ADVERTISEMENT

We've grown accustomed to air travel and have high expectations for it. According to one study, 96% of passengers are concerned with the cleanliness of the cabin and lavatory, 94% want a friendly, attentive, and accessible staff, 93% worry about seat spacing, and desire 92% quality food and beverage options.

However, taking hundreds of people, lifting them up 30,000 feet, and transporting them to another corner of the world in a matter of hours is no small feat. From time to time, various inconveniences and challenges do arise.

To learn about these situations, Reddit user prettyKaitlynn made a post on the platform, asking everyone, "What's the most horrifying thing you've experienced on a flight?" Below are some of the answers they have received.

#1

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights This happened to me recently. Im disabled and usually fly alone (which is not super fun lol). So I’ll splurge and get myself a first class seat so at least I don’t lose an entire week of time with my pain getting worse. We were delayed FIVE HOURS because of a bad thunderstorm. During this time (about two hours in) I needed to grab my pain meds, I stand up, grab my bag, pull my medsafe out. Aaaaannnddd the locking mechanism has BROKEN. I AM LOCKED OUT OF MY MEDICATION BOX….EVERY VITAL PIECE OF MEDICINE IS IN THERE.

I couldn’t believe it, I was already stressed and had a full blown panic attack. But I’m so embarrassed I’m trying to keep it together. There’s two woman about my age (30) waiting for the bathroom (I’m in seat 1a), and they can see me losing my mind. Asked me if I was ok, and I blurted out what happened. One of them asked if I wanted to have her husband try to break into it. Im like sure, idc if you have to break it. So he did!!! Thank god…I was shaking so badly I couldn’t even open the bottles. She grabbed a water bottle for me and went through all my meds and found what I needed.

She was an ANGEL and I can never repay or thank her enough for helping me in one of my lowest, most isolating situations. The flight attendants were also sooooo nice once they figured out what happened. Horrible experience but man those people made it so much better, so grateful for them!!!!!

Ranoverbyhorses , Karolina Grabowska Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#2

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights On a red eye flight, everyone was asleep but I can't sleep on planes. A few rows behind me a girl started screaming "mama!? MAMA!?" The flight attendants walked over, then ran back. Then ran over holding a defibrillator. Then walked the hysterical girl, looked to be about a teenager, to the front of the plane. Then walked back with blankets.

When the plane landed no one was allowed to move. A stretcher came on board and wheeled the blanket covered body out. The sobbing girl followed behind.

I can't imagine losing a parent on a flight, with nowhere to go and no way to contact anyone else for help, surrounded by nosy strangers in tight quarters.

KnittinAndB****in , Pavel Danilyuk Report

#3

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights When I was 17 I was in a plane crash, my dad was the pilot, we were flying home from a baseball tournament I was in, he owned a Beechcraft Bonanza, a single engine propeller plane. While we were at 13k feet the propeller stopped dead. It was 8pm, dark enough where you couldnt really tell where open fields were or forests. He radioed into the nearest airport and declared emergency landing, but we didn't make it, we went down about 5 miles in front of the airport.

We knew we wouldnt make it to the airport once we were about at 6k feet, he radioed in and ATC said it was a big open field in front of the runway, aim for it and they will have fire and rescue ready, but we didn't make it that far, when we were about 200 feet off the ground we see the tree tops shooting back up at us and he says "f**k" I still don't really remember what happened after that, but clearly we were extremely lucky, the wings got torn off on both sides from trees we hit, but after sliding through the forest floor for about 60 yards we hit a tree head on, but at that point we were going maybe 30mph.

We both walked away, he broke his nose and I had a cut on my face from the glass, but other than that we were totally fine. Fire and rescue was at the crash maybe 5 minutes later, they told us they thought this was going to be a body retreval, so they were very suprised to see us standing there laughing and crying.

PetMyPeePeePlease , Alan Radecki Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#4

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights On a flight to Hawaii several years ago. Man beside me started experiencing a heart attack. Luckiest SOB I ever meet though. The plane was full of doctors on their way to a medical convention.

kissele , Karolina Grabowska Report

#5

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights I got my very first period on a plane in white cargo pants flying from Ohio to California

bmy89 , ALINA MATVEYCHEVA Report

#6

My baby did a projectile s**t all over the toilet wall while I was changing her nappy. The was s**t everywhere. S**tcano. There was somehow more s**t than baby. I told an attendant I needed cleaning supplies and a trash bag, and she turned up with a black plastic giant garbage bag that had masking tape on it saying "BABY S**T". Maybe it's a common occurrance with the pressure changes? I dunno. Either way I threw all the clothes and the blanket, everything in that bag except the baby! I cleaned the toilet room as best I could. I was absolutely mortified, and thankfully never seen anything like it since!

StructureNo3388 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#7

I was 16 and flying alone from Istanbul, Turkey to Seattle, USA to visit my sister who had left Turkey early to go to school in US (we were born in WA state so not as dramatic as it sounds).

During the second leg of the flight, from London to Seattle, I developed a urinary tract infection. It kept getting worse and worse. I spent the whole 10 hour flight having to pee urgently, going to the bathroom every 10 minutes (disrupting the poor passenger next to me), getting one drop out, and crying on the toilet. I started passing clots of blood out of my urethra which was excruciating. I was so shy back then and scared, but I really wish I’d told a stewardess so at least I could have some emotional comfort and know what was going on.

When I landed as soon as I saw my sister I burst into tears and said take me to the ER. They said it was the worst UTI they’d seen in a while. The meds started working so fast.

Truly a horrible, horrible experience.

Batticon Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#8

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Somebody died on the toilet and we did CPR for maybe half an hour or more before deciding to stop. Relative had to watch. In fact everybody had to watch because there is f*****g no where to go.

MariaNarco , RDNE Stock project Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#9

Mine is nothing compared to these stories. I thought an old woman s**t herself only to find out my dad was letting out silent farts the entire f****n flight. I almost punched him

DrexelCreature Report

#10

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights As soon as the engines revved up for take off, a woman started screaming like she was dying. The flight attendants couldn’t get up to go to her until the pilot rang the bell, about 5-10 minutes. She was screaming the entire time. Turns out her daughter put her on the flight even though she was terrified of flying. An attendant held her hand the entire flight, walked her all the way to meet the other daughter and tell her to never put mom on an airplane ever again.

zenos_dog , cottonbro studio Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#11

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights I was sexually harrassed by the passenger next to me- the police had to escort him off the plane when we landed

pumpkin_pasties , Kindel Media Report

#12

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Captain here. 2 hours in on an early flight the in charge FA advises us we have run out of coffee.

scooterjay2013 , Sam Lion Report

#13

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights On a flight from Denver to Houston a woman hit the call button, talked to a stewardess, then was escorted to the back of the plane. As she walked by I saw that her skin was grey in color and she looked really scared. A request for a medical professional came over the PA and the woman in front of me got up to assist. She came back after ten minutes and I overheard her tell her husband the woman didn’t make it. I then saw a stewardess get a guy that looked like a biker out of his seat and take him to the back of the plane. The biker looking guy was only there for a minute then went to the airplane’s galley for awhile. I’m thinking he must have been an air marshal.

My other experience was flying from San Francisco to Denver. The plane was loaded and it was time to takeoff but we just sat at the gate. The pilot announced we would be leaving soon and that we were late taking off because they had to balance out the luggage. Finally after around 30 minutes after we were supposed to takeoff the plane backed out and went to the runway. Once again we just sat on the tarmac, this time for another 30 minutes. The pilot got on the PA again and said we had to return to the gate because the plane was low on fuel from all the idling. Back at the gate three armed law enforcement officers entered the plane and escorted a man off. After that the pilot announced that we were finally ready to take off and that the previous wait was actually due to a security issue.

TXRichardCranium , Pew Nguyen Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#14

On Halloween night in 1994 I was on a United flight from Vancouver to Chicago. Back then "Channel 9" on the inflight entertainment system let you listen to air traffic control. That night as we approached Chicago I was listening to Channel 9 when suddenly ATC told all the other planes to quiet down. Then they started calling over and over for another flight - American 4184 - And asking the other planes if anyone else could see an ATR. This went one for a few minutes and then CLICK channel 9 was switched off. I felt a chill go down my spine. When I got to my hotel I switched on CNN. Flight 4184 had gone down in a field in Indiana and everyone was dead. 

CohibaVancouver Report

#15

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Being asked by the guy on the other side of the plane if there was oil spraying out of the engine on my side too.

cablemonkey604 , Lucas Pezeta Report

#16

Spent a 5 hour flight from Sydney to Perth witnessing a man rapidly descend into a drug induced psychosis due to the pellets of drugs inside him absorbing into his system from within.

The flight started out as normal, and as the man became more and more agitated his speech became aggressive and incomprehensible to the woman beside him, with sweat starting to pour out of his body.

He then got up and started pacing up and down the isle, whilst going to the bathroom every few minutes to I assume, attempt to reorganise what was inside of him.

This all came to a head when he was slamming the bathroom door open and closed, throwing his shoes out at passengers and screaming at the flight attendants “it’s just because I need food”.

Somehow the poor flight attendants were able to distract him until we landed, at which point he pulled out a small silver spoon from his back pocket, kissed it, looking up in the air in a “we’ve done it!” way, only to be met with approximately 10 police officers and security waiting outside the plane who handcuffed and escorted him away.

Datelesspizza Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#17

Two nights before I was supposed to go on a business trip, I had a lucid dream where I was in a plane crash. I survived the initial crash, but was covered in burning jet fuel. I could feel myself burning, still strapped into my seat. The pain was so intense and eventually started fading as my nerve endings died in the fire. I remembered thinking "all I have to do is inhale and it's over"... so I did, and the dream ended.


Cut to two days later, I get my seat assignment and am boarding the plane. I sit in the exact same seat in the exact same spot as my dream. I began to panic and was absolutely sure I was about to die horribly. I suffered in silence and braced for the end as we took off. In my dream, we crashed right after takeoff. The real takeoff was smooth as can be, no issues, we climbed, we survived, but my heart was racing for the first 30 minutes or so of that flight. Scary as F.

bassistmuzikman Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#18

During landing.

Very close to land when the plane went high up in the air again. We figured there was a plane needing to depart or something. After noticing the plane was going in circles at a high altitude we realized something was going on.

FA informed us, as per pilot instruction, they would try to land again however we might feel some turbulence as one of the wings was not working properly. That thing that opens and helps reduce the planes speed when landing was broken.

It was nerve-racking and we didn’t know if we were going to finish landing, the plane was shaking like crazy at an intense speed. Thankfully the pilot managed to maneuver the plane. Everybody was clapping.

Athena_07 Report

#19

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Took off after a 7 hour delay. Plane climbed for a little bit and went into a pretty tight bank turn. Captain comes on and says there's smoke in the cabin, and we were going in for an emergency landing. As we are coming in, there are the fire trucks and emergency vehicles waiting for us. Long story short...it was a wiring harness for the coffee maker. Swapped it out without even having to deplane. Got free drinks for the rest of the flight.

Bigkid6666 , Rafael Cosquiere Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#20

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Flying back to the UK from Finland. During bad weather over the North Sea, the plane just fell straight down for 3 seconds. No time for people to scream, but plenty of time afterwards for even the cabin crew to exchange glances that said "that was scary."

PurahsHero , Lina Kivaka Report

#21

In my teens (2006) I was with a large student group on an "ambassador trip" and on the way home two of us got separated from the rest of the group and had to sit next to a stranger. My friend really wanted the window seat because he didn't get one before and wanted to watch take off. My friend and I fell asleep kind of huddled together but I woke up when the strange guy was slipping his hand up my shorts. I froze. I quietly and repeat poker my friend. Matt woke up and saw what was happening and over dramatically stretched and yawned so the guy stopped. The guy got up to go to the bathroom and Matt called over a chaperone while I burst into tears. The chaperone said she'd take care of it and we saw her talking to the flight attendant and the guy just, never came back... Idk what happened to him but I'm not mad he didn't come back.

Human_Allegedly Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#22

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Flying in a small 8-seater from the mainland to an island, when a kitten got loose, over pilot's shoulder and generally being frantic. Type of scene that disaster movies start with!

GSVNoFixedAbode , Loc Dang Report

#23

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights On a red-eye flight, a passenger sitting across from me had a night terror. They woke up screaming, thrashing, and didn't recognize where they were. It was unsettling for everyone on board.

sweetTaniya , Pew Nguyen Report

#24

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Just after takeoff from Ixtapa Mexico, we were climbing out over the ocean at about 1000 feet when I looked out my window. Headed directly at me about 500 feet away was a twin engine Beechcraft (I think). I would guess it was 3-4 seconds from impact. Fortunately, the pilot of the aircraft saw us and pulled up sharply just in time, missing us by maybe 25 feet. My wife, who's deathly afraid of flying, asked me, "What was that?" I said "nothing" and pretended nothing had happened until we were on the ground in the US, then I told her. Without question, if that pilot had pulled up even a second or two later, everyone on board both planes would have been dead.

lobeams , Jason Toevs Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#25

Was in turbulence so bad the stewardesses looked scared. At least 10 people threw up. Lightning outside the plane, side to side turbulence in addition to up and down, and it lasted for a long time. Round of applause when the captain announced we were through it.

Apparently we had to fly several hundred miles out of our way to avoid a hurricane. The turbulence was what it was like *outside* of the danger zone.

Kahzgul Report

#26

Flying into Denver, our plane dropped about 1,000 ft in severe turbulence and this mother f****r was "just trying to get something out of his bag" after the announcement from the pilot about upcoming turbulence and the flight attendants yelling at him. He flew into the ceiling and slammed into the ground like something out of a movie and then got absolutely chewed out by the FAs. It was scary, I guess due to the Rockies and the Denver plain it causes some bad turbulence.

pandalover885 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#27

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Someone brought their cat on-board in a carrier and put it under their seat. As if listening to a screaming cat for 6 hours wasn't enough ...it s**t in its carrier so the entire plane smelled like fresh cat s**t. The woman took it to the bathroom to clean it and got cat s**t all over the bathroom ...... fun times

RKLCT , Anatolii Kozhukhar Report

#28

A woman died in the seat next to me on a flight from Australia to the US. She appeared to just be asleep, but couldn’t be roused by her traveling companions. Eventually the flight attendants laid her on the floor and a doctor examined her. After a few minutes they carried her to the back of the plane. I later asked a flight attendant when we landed and she told me the woman had died.

DocFossil Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#29

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights One of those idiots in the Ultralights flying around at a few thousand feet over a small city right in the approach pattern for major airlines. I’m disgusted by these people as they are a MAJOR hazard as they often times don’t talk, squawk or give any indication that they are there until its too late.

WaxWings54 , Arpingstone Report

#30

Flying out of Chengdu China in the early 80s on an old Russian turboprop. It was a wicked snowstorm and I am thinking there is no way we are taking off in this mess. Visibility was only a few hundred feet. I am looking around in panic and I realize the guy sitting across the aisle from me is the spitting image of Buddy Holly. I recall thinking that if this guy pulls a guitar out of the overhead bin and starts singing Peggy Sue, we are all f****d

WeekendDesigner4734 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#31

This is a long one so buckle up, fold up those tray tables and put your seats in the upright position.. I was a flight attendant twenty years ago. The flight that made me quit was from South Bend, Indiana to Minneapolis. It started out with a funny story of having a p**n star on our little regional flight. (50 seat CRJ, I was the only flight attendant) I got a chuckle out of how amped the gate agent was about it. He was obviously a fan. Anyways, everything else was normal other than it not being a very full flight. We take off and I am in the jump seat, chilling and waiting for the fist ding to tell me we are out of sterile cockpit (over 10k ft) when the ventilation system suddenly kicks on. It was then that my oh s**t reflexes kick in because all I can smell is burning though there isn't any smokey haze. For a hot minute I thought I was imagining it but when I looked up, one of the passengers in front of me makes eye contact and gives me a look that confirms I am not the only one smelling it. No one else notices, again it was odd but the first three rows were vacant since the flight was only half full. So for the first time ever, I reached up and grabbed the phone to the cockpit and hit the emergency button which alerts the cockpit but not any passengers unless they know what the flashing light means above my head. The captain answers and it sounds like he is Darth Vader since the two of them have their oxygen masks on. I said quietly into the phone, "what the f**k is happening?" They tell me they don't know and they need me to get up and check behind the galley cart, the lavatory, and then to pull up the hatch to the avionics bay since they can't figure out where it is coming from and there aren't any alarms going off. Apparently air traffic control couldn't see from the ground if we were on fire either. So I try to as calmly as I can, move through the cabin without making any sort of scene even though I am pretty much thinking we're all going to die at this point and my throat is burning from breathing in the fumes. Again, no one noticed and I am grateful seeing as the three of us crew members were on the same "we're going to die" wavelength. Literally nobody even batted an eyelash at me crawling on the floor and pulling up the hatch to the avionics bay. (I still have no idea how no one thought that was out of the ordinary.) So there was nothing that I could see on my side, no visible fire or smoke. I call back to the cockpit and they say that thankfully they're going to let us land and that while we wait for clearance, they are going to "vent" the cabin to clear some of the fumes. At this point, I buckle myself back into the jump seat and try not to look freaked out as I face the twenty five souls in the seats in front of me as the captain announces to the aircraft that there are fumes and we need to vent them as we need to go back to the airport due to mechanical issues. Yeah, blank stares are aimed in my direction and I just smile and nod as if this is standard procedure. None of this is standard. So the venting is supposed to feel like a little puff of air next to your ears but it felt like one of those air cannons punching you in the side of your face which was just delightful but soon after we were on the ground safely and I get to work getting everyone off this missile to hell so I can have my freak out moment in private. The two pilots and myself wind up chain smoking out front of the airport and not speaking to each other for about a half an hour. What caused all of this was that the engine had been washed that morning at the maintenance bay but it was not rinsed or ran properly to let the chemicals burn off or rinse out. That was what was causing the fumes. An hour later we were back on the same aircraft and flew back to Minneapolis without issue. I quit the week after. A close second was hearing the warning messages to the captain during takeoff once. Imagine being in the jump seat and hearing behind you, "WINDSHEAR! WINDSHEAR! PULL UP! PULL UP!" while trying to act like everything is cool. I hated that airline so damn much.

wishiwasyou333 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#32

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights I was on a plane that crashed into a field, and walked away completely uninjured. This was just outside my home city.

The plane was restored, and still flies today.

dr_trina , Richard R. Schünemann Report

#33

Coming in for a landing, about 75' off the ground and we start heading back up. There was a plane under us waiting to depart.

_jump_yossarian Report

#34

On an airplane, but not technically a flight. Sitting at the end of the runway, pilot doing his pre-flight or something. There was a fireball in one of the engines. Passengers panicked, flight attendants popped the emergency doors and the emergency slides deployed. It was mayhem; people knocking others down, crawling over the seats, lots of screaming. Several people were injured. Of those I saw - one man fell off the wing, found out later he broke his arm and collarbone. Another fell off the middle of the slide. She went away holding her wrist, not sure of what happened. Guy in front of me on the slide tumbled face first at the bottom of the slide, got up with a bloodied face. Emergency slides are not fun. It's not like in the movies. The ironic thing was, there was no danger to the aircraft or passengers. 

chileheadd Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#35

This was in 2015 (luckily not during Covid as I probably would have been kicked off the flight). But suddenly I felt a tickle in my throat, so I started coughing. But I COULD NOT STOP COUGHING. No matter what I did I could not get that tickle out. The people around me were understanding, but I decided to go to the back of the plane just to be courteous. The flight attendants gave me ice and that was the only thing that would give me any sort of relief. We finally landed. That night I went to bed and woke up at 5am with a swollen shut eye, huge f*****g lips, hives ALL over my body, and a tightness in my chest. Turns out I was having a severe allergic reaction to something I ate(?) at airport or something on the plane. My throat was literally CLOSING on the plane. That’s why the ice was helping because it was bringing down the swelling. But here’s the weird f*****g thing. I’ve never been allergic to anything in my life before OR since that incident. So it’s a huge freaking mystery. The hives also showed up in different places on my body each morning for two weeks after. In July I got bed bug bites on an airplane. They didn’t travel with me to my house (thank god) but I’m still scarred from them on my skin since I had a bad reaction to them. Honolulu airport also had recently shut town a terminal for bed bugs.

TheReinsofFullnight Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#36

As we're all getting finally settled into our seats and they're about to lock up the overhead bins, this kid about 4 years old, wearing an NHL jersey, standing on his seat looking backwards at us, starts vigorously licking the top of the seat, like, vigorously, like it was a popsicle, the whole top of the seat, all of it, the piping and the seams, all while staring dead in our eyes. His parents did not stop this and it went on for ages. Haunting.

lethargicon Report

#37

Flying from Hartford to Dulles during severe snow storm aboard a United commuter jet, one row of single seats, one row of double. Well into the flight the pilot comes on intercom to say we may have to turn back because we don’t have enough fuel to circle Dulles if necessary. Plane is rocked by turbulence. I look out my window and see that the clouds are coming toward me, yes, the plane appeared to be going sideways. We eventually landed with more than one person quietly crying. The poor flight attendant was sitting on the floor in the front of the plane as we exited. The pilot did not make an appearance. I could only imagine he was unable to pry his fingers off the controls.

barkingdog53 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#38

Barely had our butts in the seat and a woman turned to us and said “are you two teachers?”. We responded with “no” and then she proceeded to talk THE ENTIRE 9 hour flight about herself. Husband pretended to fall asleep within the hour and I find it painfully hard to stop conversations with friendly people. Ugh, AND we were seated right beside the toilets which smelt of old pee

No-Lack4969 Report

#39

I had a woman next to me on a 15-hour flight, with two kids under 5. She sat next to me with the kids on the aisle, and the first thing she did was apologize for what was to come. It was terrible, stuff constantly knocked onto the floor, a drink spilled on my leg ... but that was just the woman herself. She soon swapped seats, and the kids just did normal kid stuff. They were not so bad at all, aside from the occasional accidental bump when they squirmed, while she continued to drop stuff on the floor: food, drink, phone, basically anything on her tray table was going to be on the floor sooner or later.

FrightenedOfSpoons Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#40

Easy Jet flight from Nice to London about 10 years ago. French guy sat behind me had a phobia of flying so we had the whole crew including the pilot visit him in his seat before the flight took off to reassure him it will be fine and nothing to worry about.

20 mins after take off a message from the crew informs the passengers that there has been a technical issue with the aircraft and we will be returning to Nice. Immediately, the guy behind me freaks out, tears streaming down his face, slapping himself in the face and loudly shouting.The the cabin crew run over in numbers to help this poor guy out. He eventually calms down.

We land 20 mins later at Nice, as soon as we land, our plane gets surrounded by fire engines, ambulances and police, we are sat just off the main runway, far away from the terminal where passengers could disembark. The guy behind me jumps out of his seat and tries to run towards the front of the plane and is restrained by other passengers and the crew.

An hour later or so, we still hadn't moved and the crew had announced to the passengers that they could get water from the areas at the front and back of the aircraft. The queue at the bottom of the aircraft started a few rows behind from where I was sat. A young guy in the queue started stumbling backwards and smashes his head into the floor and starts fitting. Literally shaking on the floor next to my seat at this point, young guy too, no more than 21 years old.

Paramedics were onboard within 5 mins or so.

Impressive_One9440 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#41

I had food poisoning on a Transatlantic flight from JFK to Heathrow. To top that off, we hit a large area of turbulence for an hour and a half which led to the fasten seat belt signs to be on.

After the 2nd rush to the toilet during this turbulence, the flight attendants seemed to decide all subsequent efforts to stop me would not be in anyone's best interest. Everyone behind us (myself and a friend) knew what was going on and it would have been humiliating if I wasn't wishing the plane would dive into the Atlantic to end the nightmare.

MuelNado Report

#42

What are the odds, it happened two days ago.

I was on a flight. As soon as I sat down, the person next me asked me if I knew Jesus. I said I didn't.

Anyway, we were heading to our destination, it was really bumpy, there was a lot of wind and turbulence. At some point, the person next to me whispered "we're all born sinners."

Anyway, we went to land and it was horrible. The plan was tipping to the sides heaps and bumping up and down. We got to about 20 meters above the runway when the plane tilted up and essentially took off again, shot back up. Apparently it was too hazardous to try and land. At this point the person two seats behind me started having a panic attack.

We went for a second attempt. The person behind me was sobbing and talking about how we're all gonna die and the person next to me had her eyes shut and was praying fervently. Again, we got just above the ground and took off again. We then enjoyed an extremely turbulent ride back to where we started, where we landed in nearly just as strong wind.

It was a very cliche bad plane experience

TheTwistedToast Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#43

In First Class, leaving London, before takeoff an American guy starts screaming in pain. Lands on floor, writhing. “My…appendix!” They hauled him off. FA asks his buddy if he wants to go with his sick friend. “Nah, I’m good,” he says.

Camille_Toh Report

#44

“She Was Screaming The Entire Time”: 50 Horrific Things To Have Happened On Flights Was in a small 4 seat Beechcraft with friends - one of whom was the pilot - flying through clouds when pilot/friend said to other guy “horizon indicator wasn’t working.” I thought but didn’t say out loud “isn’t that like REALLY FREAKING IMPORTANT TO HAVE?” Well, we got home safely so apparently not. 

TGIIR , Alexandra May Report

#45

Right wing started to leak fuel to the point that we needed an immediate emergency landing. Whole team of firefighters waiting for the landing plane to catch fire on the runway

marnixcamiel Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#46

A guy have a domestic dispute with his girlfriend on a Norwegian Air flight from Prague to New York, he was cursing and screaming and eventually hit her and the flight attendants moved her seat. The rest of the flight he was pacing the aisles and staring at his gf furiously. The flight attendants didn’t do Jack s**t and he never got arrested or anything . I wrote to Norwegian air and never heard anything back

Glass-Onion-3336 Report

#47

The absolute rank BO of some hipster looking guy sitting behind my daughter and I on a 4 hour flight.

Emergencymama Report

#48

Just (but didn’t feel like “just” at the time) really bad turbulence; people’s purses hit the ceiling of the cabin and I think some people who weren’t belted in injured themselves too. People were screaming / praying / crying (I was in that last category).

I wasn’t crazy about flying before but that experience put me into phobia territory and I didn’t fly afterwards for probably about ten years, and still weigh it as a cost/benefit thing whenever I travel. It’s helped a bit to learn that turbulence isn’t really a thing that causes plane crashes, as far as I now understand, but it can feel very different in that moment to the illogical mind.

bottleglitch Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#49

Someone died on my flight from NY to Rome. They didn’t tell us until the end when paramedics came onto the plane.

heylookatmywatch Report

#50

Landing at night time, and just as we're about to land it gets really bumpy and seems to drop. Engines really, really sounding like they're straining. I've flown quite a fair bit and never had anything as terrifying.

And one that's not really terrifying at the time, but kinda makes you think. Was in a small plane coming in for a landing, and just as it's about to set down suddenly climbs up again. Turns out the pilot isn't sure if the landing gear is actually down or not.

PloppyTheSpaceship Report