Upon waking up this morning, I planned on getting started early with my cup of tea and a strong side of productivity. I even had high hopes of making it to the gym today – surprise, surprise, that hasn’t happened yet either (thanks, rain and gloom!). As I look out the window into the foggy sky, I can’t help but to wonder about all the flights today and how many delays there may be in the tri-state area. More so, I’m imagining that there are some bumpy rides up there one way or another.
My wandering thoughts bring me right here to this post: have you ever experienced extreme turbulence? I’m not just talking about the occasional bumps here and there – chances are, if you have a frequent flyer account, you’ve experienced a little bit of a disruptive flight in the past. What I’m asking is for those to share their stories of extreme turbulence (yup, along the same lines of Lucky’s recent flight from hell – crying flight attendants are never a good sign).
I’m sure most of us by now have seen this photo (taken by Alan Cross on Instagram):
The photo you see above has gone viral shortly after a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 hit a severe patch of turbulence just 90 minutes into a Singapore to London flight on May 26, causing the aircraft to drop 100 feet “like an elevator”. There were eleven minor injuries resulting from the sudden drop (not including the loss of many half-sipped coffees). Serving the airline for over four and half years, thankfully, the A380 made it to London without reported damage.
The big question is this: What do you imagine the passengers aboard this flight were thinking, doing, and/or internalizing throughout the duration of the flight? My friend Stephanie once confessed to me the terror she faced last August aboard a flight from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale during the approaching wrath of Hurricane Irene. The bumpy ride and amount of empty seats on a once-sold-out-flight lead her to hold hands with a woman she never met before—She initiated the hand-holding.Â
I’m fascinated by these stories and the revelations that may or may not occur, after equilibrium is restored. My passion of flight has allowed me the opportunity to become acquainted with people just as fanatical about all things travel.
Are turbulent flights something you prepare for? Dwell on? Or… better yet – have you ever experienced a warm moment with the passenger next to you because of it?  Feel free to share your stories, fears, moments of panic driven inspiration. I’ll even pass along an American Airlines Admirals Club lounge pass to my favorite story to help ease the pain of reliving it ;).
If you ask Mike about our flight to Fiji on Air Pacific, he will immediately tell you about my fingernails embedded in his arm for a portion of the flight between LAX and Hawaii.
The flight was supposed to leave around 9 from a “normal” gate in the Bradley terminal at LAX. Due to a series of delays, it eventually departed from the “bus gates”, which is a giant concrete room with 5 of 6 gates and one giant waiting area. The departure around midnight coincided with 4 other flights to Asia, and all boarding calls were being announced, rapid-fire, in about a half-dozen languages. When our flight was called for boarding, the crew, pre-boarders and elite passengers could not initially get past the hordes of humanity. The Air Pacific 747 has the most passengers per plane outside of the a-380, as it’s upper deck is all economy seating.
We boarded buses with crying, hungry babies and countless others, hours past when they were expecting their evening meal.
To make matters worse, we were in economy, albeit in the one of the two back rows with no 3rd seat.
Take-off – FINALLY, and then a few bumps. Beverage service halted, then all service halted. I swear that my butt flew up from my seat and as I looked at the route map in front of me, I chanted “Please make it to Hawaii”. There were times that I was certain we would make an emergency landing (if we were lucky) and not make it to Fiji that night.
Things did finally calm down and we ate dinner at 2 am from an expected departure time of 9pm. It was OK, however, since we were alive !
Believe it or not, I still have a small feeling of terror inside whenever I experience ANY turbulence !
I always look at the CAT (clear air turbulence) forecast before most flights and I think Boeing planes feel more turbulent than AirBus.
I just dont understand why can’t all the modern science and the geniuses at Boeing, AirbUS and NASA just figure out a technology to eliminate bumps all together. Agreed plane is not going to crash, but still..the speeding and slowing down and changing altitude..it just makes me not want to fly ever again!
Worst was flying from Rio to Iguazu falls and the pilot was making all annoucements in English and Portuguese and when turbulence hit..he stopped English and then he stopped completely. Worst 30 mins of my life
I have two stories. The first instilled in me a fear of flying that I didn’t have before and the second affirmed it.
Let me start by saying that I’ve never enjoyed flying, but I always tolerated it as a necessity in order to go places. Turbulence made me a little bit uncomfortable but I handled it fine. Then, two years ago, I was on a flight from Denver to Baltimore. We were delayed taking off because of storms. When we finally took off, it was still raining and windy out and it felt like we were moving very, very slowly on the runway right before lifting off. I’d been one enough flights to have a sense of how fast the plane usually moves right before takeoff. To add to it, the mountains were right in front of us and I could have sworn we were going to hit them. Of course we didn’t, but scary nonetheless. And there was also bad turbulence in the middle of the flight that felt like we were in an elevator free-fall. Not as bad as the Singapore Air flight, but to me it was scary.
Fast forward a year, and I’m headed to Hilton Head, SC, for work. On the way down, I flew into Savannah, GA, but then on the way back right out of Hilton Head to Charlotte. We were on this tiny airplane and the turbulence was so bad, I really thought we were going to crash. It was like being on a roller coaster. I was flying by myself and the woman in the seat next to me was asleep so there wasn’t anyone to comfort me. Luckily the one flight attendant on board saw how panicked I was and came over to comfort me. Apparently flights out of Hilton Head are always bumpy and she promised me we were in no danger and the pilot flew the same flight every day and knew how to handle the turbulence. Made me feel a little bit better but not much.
Since the flight out of Denver, I’ve been extra uncomfortable every time there’s been turbulence on a flight and I’ve found myself gripping the arm rests for even small bumps. I’m hoping that over time I’ll start to relax a little bit.
All takeoff runways out of Denver face due east or south…this is a bs story, no flights to Baltimore would be heading into the Rockies.
I’ve had extreme turbulence once. Mia-fra on a LH 744. I was upstairs in f asleep. Only one other person up there. Seatbelt kept me in. Wine and drinks everywhere. Felt like six flags ride where they drop you from way up. Didnt see the chaos in y since I was upstairs. FA came to check on me immediately. Captain came on. They asked for doctors. Apparently 4 injuries, 3 head injuries. We were already most of way
Across Atlantic. Ambulances met us in fra. Captain said we dropped 500 feet over a few secs. Had many choppy flights, but that’s the only severe turbulence I’ve encountered.
In high school, I traveled with a group of students to Australia and New Zealand for 6 weeks. On the flight from LAX, we lost altitude, and I watched my teacup hovering in front of me. Honestly, being an invincible high school kid, I started laughing. I wasn’t alone either – many of the students around me laughed too!
That stopped when we evened out and everything crashed back down. Luckily, no one had food or trays at the time, and I don’t remember anyone being out of their seat and getting hurt. But I had tea splash all over me, and I did get a *wee* bit more nervous when we hit bumps.
On the flight home, I watched a NZ woman drink a bottle of whiskey by herself (this was in 1996, so I guess the rules were different) and pass out. She was nervous to fly – and I understood why! :)
Turbulance happens. Unless it seems as though the plane was breaking up, you pass it and go on. I remember taking a flight from FLR to FRA, probably a 737. A colleague also flew the same route the same day. That night my boss phoned to check if I was OK after the flight. It seems my colleague told someone at work about the wild turbulence he experienced and everybody was concerned. Seems I was on the same flight but forgot the turbulence, just normal bumpy.
I was on a small commuter plane from Binghampton NY to Philadelphia. We were in the middle of a lightning storm. Since it was a commuter flight they served nothing so nothing to fly around. I was supposed to fly on to Orlando that night, but on landing told the airline I was shaken up and wanted to spend the night in Philadelphia (My folks lived there). After that flight there was no argument or fee from the airline for changing the flight.
On a flight from CVG-PDX,we were about to go over the Cascades when the pilot got on the intercom and shouted, “FAs sit down immediately!” About 10 seconds later we hit an air pocket and dropped ??? feet. Sitting in F my laptop rose about a foot as I was typing. OK. However, when we got to PDX, there was an emergency team with two stretchers – apparently two FA didn’t make it to their seats in time and sustained severe head injuries. Ever since I ALWAYS have my seat belt fastened
A Few weeks ago i was on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Guatemala, since we where about to take Off the pilot said “we Will meet some turbulence during most part of the 10.5 hours flight so we ask You to keep your seatbelts on” gosh i wanted to cry! I dislike airplanes i get scared to death with turbulence, And still i take a long flight at least once a year because i love to travel, anyways the flight took longer than 10.5 hours because of turbulence it Ended up taking 12 hours, And as the pilot warned it was turbulent, light turbulence for about 90% of the whole flight And then some episodes of moderate turbulence, but thanksgosh we only dropped a Few feet once during the whole trip, thats the scariest part of turbulence for me when it feels You are falling from the sky, so to handle. The 12 hours of turbulence i drank 2 small bottles of wine Per. Hour( yes i was very drunk )
My wife and I were on a flight tonight from Orange Co (SNA) to Oakland (OAK) with what seemed to be minor turbulence. Suddenly, the plane seemed to be picking up speed and descending quickly, as if we were in a dive. The captain quickly announced a “termination of all beverage services” and turned on the seat belt signs. The flight attendants went to their take-off positions and strapped in. Frankly, it felt as if we were in a dive! I took my first flight in 1957 on a TWA Constellation, have flown literally all over the world, and have never experienced anything like this. It lasted for probably 45 seconds to a minute, and then suddenly everything seemed fine. The captain then announced that we were beginning our final approach to Oakland, and we landed without incident a few minutes later. As it was night time, there was no way for me to ascertain how steeply we were descending, or how far we descended. No explanation from the captain, nothing from the flight attendants. Anyone have an idea of what happened?
New Zealand from Auckland to Christchurch. The plane was a small island hopper, maybe 20-25 seats and mostly empty. It was a twin engine jet. During descent, the turbulence was extremely bad. We starting losing altitude, to the point where I was completely off my seat, my seatbelt keeping me from flying into the ceiling. Wasn’t terribly scared until the nose of the plane pitched down to an uncomfortable angle, which I’ve never before experienced. I envisioned a nosedive as it felt like we were completely falling, but the pilot immediately corrected and we ended up going from a nose down position to an uncomfortably high angled nose up position. At this point, the small group seated in the back of the plane were loudly screaming, which didn’t help my comfort level. After the nose pitched up, we corrected to a normal position and just experienced uncomfortable turbulence until safely landing. Heard other planes flying to Christchurch that day also experienced pretty bad turbulence. Scary, for sure.
Had a few other incidents but nothing compares. Emergency landing in texas on SW airlines due to a false fire alarm, and another turbulent flight with lightening striking all around. But I don’t care to have the nose of the plane bobbing up and down. No thank you!