First airline horror story

[fishheadbob]

I used to fly a lot, now down to 5 or 6 trips a year. The usual stories about lost luggage, mechanical delays, and especially weather delays. I try to leave as early as possible because problems can stack up as the day progresses, if you're onboard early you stand a chance of getting "there" sometime that day, but as airlines get more fully booked it gets harder to get onto a later flight to your destination if there's no seats.
Flying into Vegas for a connection, the plane is landing normally and is maybe 5 feet off the ground when the 737 goes full throttle, pulls upward as fast as the diminished airspeed allows, and veers to the left. We come around again in a few minutes and land OK. I just about need an underwear change, most passengers notice nothing. While disembarking I ask the old stewardess what happened, she replies "There was another plane on our runway. I've been flying 37 years and never had that happen before."

Thank you pilots for saving our lives, and I sure hope some air traffic controller got fired.

 

[Redneck in training]

I flew quite few million miles in past 30 years. Also in Russia. One time my seat had no seat belt because somebody cut the buckle off. While telling the FA there is no seat belt she answered Shut up nobody buckles here. The food was cold sausages that you have to pay for etc. The flights apparently couldn't deviate from the assigned corridors so they would fly directly through the storms. Going to land the plane turn down so sharp that it lifted you in the seat etc. I was also flying on helicopters. No ear plugs, no seats so I am sitting in the cargo bay of the large heli on my tool box. Something warm dropped on my neck. Oil from the engine. The best heli story happened sometime in 1979. While working on a pipeline construction. We needed few spares that were available on another compressor station in about 120 km as crow flies but several hundred km on the road and ferry. Since we knew that the adjacent station had a heli we asked if we could get a ride. We were told that if find the pilot and he willing to take us then yes. Found him and about 45 minutes later landed in our compound. Since our compound had a well supplied store that had many things that locals only dreamed off the pilot had some money to buy stuff. We told our people to help him and take care of him while we drove to the compressor station a to cannibalize the parts we needed. When we returned back we found the pilot sitting in the bar holding two full bags in each hand and totally drunk. Guy told us they took care of him as instructed. They thought it was really funny. So we waited some time thinking we will spend night there but the pilot suddenly perked up started talking. We debated if to take the risk and go or not and decided to go. The heli had no navigation system at all there was only radio and compass. The pilots followed the pipeline that was visible as a scare in the terrain. About half way home colleague of mine noticed that there is not the pipe under us and alerted the pilot. Pilot says Oh we lost the pipe and makes right turn flies for a while, It is not there. Makes U turn flies the other way, find the pipe and get us safely home. Longest heli flight was somewhere in Siberia. About 8 hours. The heli had big fuel tank in a cargo bay.

 

[Mace Canute]

Mace - what in the world caused you to fly into the Clinton Cr asbestos mine? I made several road trips from Anchorage to Dawson and up Bonanza Cr - last one was '72. We were never alone on that dirt road until we would get past the turnoff to the mine. Nothing like sharing a dirt road with a semi truck loaded with asbestos coming at you from the opposite direction. And they were all H*ll bent for election.

I was just looking for a job that payed good. I hired on (in Vancouver) to work at the mine and I worked in the mill portion for one year. Living in the Yukon for a year was an experience I am glad to have had.

 

[Sigarms]

This story is not really quite on subject because it's military,
but it is about a plane ride; well, almost a plane ride.

It's about my 'almost flight' with no seatbelt, or no seat for that matter !

Winter, nighttime, 1967, Dover MAC base, Dover, Del.

Crew of C141 already had engines going while going over preflight checklist.
Found service oil change on some piece of equipment hadn't been done.
Couldn't take off until it was done, so me and another airman (I'll call him Rick)
were sent to do the service.

Normally, we did this in the daytime by pushing a roll-up ladder to the wing to access the
service hatch which was on top just aft of the wings, but the crew wanted it done ASAP
so we went up on top through the cockpit hatch.

After crawling to the service hatch, the crew shut the cockpit hatch, I guess
to drown out the engine noise.

We finished the service and had just buttoned up the service hatch
when suddenly the engines revved up and the plane started to taxi off.

Well, we didn't waste much time thinking about it; it was a long ways down to
the tarmac, not to mention the jet engine exhaust on the way down.

So, we scrambled along the top of the plane to the cockpit hatch,
took hammers from our toolbags, and did some significant
pounding on the cockpit hatch.

Finally, the engines slowed down and the crew opened the hatch.
They had forgotten that we were up there !

Well, I don't remember saying much, but Rick sure laid it in to
that crew of embarrassed officers with a cussing they took without
complaint.

THAT'S a story!:laughing:

 

[Industrial Toys]

Last time I flew was in 2001 or so with West Jet. Great experience. Small Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) Airport where you would walk across the tarmac to the aircraft. You could see people through a chain link fence that dropped you off or were picking you up. How nice is that? I wore a suit and tie. That's the way people used to travel. Not in sweat pants!

You would have to pay me a lot of money to travel these days.

 

[teejk]

I try to avoid O'Hare like the plague!! My step son says "O'Hare - where travel itineraries go to die!" LOL!!

Your step-son nailed it! Our destination was usually the Madison area (family stuff) and "snags" were all too common. It's not a long drive but the rental car market is "local only" without a huge upcharge (and even then comes with a huge "tourist" tax...years ago it was 18%, probably higher now). They do offer a bus-ride that takes forever. We learned to hub through Milwaukee or Detroit or even Cincinnati.

 

[dodge man]

I flew a small plane, twin prop that held maybe 20 people, from St. Louis to Peoria Illinois. This was before cockpit doors were required. The curtain wasn稚 closed all the way and I could see the radar. I could tell it was going to get good, the radar was all yellow and oranges. It turned into a bad roll coaster ride but those pilots greased in to that runway like nobody痴 business. Smooth landing.

 

[Firemanbuck82]

Flying in the back of a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter as the field hand on a geology crew in the North Slope/Central Brooks Range, AK. We were transporting two drums of Jet A, which were strapped in beside me, to a fuel cache. The pilot got bored and starts doing stalls with the helicopter out over the tundra. Not that it would have made too much difference if we crashed, but I was VERY conscious of the two drums of fuel next to me.

 

[turnkey4099]

Flight in back seat of a 'push/pull' ?Cessna?, twin engine, one in front, one in rear. San Angelo, tx to Washington D.C. Pilot was a captain, co-pilot a brand new lieutenant. Captain let him fly. Came into Little Rock for refuel. Terrible cross wind. Touched down hard, bounced about 20' in air and the copilot let go of everything. Captain grabed controls and landed. Almost had to change shorts.

 

[dmccarty]

...
Flying into Vegas for a connection, the plane is landing normally and is maybe 5 feet off the ground when the 737 goes full throttle, pulls upward as fast as the diminished airspeed allows, and veers to the left. We come around again in a few minutes and land OK. I just about need an underwear change, most passengers notice nothing. While disembarking I ask the old stewardess what happened, she replies "There was another plane on our runway. I've been flying 37 years and never had that happen before."

Sure it was Vegas and not Orlando(MCO)?

As a kid I flew in and out of MCO all of the time to visit my family. One year I was on a small airline I have never flown before. I think it was Piedmont Airlines in NC.

I was leaving MCO and we were taxing to the north end of the runway. Use to be you could park on the other side of the road and watch the planes land. My granny and I would sometimes go park there and watch the planes land and take off. Can't do that anymore. Any who, the plane gets to the end of the taxi way and pulls out onto the runway. I am sitting on the left side of the plane, and as we pull out on the runway, I can see a plane on approach to land... :shocked::shocked::shocked:

Me thinks this is not good. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Somehow our pilot got us back on the taxiway before the plane on approach landed. Not sure how many other passengers even noticed...

Thank you pilots for saving our lives, and I sure hope some air traffic controller got fired.

I have always wondered who made the FUBAR. The pilot or controller.

Might have been an interesting radio conversation to overhear. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan