Worst thing to happen on an Airplane

[mack 44]

Like JR's, mine happened right after 9/11. Mine happened over Christmas break, leaving to come back to school. My sister had put gay porn magazines in a pouch in my backpack and I was randomly searched. I'm sitting there clueless to what this guy finds as he starts to look at me, judging and curious. "Mmm-hmmm..." he says, then I see what he found. I couldn't even come back with anything and just gave him the biggest smile I could muster. I didn't even mind being seated right next to the Middle Eastern man they did at that point.

[Monty22 821]

I had to change my 3 month old son's diaper midflight to Florida in the bathroom. Let's just say it was a deuce, it was messy, and airplane bathrooms aren't kid friendly.

[Bender 0]

Not the worst thing to happen, almost amusing on some aspects of it all. About 1 min after take off, the little T.V screens in the back of the head-rests came on to a news channel, first thing everyone sees is something like this

amusing thing to me (once i had found out that no one had been hurt) was that it had happened to an opposition airline ;)

also, just found this it must be up there with some of the worst

I feel sorry for qantas at the moment, their PR office must be working overtime

[coryroth24 15]

Getting stuck in coach on the adoption express from Hong Kong to Jersey. Yea, 16 hours of pissed off babies that have never been in a plane before! Must have been 5 of 6 families and a total of 10 or so kids. Of course they all had to be sitting by me...

[Rustpot 1]

JR, don't think you've had more than your fair share of security screenings.

On my trip to England when I was in sixth grade I got stopped at EVERY security checkpoint. Detroit, New York, London, every museum we went to, every castle we went to, everywhere that had security in England, London airport, New York, Detroit.

Luckily I never got the white glove treatment, but lots of questions, lots of searching my bags, lots of metal detector sweeps, and lots and lots of waiting.

The only time I wasn't subject to random searches is when I'm traveling with some Indian friends.

[fatwabbit 93]

having basically a full set meal of pasta spilt onto my right leg, and my arm... didnt feel hot at first then OUCH! My arm started swelling up, fingers went numb... the hostess apologised, then got ice and towels to wipe up. unfortunately I did the wiping myself...

[Jeff 0]

My mom works in the airline industry, I have traveled a bunch and experienced quite a few interesting things:

I have had to do the walk of shame a couple times. When you get free tickets on standby, there is a chance you can get called off the plane if the plane is booked solid, and a fullfare passenger shows up at the last second. This hasn't happened to me post-911, probably because they do not want people getting off a plane once they have boarded.

I have been harassed by U.S. Customs countless times because I often returned to the States via Amsterdam. (I used to get free tickets on KLM, had to suit up in case economy was full and was upgraded to business/first class.) It probably didn't help that I was young at the time and traveling alone.

I was booked to fly on TWA Flight 800, and changed my plans a couple weeks before that fateful flight. That was kind of a shock, as I have taken that specific flight at least 12 times.

I was on a 747 once that had two engines get messed up on take-off. It was kinda freaky hearing two hellishly loud bangs while the plane was taking off... After take-off, they ended up landing in Cincinatti, I think.

The worst thing probably has to be a flight I took where there was extreme turbulence during a meal service. Trays started flying everywhere, and a bunch of people started puking. It was disgusting, like that scene in Stand By Me, sans the pie-eating contest. I don't remember where I was flying, it was somewhere in Europe...

[sc37 0]

Getting stuck in coach on the adoption express from Hong Kong to Jersey. Yea, 16 hours of pissed off babies that have never been in a plane before! Must have been 5 of 6 families and a total of 10 or so kids. Of course they all had to be sitting by me...

Definitely understand your pain...but I also had the luxury of being stuck in the middle of a row of four on a 747. Talk about being miserable.

[skeeter14 0]

flying to Orlando two years ago, we hit turbulence while i was in the bathroom. Made things a little more interesting to say the least.

thinking about it, why would an airline put a fasten seat belt light in the bathroom? There is no seat belt on the toilet, I don't get it.

[forbs02 20]

This story is actually my roommate's and it happened a couple of weeks ago. She was flying to Phoenix to visit her brother. She was sitting in her seat and this old man with an oxygen tank sits directly in front of her. He was with to ladies when all of a sudden one of them starts yelling that he wasn't breathing. The plane was still at the at the gate so they dispatched for the EMTs.

My roomie is an athletic trainer so she is a first responder/first aid. She helped get this guy laid down and a nurse comes running up from the back and starts taking the guys vitals. My roommate got the aed down, opened it and helped the nurse get it set up. He had just enough of a heart rhthym that it wouldn't shock him but he was in very rough shape.

The emts finally came and they had to get him into the jetway. They had to pick him up and carry him off the plane. It turns out that he died as soon as they got him into the jetway, but they couldn't let anyone off the plane because he was still right outside the door.

The flight was delayed for about two hours after this because the crew had to fill out paperwork.

[chef_ducky 0]

Thats sad for nurses and AT I bet because they did everything they could but couldn't save him!

[Sed27 0]

I used to fly quite regularly for my old job in the mining insustry, and while I never had problems on a plane I did have two issues in the airport.

The first incident happend enroute home from camp. Our charter had been delayed arriving and my supervisor and I knew that catching our connecting Air Canada flight in Edmonton might be tight. By the time we collected our bags & got to check-in, we were already supposed to have been through security. There was only lady checking passengers, and the line was long. You could also see that people ahead were becoming visably frusterated at the pace with which this lady was going.

Another employee working the line informered her of our situation once we got to the counter. I happened to be 5 pounds overweight on my checked luggage and she wanted to charge my over $250 to fly my one bag home (only an hour flight away). I said yeah right, and pulled my work boots out and put them in my carry on. She then proceeded to run our bags though but didn't tag once piece of luggage and was completely bewildered as to what happened when she was left with an extra tag. She eventually had to call back and track down the bag so it could be properly tagged.

Just when we though we finally had everything sorted out, she remarks "Oh, you two aren't sitting together. Let me fix that". We said we didn't care, grabbed our tickets and literally had to run to our gate. We caught the flight but barely. I wonder how many people missed their planes that day because of this one woman.

The second time was Air Canada again and I was flying down to Vancouver to attend my girlfriend's Christmas party. The weather was okay for the time of year, but the departure times for my flight kept on getting pushed back further and further, even though the plane had long since arrived.

After some time, and multiple reapted delays the girl at the Air Canada counter finally announces (in complete frustration) "...that they had failed to schedule a flight crew for the plane and that it would be a while before they could find replacements ". I have never seen such a mass migration to the airport lounge, before or since. I endend being about 3 hours late, but did manage to catch the tail end of the party.

[Stampeder 2]

I almost got in a fight on a plane once. I was sleeping and terribly hungover and I guess my leg was stretched out and touched the back of some guys wife's foot. He started yelling at me even though he could clearly see I was asleep. Being woken up by some asshole is never pleasant so I started yelling back at him and told him to fuck off. The stewardess came and I told her how much of a dick the guy was and she told him he would need to calm down and not start shit again or else they would charge him with something.

[Chadd 916]

This story is actually my roommate's and it happened a couple of weeks ago. She was flying to Phoenix to visit her brother. She was sitting in her seat and this old man with an oxygen tank sits directly in front of her. He was with to ladies when all of a sudden one of them starts yelling that he wasn't breathing. The plane was still at the at the gate so they dispatched for the EMTs.

I'm not aware of any airline that will allow you on board with an oxygen tank. A portable concentrator is ok, but a pressurized tank of pure oxygen is very dangerous, just ask valuejet.

While not actually ON the airplane, my personal favorite experience was the day that our first officer (co-pilot) was detained by US Immigration in Toronto. We ended up waiting five or six hours while they brought in another guy.

[Jeff 0]

Forgot to mention that I have probably spent 200 hours in Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport twidling my thumbs... because the French baggage handlers were constantly striking in the 80s.

[dix0r 0]

mine was probably not actually on the plane, but just the fact that i needed to arrive at heathrow 6 hours before my flight back to the states, because it was 2-3 days after that whole flammable / explosive gel scare. huge lines everywhere. not fun.

[mxihockey 0]

A couple Christmas' ago I flew to Ottawa with my team for the huge pewee tournament. It was around the time when the terror alerts sky rocketed due to threats. We flew to Ottawa fine with no problems, but the day after we arrived the air port was shut down due to bomb threats/terrorist type stuff. It re-opened the day we had to leave and needles to say I was scared shitless. The worst part was the lines we had to wait in to be checked because they were trying to make up for delayed flights.

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

I was booked to fly on TWA Flight 800, and changed my plans a couple weeks before that fateful flight. That was kind of a shock, as I have taken that specific flight at least 12 times.

My aunt is from CA and her and my uncle lived in Boston at the time. They had just had a baby and she was set to fly out on that Monday to LAX from BOS with the baby so that her side of the family could meet her. They were in NYC that Sunday. Guess she was tired and said "Why don't we drive back to Boston on Monday and I'll change my flight to Tuesday?" My uncle said no, and she kept on trying to insist but he wouldn't change his mind. They drove back Sunday and she flew out Monday. If she would've had her way, she would've been on the first plane that hit the WTC.

[pantherfan 0]

I was booked to fly on TWA Flight 800, and changed my plans a couple weeks before that fateful flight. That was kind of a shock, as I have taken that specific flight at least 12 times.

My aunt is from CA and her and my uncle lived in Boston at the time. They had just had a baby and she was set to fly out on that Monday to LAX from BOS with the baby so that her side of the family could meet her. They were in NYC that Sunday. Guess she was tired and said "Why don't we drive back to Boston on Monday and I'll change my flight to Tuesday?" My uncle said no, and she kept on trying to insist but he wouldn't change his mind. They drove back Sunday and she flew out Monday. If she would've had her way, she would've been on the first plane that hit the WTC.

Wow... :o

I hit my head so hard I knocked myself out before take off once, they strapped me up all the same and I woke up with blood on my face and I got applause when I stood up.

Embarrassment x10

[Blueandgold26 1]

yeah i gues amish fly she was breast feeding her baby like 2 feet away from me end they smell horrible i wish i had a gas mask

[sabby47 2]

This past December I flew out to NJ to see my then bf. The day I was suppose to come home was the weekend before Christmas when that HUGE blizzard came through the midwest. My bf and I were flying out of Philly, him home to Hamilton and myself back to KS. The morning started off with losing my cell phone before I even got in the airport. Just a small mishap, I didn't think too much about it and figured everything would be fine. Later that day I found out back home they had had 3 ft of snow within just a few hours. My flight from Philly to Chicago was delayed 4 hours and by the time I got to Chicago I found out my flight home to Wichita was cancelled. Luckily I had my laptop and was IMing every friend I saw come online and was using them to communicate with my parents. We worked out getting my flight rebooked and was told I wouldn't get home until two days later! I forgot I had a hockey friend that had moved to Chicago a few months prior and instead of getting in touch with him I spent the nite in the terminal in a pow wow with a few other stranded girls, crying because we were alone and just wanted to go home. (Ya I felt like a real tough hockey chick at that moment)

I just happened to get on a flight standby that next afternoon and FINALLY made it home. Unfortunately my bags (two sets of hockey gear, my luggage and two stick bags full of pro sticks) didn't quite make it back. (I had taken my gear with me because we were supp to play hockey even though he told me only to bring my skates.. didn't think anything of it until he surprised me with all new gear) I missed my games and my reffing assignment that nite and didn't get all my bags until two days later.

At least a couple good things happened-

1. They waived the $80 extra baggage fee I initially was charged in Philly and

2. While waiting in Chicago I happened to notice the guy sitting across from me had a small Jofa bag and asked him if he played hockey. He ended up being one of the players for the Wolves and we carried on a decent hockey convo before he had to board his flight.

Sorry this was a bit long but it was horrible! Long story short.. I LOVE road trips and will never fly again!

[jrhky36 1]

got a couple,

the first one: while in the marine corp we were sent to gitmo to gaurd the boat people trying to get into the states. well leaving cherry point (marine corp air station) our tower air lines 747 loses an engine. i say to myself that it'll be ok we still got 3. well i'm in the window seat and look out the window and see the inboard engine stub WITHOUT an engine. hte pilot comes over the pa and says we're going back becauise the engine FELL off the plane.

2nd one: my uncle used to fly c-130s in the florida air national gaurd. he was a huricane chaser. i got to fly with him a couple of times. for those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about i'll explain, they fly into huricanes to get data used to predict where the storm will go, how much bigger it'll get and so on. the turblance is unreal you are litterally thrown all over the place while in the storm unless you are wearing your seat belt. it was always a fun flight thought. the last one we flew from mia to san jaun, to st. martian, to nassau, back to mia. the worst leg was nassau to mia i had never experiended so much turblance. we would drop 1000ft like it was nothing and would have to climb to regain alittude. i though a couple of times that it was the end and starting playing with my ditch kit. the next thing i knew we wer on final to mia. safe and sound.

[calihockey11 0]

I going to scotland last summer on U.S airways flight from philadelphia to glasgow. We had already flown from Los Angeles to Philly. It was night time and we left the gate and everything. We get out on the tarmac and the pilot tells us there is going to be a little delay because of thunderstorms. We ended up sitting on the runway for 6 hours before we finally took off. It turned a 6 hour flight into a 12 hour one. And then on the way back we were delayed 2 hours in Philly again to go home. It really sucked, but they gave each of us a $500 voucher for tickets, so that payed for our airfare to colorado this summer

[Tricky4L 0]

Sorry if this gets long but me and flying... we have some stories.

I used to love flying when I was younger and did it probably a couple times a year as my rents loved to do holidays to Disney World. When I was in middle school though, we were flying back from a band trip from San Jose to Portland. A thunderstorm keeps us grounded for two hours, we end up taking off although the skies are still black, orange, and purple...awesome. We take off, but the pilot comes on shortly after saying we can't climb to cruising altitude cause of the storm so we are stuck right underneath getting constantly bitch-slapped with turbulence and a couple major drops from two different lightening strikes (mind you we're still under 12,000 feet and can still see traffic on the ground). Kids and parents start freaking out a screaming and then the air masks drop. I constantly had this newspaper headline running through my head telling of a plane full of middle school band kids. Ended up finally puling up and went on with the rest of the flight with the masks dangling. Developed a deathly fear of flying after that... I know its lame but it is what it is. I even have a hard time watching planes in the air when on the ground.

I started dating a girl I met in Florida, she was from New York and I'm from Portland and as a result I started flying out there around once a month. Got a note for Valium from my doc but found out quickly it didn't do anything for me as I would still be up during red eyes with bad shakes. My dad being the standup bloke that he is, started hooking me up with 5 or 6 small bottles of Gin to take with me (I was underage at the time). Best remedy by far although not complete. This was all well and good until I was flying out of JFK the morning of the liquids scare and got caught with the bottles in my bag thinking they were only looking for gels. Luckily they only gave me a verbal spurring for that stupid move. Ironically enough, that flight I ended up sitting next to a psychiatrist who was remarkably nice and talked me through the entire flight. At the end of the flight I thanked him for his help but he told me as he was leaving that maybe I should consider a stronger prescription and some therapy sessions...

I turned 21 and soon after the cross country relationship ended but I was still doing flights every couple months for some business and holidays. Being able to knock back a few drinks in the airport bars along with some other meds has actually been the best, (although probably unsafe) combination that has gotten me to a point of fearlessness. This cockiness cocktail combo got me into a verbal altercation on a flight from Chicago to Portland though; I was sitting across from an older Muslim guy who was dressed in a full Thobe and Taqiyah. Some asshat with a THICK southern accent sitting in front of that guy from the time he is seated starts making rather vocal comments about terrorists, bombings, and making sure no one is hiding anything under their "man-dress"...even better the guy is flying alone and the two people sitting next to him are just outright embarrassed. This guy calls over the flight attendant and asks loud enough for the whole back half of the plane to hear, if the guy behind him was screened twice by security. I had enough and leaned over and louder than I had intended said "You realize your making an ass of yourself and embarrassing everyone around you? You making the assumption that he is a terrorist is the same as me assuming by your accent that you are an ignorant twat, only difference is you're actually fulfilling my assumption. You mate, are the only risk on this flight so just sit back and behave yourself!" - Single greatest line I've ever been able to deliver... thank god he didn't respond cause I wouldn't have had anything to come back with being semi pissed. But sure enough he didn't say anything for the rest of the flight and rushed off when on the ground. I got a couple thanks from those sitting around him and the Muslim bloke sitting behind him.

[Bender 0]

You realize your making an ass of yourself and embarrassing everyone around you? You making the assumption that he is a terrorist is the same as me assuming by your accent that you are an ignorant twat, only difference is you're actually fulfilling my assumption. You mate, are the only risk on this flight so just sit back and behave yourself!" - Single greatest line I've ever been able to deliver... thank god he didn't respond cause I wouldn't have had anything to come back with being semi pissed. But sure enough he didn't say anything for the rest of the flight and rushed off when on the ground. I got a couple thanks from those sitting around him and the Muslim bloke sitting behind him.

Good on you for saying that. Some people like that really just need to be slapped hard across the face until they stop making such harsh racial judgements...