I was flying from London to Bankok. After about 4 hours we hit turbulance big style. The plane was frequently dropping what felt like 30 feet or more...!
The wings were bending horribly and the bang everytime we hit solid air felt like it would tear the plane apart.
The whole plane went silent except for a couple of Thai girls that just screamed all the time. Even the stewardesses were strapped in and looking worried.
I swear I asked every God and Buddha I could think of for help.
This horror lasted for nearly 4 hours!!!!!! By which time I had given up the will to live.
The captain never said a word during the whole incident. Which led me to believe even he was filling his trousers. He never even mentioned it upon landing???
The airline in question was Phuket air and have since had their whole fleet grounded.
I later found out they coudn't fly around the storm because there wasan't enough fuel in the tanks...
That up to now has been the most terrifying moment of my life.
In my younger days I had a few associated with taking a lovely stunner home with me only to find in the morning that she had transformed over night into some ungodly creature.
Seriously, mine is aircraft related as well. November 1972 and on my way home from here and out of the military. First wife and 9 month old son on board as well. Flying Tiger stretch DC-8 cargo plane outfitted for passengers.
We took off from U-Tapao and were over Vietnam when the Captain announced there was a hydraulic problem and we would have to land. Easy I thought, Bien Hoa South Vietnam is just about right below us. What happened, we turned around for Thailand as the US military in their infinite wisdom wouldn't allow us to land because everyone on the plane would then be eligible to receive combat pay for that entire month if we set foot on Vietnamese soil. Better to kill us!
We limped back to U-Tapao with both pilots and two flight engineers pulling on controls in unison to make things work. Landing gear was cranked down manually.
When we deplaned the four of them were standing at the front ashen colored and soaked in sweat, with the pilot saying hydraulic pressure read zero on final approach.
Even at age 22 when nothing really scares you, I was damn scared as was everyone else was, and really feared for my young little family on board with me. The plane wasn't ready to go again until the next day and everyone had a 12 bottle Singha night talking about it all. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
Following Randy's tale of airline turbulence, for a while some years ago I worked for a few months for Bintas Canarias that flew routes between the Canary Islands.
In the winter the turbulence was so bad around these islands that several times we had to call for an ambulance to remove people from the airplane because they were too terrified to move, they were literally frozen in place with terror.
That reminds me of the time I did the tourist thing over Grand Canyon. It was a 6 seater single engined plane (pilot + 5). We were on an organised trip, and there were 6 planeloads. Because I was the biggest, I had to sit up front with the driver.
As we flew over the Canyon's edge, the pilot pointed out a rather large thunderstorm ahead. The idiot flew straight for it. I was busily looking for likely areas that we might crash land - there aren't many as you pass through the Canyon.
We hit the first air pocket, and as the plane dropped for what seemed ages (probably no more than a second), I did the natural thing and grabbed the nearest thing to me (the co-pilot's steering wheel). Or at least my hands got to within a centimetre of it. Had I grabbed it, I'd have probably put the plane right out of control.
This continued for the rest of the trip, extreme turbulence all of the way through the Canyon - thankfully, we never actually entered the body of the storm.
An hour later, we were all back at the little airport where we had started. I stood on the ground and realised my whole body was trembling - I could still feel myself trembling several hours later.
On one of the other planes was a honeymoon couple. The husband was so terified, his brain had switched off. For 3 days afterwards his wife had to literally pull him wherever they went. He was not thinking for himself whatsoever.
Hitting a motorway barrier on the M62 at about 100 mph in an out of control car. Turning 3 times in the air before landing upside down in a field.
Certainly beat the hell out of an Aeroflop flight with loose seats.
Being half beaten to death by a bunch of drunken marines in Gib (knew I shouldn't have tried to pull his g/f )
The Tower of Terror at MGM studios, Florida. The 5 year old girl in cute pigtails, next to me, was as a calm as you like. Until she noticed I had bitten through the safety bars.
Giving an acceptance speech at a National Award ceremony.. 'Errr.... thank.... umm.... you very.... errr... (lips now frozen in horror)... mmm (rallying).... I'm glad that I could make it... errr... that you could make it... to this festiva.... errr... event... (perspiration pouring down forehead and dripping from nose)...
Witnessing an 'exorcism' during a Yoga Kriya workshop. Hairs on the back of my neck still haven't settled down.
The worst was walking down the aisle, knowing I was making a terrible mistake.
My worst two were as follows; I was on a backpacking trip with my best mate around the Greek islands in 1982, and we had found the delight that is Naxos and spent a fantastic week or two there. To get to where we stayed we had hiked for about two or three hours in blazing hot sun, so for the return we investigated other options, with the only one appearing to be a boat that ran every day back to the main town. As it was only a trip round the coast we figured it would be pretty straightforward, but how wrong were we?
The vessel was a smallish boat that clearly was intended for something other than ferrying passengers, probably a fishing boat. It had no seats or stowage areas, so we had to sit on a raised area in the middle at the front of the boat (I'm a landlubber so don't know the technical name for it) with our belongings just loose next to us. The trip should have taken about 30 minutes. As we headed out everything seemed OK, although the boat did seem to rock slightly more than was completely comfortable. However after a short while the wind started picking up, and the 'captain' told us and the few others that he had to head a bit further out to sea to avoid the worst of the weather; now this he may have done but conditions were getting worse and worse and the boat started rolling like a mad thing, and for the next hour we were holding on for dear life as our perspective (facing the side of the boat) went from having our noses virtually in the water to being raised high into the sky, all the time clinging onto our backpacks and any part of the boat to prevent either us or them falling in the water. The most worrying thing was looking at the faces of the captain and crew while this was going on, as they appeared to have the same terrified looks as we did.
Eventually we reached calmer waters and our destination (about 2 hours later than scheduled), but it was a struggle getting out of the boat and walking on terra firma, and all we managed to do was stagger to the nearest dockside bar where we attempted to calm our nerves and steady our trembling bodies with some beer and ouzo!
My other one was in Thailand, near Mae Hong Son in the north,when I was having a swim in some apparently placid deep rock pools, which had a waterfall not far away. I swam closer to the fall, not a particularly high one but quite wide and powerful, and stayed what I thought was a safe distance away, but got caught in some underwater currents that started dragging me down and away from the waterfall, and towards a rock face. I am a reasonably strong swimmer but I could not swim against the current, so figured I should try and flow with it and then grab a ridge of rock above the surface. Unknown to me, there was, under the water in the rock face, a hole/cave where the water was going, so as I got nearer to the rock the pull trying to take under got stronger and I had to fight for dear life to keep my head above water, and just managed to grab the ridge. This went on for some 10 or 15 minutes and even holding on to the rock was still a battle, and a couple of times my fingers slipped on the wet rock, and I was getting tired. My life literally swam before me as I was holding on, wondering how long I could. Fortunately the people who I was there with noticed I wasn't there and came looking for me, and managed to pull me clear.
These two incidents are etched in my brain, never to be forgotten! Thankfully I survived both.
remove people from the airplane because they were too terrified to move, they were literally frozen in place with terror.
Are you serious...
Randy, these were quite small turboprop aircraft and they used to get thrown all over the sky, the paramedics had a special narrow wheel-chair thing with handles on it for carrying people off.
It was supposed to be for disabled passengers, not ones that you'd scared half to death!
my own particular run in with Pukhet Air was also at Bangers.
As we were taxi-ing down the runway for takeoff I noticed that the engine on the wing we were sitting over was making very odd noises as though it were misfiring. As the engine spped increased this got worse. still we took off, despite the banging now getting worrying.
I was sitting in the middle seat, my terminally laid back mate sitting at the window. Carl leans over, taps me on the shoulder and says "Hey Dave the engine is on fire". "yeah...funny" says I. "No seriously - its on fire" says Carl, pointing to the 8 foot flames coming out of said engine. Thats when the alarms and screaming began.
Pilot come on and explains we are doing an emergency landing and brace brace brace..... cue brown trousis. More screaming....
We bank round like a rollercoaster and get back round for the approach, pilot kills the offending engine.
Carl then ponts out the pilot now has to stop a speeding plane using only half the engine braking capability. Brown levels now reach bootfuls.
We land, evacuate and then later look at a completely fazzled engine sitting on a wing full of fuel....
close call.
This was on the same trip we missed the Tsunami by two days. Our guesthouse wasnt that lucky.
Carls assessment: "Mate....Thailand is trying to kill us. Next year lets go to Blackpool."
Other than that rafting the Zambezi and falling in twice or going hippo spotting in a leaky dugout canoe in the Ocovango Delta has to rate as the brown trouser record.
Zimbabwe holds the national brown trouser medal... went there just as it kicked off. Left fast. NEVER going back.
"Science flew men to the moon. Religion flew men into buildings."
Indirect fire (IDF), 107mm rockets.
3 (of 6) impacted extremely close to my locale, 1 at 40 meters away, 2 within 75 meters away, forming a triangle pattern with me in the middle.
Still can’t remember if I dove or was knocked to the ground, but while on the ground, I quickly became the most religious person on earth…..if only for about a minute.
There was one other person, a new guy, in the same “building” (trailer) as me when this happened.
After not hearing any more explosions for a few seconds I jumped up to run to a bunker, and the new guy was lying on the ground blocking the door. I yelled “Get the f*ck outta here!” and he looked up at me….I will never forget the look on his face…..mine was probable about the same.
Four years in that country and I had never felt like that.
Made it out of the door and heard a couple more explosions but not as close so continued running for a bunker.
There were a couple of guys crawling on the ground headed to the same place as I, and one Indian running in a circle….no kidding.
I then became the fastest man on earth and did a dash and dive into a bunker.
We had one casualty that night. A Pakistani who worked for AAFES, the base “Tesco”, in a 1000 square foot trailer building.
The guy was suppose to be at work but didn’t feel good so took a sick day.
He was laying in his bed watching tv when a rocket came thru his roof; he took a direct hit to the chest. Medics carried him out in three different pieces.
There were a few other guys in the other half of the trailer playing cards…..they came out with minor injuries.
But have no fear, to get back at “the bad guys”, the following night the military held a basketball tournament.
Luckily I have not been in any abnormal events while flying as you folks have described above….thank God, because I would probably never fly again. I’m terrified of flying….have to take Zanax each time….a few strong drinks help as well.
When Chuck Norris does a push up, he isn't pushing himself up, he is pushing the earth down.
