Hellobee Boards

One of the plane rides we took on our honeymoon to get from Johannesburg to the safari lodge in South Africa where we were staying. I have NEVER been on a bumpier ride and was convinced that I was going to throw up all over myself. Not to mention, the plane was over heated, crowded, and very small!

we were flying back from aruba and there was a big nor'easter storm in the northeast, so we couldn't land for a long time. we circled for about 2 hours, then had to land in scranton to refuel and take off again and circled for another hour. add that to some really awful turbulence, and people were throwing up on the plane. the woman sitting directly behind me was throwing up for the entire hour before we landed. i was shaking when i got off the plane, it was terrible. it has made me a nervous flyer.

I was on a prop plane from Nassau Bahamas to Miami and one of the engines failed. Lights went out, plane dropped significantly. I was 17 and on spring break with my girlfriends. It was terrifying. Most of the women were crying. Thank God we had only been in the air about 15 minutes and we turned around and coasted back to Nassau. I honestly don't know how I got back on another plane a few hours later.

@mrs. bird: why on earth wouldn't she switch so she could be with her husband and you could be with yours?? So weird!

I was on a plane home from Germany several years ago, the summer that there was a massive blackout all over the Eastern Seaboard. Rather than land at the Toronto airport, we circled over it for an hour, flew back to Montreal and emergency landed on the runway there. We then sat on the pavement in a non-air-conditioned plane for 4 hours, before being let off, sleeping in the airport, and taking a school bus back to Toronto.

Either my emergency landing in Portland or my huge elevation loss at Dulles. Everything I know tells me that flying is so safe, but after my experiences I'm not so sure!

traveling from omaha to dfw and having to make an emergency landing in oklahoma city due to extremely high winds! then i had to stay in a crappy hotel, alone and overnight in okc. oxygen masks were popping down and it was horrific!!

Mine is a weekend of ridiculous flights. I haven't flown much, but when my BFF was in staying in FL and I was in PA her mom passed away. I booked the next flight down, which left in like 2 hours.

All the self check-ins were down. It took me over an hour to get through the security line, and then I got flagged for a pat down, then was taken to a little tiny room where they swiped the inside of my shoes and purse with a Q-tip and put it through a machine that said "Checking for Explosives". I had to RUN across the airport (because of course my terminal was on the other side), barefoot and just barely made my flight.

For some reason, in order to fly from PA to FL, you first have to fly to Boston. After again running across the airport to catch my connection, I found that my flight had been canceled. Not even delayed, just canceled. Luckily they were able to put me on another flight (8 hours later) to Atlanta with a connectikon to FL (instead of direct from Boston, like it had been), and they gave me meal vouchers, which was nice.

When I got to Atlanta, I saw the sign for the terminal I wanted, and that it was about 1000 yds away, and I had time so I thought I'd walk it instead of taking the subway connection thing...and walked right out of the secure area before I realized it. Had to go back through security (which luckily had almost no wait), but got flagged again, and had to pat down and my shoes and purse swiped for explosives.

On the return trip, I again was flagged at security (I assume it was the last-minute ticket?), and went through all the hoopla again. When I got to Boston I had another made dash across the airport, was panting when I got to the terminal, asked the guy through pants if they had started to board yet and did I have time to use the bathroom. He said "Yes, we'll start boarding in a minute, but I'll make sure you're on the plane." Awesome. I come back from the bathroom only to learn that because of really bad weather in Boston and Philly our flight would be delayed. And delayed. And delayed. In the meantime I hadn't slept in two days, and was in tears when I talked to DH on the phone.

Finally they told us that we needed to get boarded and in the air in 15 minutes or our flight would be canceled. Once we were all seated, the flight attendant told us that one person needed to move from the front of the plane to the back (it was a small like 50 seater) or the plane wouldn't be able to take off. And the whole time I'm sitting thinking "Really? One person's body weight will throw the whole plane off balance? Holy crap I'm going to die." It was storming (like lightning and sheets of rain) and there was a ton of turbulence. I clutched the sides of my seat the entire way flight, seriously convinced we were going to go down at any second.

I think that was the last time I flew, haha!

@FutureMrsMcK: I've BEEN on that flight between Philly and Boston where they make one person move to balance out the plane. Scared the crap out of me too!!

One was a large C-4 military flight where we had to put on the oxygen masks due to loss in pressure and the strap to tighten the mask onto your face broke so I had to just hold it on. I was around 15 I think. The other was a recent flight that was so turbulent one flight attendant was telling another flight attendant that in her 10+ years of flying it was the worst she'd ever been on.