine due to failure and we slowly returned and landed again in Singapore. Beautifully smooth landing, by the way, on one engine.

After we disembarked we were offered seats on the next flight to KL but I reckon 50% of passengers didn`t join. I for one thought it was obviously not a good day for flying and went home to spend the day by the pool!

Bad experience at the time but now a good story to tell (aren`t they all!)