What''s your craziest airline/flying story?

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 4/23/2009 11:12:09 PM
Author: April20

Date: 4/23/2009 9:37:07 PM

Author: CDNinNYC

I used to be a Flight Attendant so I''ve got a few stories but one of the ''weirdest'' was having to help an overweight passenger get off the toilet. Apparently she was sitting when she flushed and it vacuum sucked her into the seat.

I''m scared to even ask how you break that vaccuum seal.......

Well... let''s just say there was a lot of those single-serving butter packets used...

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 4/24/2009 8:23:27 AM
Author: Hudson_Hawk

Date: 4/23/2009 9:51:15 PM

FI has this book about crazy ways people have accidentally died (true stories), and one of them is about a farmer who was killed by a block of poo falling from an over-flying airplane. Apparently the poo froze because it''s really cold at 30,000+ feet and was solid by the time it reached the ground. He was on his tractor...random...

 

[CDNinNYC]

This thread is bringing back so many memories!

I was once a passenger on a flight that was going from Vietnam to Thailand. We had all boarded the aircraft and it had started to pull from the gate when it stopped. After about an hour or so, we had to disembark, walk across the tarmac and re-enter the airport.

Apparently, the pilot waited to decide until that moment the huge crack on the window of the cockpit was too dangerous to risk flying.

We were stranded in that airport for 9 hours without anything to eat or drink while they flew in a new window pane for the cockpit. FI and I ended up missing two connecting flights because of that and had to pay out of pocket for new airfare and hotel costs.

 

[stephinextremis]

Okay, so there ARE worse things than being in a plane with overflowing toilets...

Stephanie

 

[julabean]

DH and I were on our way to Vegas in December one time. Seattle was having some freaky weather (record freezing, snow, ice - not normally typical Seattle weather!). Before we left SEA, we had to wait for them to pump hot water through the pipes in the lavatories because they had frozen! We thought sitting at the gate for 45 minutes would be the only problem, but we had no idea.

We finally took off, flew to Vegas, passed over the Strip...and kept flying south. We could see the other planes lining up to land, but we kept going past them. DH figured we were circling around to get in position, but we just kept flying. Everyone is getting kind of concerned and DH is cracking jokes that the plane may just be flying us to Arizona (where we were going later in our trip) when the pilot comes on and says, "Uh...ladies and gentlemen, we have somewhat of a situation up here. ... ... Apparently when we were in Seattle it was cold enough to freeze our flaps."

Freeze our what?

"Las Vegas has cleared us for an emergency landing. It is possible to land this plane without the flaps. We''ve trained in the classroom for it multiple times!"

Well, that''s comforting! Funny (or crazy!) enough, it was the smoothest landing EVER. I tried to ignore the fire engines racing along side us as soon as we landed and I''ll say we used up every inch of that runway, but we made it! Of course when we left the gate, the first thing we see are huge guys in fire suits.

I guess there was a chance our plane may have caught on fire when landing! Glad that didn''t happen.

 

[April20]

Date: 4/24/2009 3:26:15 PM
Author: CDNinNYC
This thread is bringing back so many memories!

I was once a passenger on a flight that was going from Vietnam to Thailand. We had all boarded the aircraft and it had started to pull from the gate when it stopped. After about an hour or so, we had to disembark, walk across the tarmac and re-enter the airport.

Apparently, the pilot waited to decide until that moment the huge crack on the window of the cockpit was too dangerous to risk flying.

We were stranded in that airport for 9 hours without anything to eat or drink while they flew in a new window pane for the cockpit. FI and I ended up missing two connecting flights because of that and had to pay out of pocket for new airfare and hotel costs.

That stinks!!!!! Why the heck did he wait until then? And no food? I would have melted down.

 

[April20]

I forgot about this one:

I was on a flight out of Reagan Nat''l about a month ago and just as we were about to take off, they came ove the PA and said that there was a door in the luggage area that wouldn''t close. Apparently, one of the trucks hit it. It was a 12" door and after hemming and hawing for 45 mins on how to fix it and not being able to, they checked with engineering and said we could fly without it. We made it to the destination, but when we landed they didn''t have a jetway operator. I was already really tight for my connection and was getting nervous. When the jetway operator finally got there, she couldn''t get power to it! Needless to say, I missed my connecting flight.

 

[princesss]

Okay, so here are my top two:

The first year we lived in Thailand, we took a trip back to the States in October. I had only really flown this route once before, and wasn''t (yet) a nervous flier. So we''re approaching Tokyo, and suddenly the plane drops. Boom. I have no idea how far we dropped, but we hit an air pocket and the plane felt like a kid jumping off the third stair and landing HARD on the bottom. Flight attendants were crawling back to their seats, and we were holding on for dear life in our seats.

Anyways, we were in business class, and there was a guy working on his laptop. He''s typing away and has a cup of Coke sitting next to him. The plane drops, and the Coke hovers for a second. He grabs the cup, catches the Coke, sets the cup down and keeps typing. Amazing.


Second:

I was on a flight between Hong Kong and Chicago (can''t recall which direction I was going), and I was on one of those huge flights where the rows go 3 seats, 5 seats, 3 seats. I was in the middle row, on the far left. There was a mom on the far right, and her young son between us. As soon as we hit cruising altitude, the woman lays the kid down in the three middle seats. Now, normally I''d be a little annoyed. A row of 5 with only three people means we all get a little more space, not that one person gets it all. BUT he was a young kid, and the more soundly he was sleeping, the more pleasant my flight would be. So lay down, kid, I think to myself. Sleep as long as you want.

I fall asleep, and wake up to a really weird noise. Now, it''s hard to come by a truly odd noise on a plane, especially if you fly often. But this was weird. It was like somebody was pouring water onto a book. Anyways, I open my eyes, and the kid is standing up in his seat, peeing into an airsickness bag that his mother is holding.

The mom then presses the attendant call button, and hands them the bag. (Lovely, lady. Really classy move.)

So by then I''m really grossed out and wondering what else is going to happen. So, as a precaution, I put my purse in the overhead bin (this is still mid flight, and even though I hate having my purse in the bin, I hate the idea of some child''s bodily fluid all over it even more).

The rest of the flight was fairly painless, until we got to landing. We start the descent very smoothly, everything is going well...and then out of nowhere, the kid starts vomiting all over his mother as she''s pushing her purse all the way under the seat in front of her. It''s in her hair, on her clothes, all over the floor, and on her Chanel (or Chanel look-alike) bag. She mops it off of her bag, and tucks the napkin into the seat pocket in front of her.

I was so happy when we landed! I pulled a flight attendant aside when we were getting off of the plane so that they wouldn''t go back there unprepared....I still get queasy just thinking about it!

 

[April20]

Date: 4/24/2009 7:23:12 PM
Author: princesss
Okay, so here are my top two:

The first year we lived in Thailand, we took a trip back to the States in October. I had only really flown this route once before, and wasn''t (yet) a nervous flier. So we''re approaching Tokyo, and suddenly the plane drops. Boom. I have no idea how far we dropped, but we hit an air pocket and the plane felt like a kid jumping off the third stair and landing HARD on the bottom. Flight attendants were crawling back to their seats, and we were holding on for dear life in our seats.

Anyways, we were in business class, and there was a guy working on his laptop. He''s typing away and has a cup of Coke sitting next to him. The plane drops, and the Coke hovers for a second. He grabs the cup, catches the Coke, sets the cup down and keeps typing. Amazing.


Second:

I was on a flight between Hong Kong and Chicago (can''t recall which direction I was going), and I was on one of those huge flights where the rows go 3 seats, 5 seats, 3 seats. I was in the middle row, on the far left. There was a mom on the far right, and her young son between us. As soon as we hit cruising altitude, the woman lays the kid down in the three middle seats. Now, normally I''d be a little annoyed. A row of 5 with only three people means we all get a little more space, not that one person gets it all. BUT he was a young kid, and the more soundly he was sleeping, the more pleasant my flight would be. So lay down, kid, I think to myself. Sleep as long as you want.

I fall asleep, and wake up to a really weird noise. Now, it''s hard to come by a truly odd noise on a plane, especially if you fly often. But this was weird. It was like somebody was pouring water onto a book. Anyways, I open my eyes, and the kid is standing up in his seat, peeing into an airsickness bag that his mother is holding.

The mom then presses the attendant call button, and hands them the bag. (Lovely, lady. Really classy move.)

So by then I''m really grossed out and wondering what else is going to happen. So, as a precaution, I put my purse in the overhead bin (this is still mid flight, and even though I hate having my purse in the bin, I hate the idea of some child''s bodily fluid all over it even more).

The rest of the flight was fairly painless, until we got to landing. We start the descent very smoothly, everything is going well...and then out of nowhere, the kid starts vomiting all over his mother as she''s pushing her purse all the way under the seat in front of her. It''s in her hair, on her clothes, all over the floor, and on her Chanel (or Chanel look-alike) bag. She mops it off of her bag, and tucks the napkin into the seat pocket in front of her.

I was so happy when we landed! I pulled a flight attendant aside when we were getting off of the plane so that they wouldn''t go back there unprepared....I still get queasy just thinking about it!

You win. The coke story is super cool, but peeing into an air sickness bag takes the cake. I hope I NEVER get near anyone like that!!!

A few years ago, a friend of mine and I were having a conversation about people that take more room than is really theirs because they assume you don''t care. Not necessarily taking extra seats, but more taking your "arm" area and hogging "communal" space. We came up with a message addressing the need for our personal space to be personal. We toyed with having it translated into three or four languages and taping it to the folded up tray table when we flew. We never did it, but the note was well worded and there are days when I really wish I had that darn note!!