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who has experienced turbulence ? especially during a cross ocean flight?

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Pachinko

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When I was on my way home from japan last year I got to experience turbulence, for a good 15 minutes the whole plane rocked, almost like driving a bike over a rocky path.

I made the mistake of looking out he window and saw the wing wobbling up and down like a diving board after it's been used. I can say I was pretty glad when it was over.

Especially considering that this is what was below me-

000_0058.jpg


Only it was nighttime during this episode of the flight.

So share your airplane horror stories and make those afriad of flying pee themselves in delight!
 
I have lots of times. One particularly rough one, I swear we were going straight down for a few second but that was probably my imagination.
 
Flying from Frankfurt to Toronto over the Atlantic Ocean. Now that was a fucked up flight, with shit flying around, people hanging on to their seats, saying prayers, and flight attendants panicking. Apparently it was nothing to be worried about and I'm still here.

You'd be surprised how resistant planes can be though.
 
Who here has flown in a plane and NOT experienced turbulence?
 
Landing at Edinburgh earlier this year I got my first taste of a "3 point landing in a crosswind"...
(i.e. Touched down in a heavy crosswind, first onto the left side of the undercarriage, then the right, then the nosewheel, hence '3 point').

There were a few loud gasps and intakes of breath around the whole cabin.

Something I'd prefer to not experience again.
 
I almost always have some turbulence. For some bizzare reason, flights doesn't seem complete without some turbulence of some kind. On one flight, I looked out the window... it looked as though the wing were deforming in the cloudy night. Even if it were supposed to, it was a rather disturbing sight. On top of that, the blinking lights made it look like there was lighting.

One schoolmate recalled a story where the turbulence was so bad that the captain said that they might have to drop the luggage if it continued. Another passenger pissed in her pants.
 
Turbulence can be avoided as it is up to the pilot to avoid them. The radar system they have can sense the turbulence several seconds in advance. Down side to avoding them is slightly changing the route of the plane, and this is probably the biggest reason of why the pilot does not bother if there is a turbulence in sight or not. And I had a an airplane trip 5h or so and ther was only a very slight turbulence, I almost didnt feel it. But the pilot was nice enough to tell us to fasten our seat belts, and that he had changed the route to avoid them completely.
 
Dan said:
Who here has flown in a plane and NOT experienced turbulence?
Click to expand...

True. Turbulence is overrated.

Now if the flight attendants start to strap themselves down and look worried, then you have cause for concern.
 
Ristamar said:
True. Turbulence is overrated.

Now if the flight attendants start to strap themselves down and look worried, then you have cause for concern.
Click to expand...

yeah, that happened... i thought i saw lightening strike the plane, and then almost shit myself when all the people in the seats around me confirmed my fears. the attendant looked confused, asked a few people what had happened, and then strapped into a seat.

now, dad laughed and noone believes me because i guess, if lightening HAD struck, the plane should've been damaged and i should be dead (i think).

i haven't flown since. and i keep having nightmares. :(
 
i've always hated flying, but at thanksgiving a few years ago landing at hartsfield in atlanta had me PRAYING for the first time in years. first, the announcement, "ladies and gentleman, blah blah blah, during our descension we'll be experiencing some heavy turbulence, please fasten ur seatbelts."

ok, i thought, i can deal with turbulence before we land. partly because i know that soon after, we'll be on the tarmac. well, holy shit, we dropped from a dark star filled sky into a haze of rain and gray clouds and the plane violently reacted. i swear, that 5 minute descent to landing was one of the scariest moments of my life. i kept thinking to myself, "why didnt this fucker just circle around until this little storm passed???", but i knew that was asking too much on a cross country flight.

anyway, we finally land and as we're leaving the plane a passenger in front of me asks the pilot as we depart the plane, "how'd you land that one?"

pilot: "you can thank auto-pilot for that, heh."

i wanted to hurl... :lol
 
Ristamar said:
True. Turbulence is overrated.

Now if the flight attendants start to strap themselves down and look worried, then you have cause for concern.
Click to expand...


Coming back from Puerto Vallarta one year, we had the patented "Drop 50ft instantly" turbulence during a nice loooooong bout in which the pilot seemed to refuse to fly above the weather. This caused no end of praying outload, crying and screaming from the other passengers. Then one of the flight crew literally threw up while attempting to serve drinks once it started to calm down. They were literally strapped down before this.

I've had turbulence many many times but this one was insane. The whole time I tried to ignore the situation, reading a magazine and eating some snack. I even refused to talk to my travel mate about it, as this would only make it real.


I wanted to kill the pilot afterwards, as IMO he let all of this go one far far too long.
 
I remember one time everyone on teh plane was kinda scared the stewardesses were strapped in I was prayin *i was too close for you not to hear me GOD* and a little girl summed it up best * "

Little girl:grandma grandma the planes almost going straight down! its like a roller coaster, I wish the plane would go straight down"

Grandma: "I dont....."

Me:"WTF God im gonna die at the northern kentucky/cincinatti airport?"
 
on a 747 the tip of the wing moves through an arc of something like 20 feet, don't worry about it. It was constantly turbulent or 3 hours from NZ to US when I did it 2 months ago. Couldn't sleep.
 
I was coming home alone on a short flight from San Francisco a little over 4 years ago, and we hit some REALLY bad turbulence. It was 7 or 8 (PST) and the lights on the plane were going on and off. I remember that the plane did a small dip and then rose back up. I was clutching the armrests the entire time, but there was this family in the back sounding like they were on a rollercoaster ("WhoooooaaaAAAaaoooooooooaaaaaaah!"). They were having a great time. :lol
 
Ten days ago during my trip to Frankfurt. The weather was pretty crappy and once in Germany the plane began to shake up like an old car on a bumpy road, then it took a gentle nosedive, at that moment I closed my eyes and grasped the armrests. I am pretty sure that it was not that bad, I am just a pussy when I am flying.

As soon as we took land, with the plane still moving and everybody tied to their seats, all the Spaniards stood up with the plane still moving and we cheered the pilot with claps and yells. The Germans were quite shocked :lol
 
I don't know if this is any comfort, but I don't think a commercial jet has ever crashed due to "bad turbulence".

People who've flown alot, knows that the time to really get nervous is during takeoff and landings.
 
Experienced it in a major way coming back from France in '03. I could feel the tail end of the plane swaying from left to right... I just forced myself to go to sleep.
 
If you want to have a fun ride.. fly to St. John's, Newfoundland on any day. For best effect, get in one of those 20-30 seaters from Halifax. I know for a fact that they land and takeoff in shit here that is cause for immediate diverting in most (if not all) other locations. That being said, we've only had one plane slip off the end of a runway. The worst part of the experience is definately landing in 40kt winds in the fog. :/

The worst high altitude turbulence I've experienced was ~40k ft above Alberta on a Toronto to Vancouver flight. I think it lasted almost 20min and it was pretty damn scary (rollercoaster) at times.
 
How many planes have crashed because of turbulance? If the engine still going and your the right way up you have nothing to worry about.
 
I don't think I've gone on a flight without turbulence.

I remember flying once though, and the plane very abruptly dropped. I had my seatbelt on, not very tightly, and I momentarily came out of my seat, lifted up out of it. That was the scariest turbulence I ever had, rolled my stomach over a few times.
 
worst turbulence i've ever had was landing in Hong Kong during a Typhoon. Bumpy, and i mean really bumpy and then at about 1500ft we hit a wind shear on one side of the plane and that wing stopped flying, so the plane sort of tipped over. We went past 90 degrees in that tip.

The wing got thru that and started flying again and the captain hit thrusters i wasn't aware jets had. The plane felt like it went straight up (and i mean elevator up) for about 5 mins. We then pissed off the Tiapei. Captain came on about a minute after the tipping episode and his voice was wavering and you could tell he was spooked. An aircraft engineering friend of mine told me later that the 100% marker on the throttles in the cockpit are not 100% of the power and when i told him the above he went, ooooohhhhh ALL THE POWER.


This was the old HK airport to so we were down in the buildings @ 1500ft very freaky.
 
The dead-air drops are the scary part. The bumps are usually nothing to worry about, just annoying. The "diving board" effect on the wing during flight is very common and shouldn't be a cause for worry. They're engineered to do that.
 
Dan said:
Who here has flown in a plane and NOT experienced turbulence?
Click to expand...

Seriously. It's not that big of a deal. I get dizzy and nauseous during take offs and landing (particularly if there is circling during the landing, instead of a straight approach), but bad turbulence doesn't get me any more nauseous than the actual flight. Yes, I do have airsickness problems.
 
The worst flight I can remember was in a Dash 7 across the English Chanel in a major storm. I was young so the memory isn't great I just remember that basically every "grown up" on the plane hurled and every kid yelled weee the whole way.

My wife is a flight attendent and she once got thrown over about five rows of seats and slammed against the ceiling.
 
Did it bother you that you were over water rather than land?

I always freak a lil about how fucked up it would be to have a massive hole open up in the plane and suck you out, a la every movie with a plane accident. But then I remember, at 30K feet, the speed would knock you out, and if not that, then the cold and lack of oxygen. You would be knocked out and wouldn't even feel the impact of hitting the ground.
 
skinnyrattler said:
I always freak a lil about how fucked up it would be to have a massive hole open up in the plane and suck you out, a la every movie with a plane accident. But then I remember, at 30K feet, the speed would knock you out, and if not that, then the cold and lack of oxygen. You would be knocked out and wouldn't even feel the impact of hitting the ground.
Click to expand...

I get irrational thoughts like these sometimes too, but then I quickly realize how ridiculous it is. :D

Fucking hate drops, thankfully I've never encountered any major ones. It's not that they make me think the plane is going down or anything - I'm never really nervous when flying - but they simply make me feel like both my stomach and bladder are attempting to move up my throat. :lol
 
Wellington airport NZ has one of the worst approaches ever, it's always windy as hell and the runway is surrounded by hills, which means updrafts everywhere every now and then a pilot will take "a couple of goes at it" :lol
 
i'm pretty used to turbulence - but landing in dubai recently we were JUST about to touch down - like 5 seconds away.. then the engines go up FULL and the plane goes back up again and takes a really sharp turn - i was thinking OH SHIT we're about to hit something ont he ground that's why they pulled up im gonna die etc etc

obviously the plane landed safely :P
 
My worst experience with “turbulence” was on a flight from Charlotte to LA about a year ago, where the plane lost all buoyancy for approximately 5 seconds while the stewardess was handing out drinks and snacks. I was seated in the very last row on the plane, with an old lady on my left, and another younger lady from New Orleans on my right. Anyways, the stewardess was serving the row right in front of us when all of a sudden everything flew up and hit the ceiling, including people who weren’t belted in and roaming the cabin. The old lady to the left of me had a death grip on my arm, and as soon as the “vacuum pocket” passed, the ride went right back to being as calm as it had been a couple seconds earlier.

The lady from New Orleans and I kind of joked about it for the rest of the flight to lighten the mood, since there was nothing anybody would have been able to do about it anyways. I also remember that particular flight because it was the only one I have ever been on with a female pilot. ;) Go figure. She didn’t even bother to address the cabin until about 10 minutes after our little episode. It was also kind of humorous watching people exit the plane after we landed, as several people were totally drenched in soda and water. I still have a little bit of a phobia about having an open drink on a flight, expecting it to hit the ceiling and all.
 
I don't think I've flown once without experiencing some turbulence. Once in particular - flight from Rome to Toronto was really bad, things were flying around the cabin, children screaming. Maybe once, a 30min flight was without any turbulence, but that's all I can think of.

What concerns me more than this, is that ALL the time during the flight I feel somewhat physically bad due to a cabin pressure that I feel is kept at an absolute humanly acceptable minimum in most planes. No idea why do they do this (less strain on cabin construction?) but I feel it plain as day, and my head doesn't like it one bit. In some airplanes it seems better than in the others, but that's rare to happen.
 
Coming home from Seattle last December, the plane wandered into the wash of a plane in front of it on approach to LAX and slid down and to the left, caught itself, and slide back down and to the right before leveling off. Fairly unsettling.

Going to Star Wars Celebration this past May, we had to land at Indianapolis through a thunderstorm that was covering most of the state. The captain came on and said it was going to be a rough ride but not to worry, as the plane was more than up to the task. That descent was probably the closest I'll ever come to being in a plane under fire. Lightning shooting from cloud to cloud out the window, rain slashing the windows, the plane dipping and sliding constantly, and then suddenly we hit the runway and everything was fine. A good amount of screaming from the cabin on that one.

I was lucky enough to be part of the early arrival group for TGS this year, so we flew in on the 9th and everything was fine. A few others flew in three days later, and had to come in through a tropical storm after circling for two hours and landing in Nagoya to refuel. Kevin Pereira took video of the subsequent approach to Tokyo and posted it on his blog. It's by far the worst turbulence I've seen, and you can hear people screaming, crying, and proclaiming the plane's imminent demise.

I'm not a big fan of flying, but I have to do it fairly often, so I'm slowly becoming more and more jaded to this stuff.
 
I've never experienced absolutely horrible turbulence, but IMO, the biggest problem with any sort of serious turbulence isn't so much the turbulence (which IS a pain in the ass), it's the reactions of the people in the cabin with you...
 
I fly about a hundred takeoffs a year and turbulence is pretty common in US, intercontinental and Asia. In Europe the only major turbulence I encounter is the big drop when flying to UK. I know it nearly always comes, still it spookes the hell out of me every time.

Last week coming from Tokyo, I landed in Bankok. That was something I haven't seen before - we were flying for the last ten minutes at 500m at 350 km/h. I would figure the neighbourhood would be bummed.

Three point landings are quite usual, too - I've got only of those lately, for some odd reason.

Funniest flight was an American Airlines flight SFO-LAX this year before E3. Before takeoff, the taxi vehicle wasn't properly disconnected from the plain. When it attempted to drive away, it violently rocked the plane sideways. The stuart said: "luckily the captain is better in flying than driving". Then the captain started his announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to American Airlines flight to Los Angeles. I have a joke for you! What do John the Bishop and Kermit the Frog have in common? The middle name! The wheather in Los Angeles is excellent, sunny and X degrees F ..."
 
I experienced considerable turbulence from SFO to Narita last July, enough to seat the cabin staff for ten minutes.

The most dangerous time in my opinion was from Dulles to Zurich - yikes Jesus, I thought it was going to crash, but it was nothing compared to the stories in this thread. :lol
 
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