carl

Had an 'abort and go around' during landing. We were on final approach (i.e. about 30 ft above the runway) at the time. Never found out why.

Was also convinced I could smell kerosene when we were preparing for takeoff from Dublin once. Interesting dilemma "Now, should I say something or not?".

Edit: bizarrely, I'm also ****-scared of flying now. Never used to be when I was younger. Maybe it's the responsibility of having a wife and kids, and the "lack of control" that you get in a plane that (a) someone else is flying and (b) you can't see where you're going.

[Edited by carl - 7/4/2003 9:01:12 PM]

Chris L

Couple of years back flying out of Copenhagen on one of SAS's ancient MD-11 planes. Get to about 5000 ft - lots of bumping - think it is just the normal.. Drinks trolley comes out and then disappears again.

Captain comes on the radio, informs us that we are turning back to the airport - as a precaution he has declared a full emergency because of a small fault on the tail rudder.

Plane does what I can only describe as the closest thing to a U turn that I've ever experienced in a passenger aircraft. We then go into a steep dive to lose altitude. At this point we are reading those cards that they put in the front pockets of aircraft seats. I think I memorised every word

Plane on final approach - captain says 'assume crash position' (I'm NOT joking) and instead of the normal landing with the rear tyres touching down first, followed by the nose, he just drops the plane down onto the runway - apparantly it's what you do in these situations.

Coming down the runway, it's like the scene from some movie - fire engines, ambulances etc you name it. We have to exit via the emergency slides. Way too close for comfort.

Turns out that some of these planes have a known problem that makes the tail stick. The plane can gain and lose height without input from the pilot. So he has to throttle the engines to maintain the correct altitude. Captain said afterwards that if we had attempted to continue, we would have probably run out of fuel somewhere over the North Sea - very reassuring - not. It can also make it very dodgy when landing because the plane could lose or gain 20 or 30ft - not good when you are very close to landing as this could lead to the undercarrige collapsing if the plane suddenly drops.

So we sit in Copenhagen Airport for a few hours waiting for another plane. And what do they send - the same bleeding model of plane we've just got off! Not exactly what we wanted to see, but at least we made it home. Never flown SAS since!

Chris

[Edited by Chris L - 7/5/2003 9:31:32 PM]

camk

This came from another hijacked thread, anyone had a major issue whilst on a normal flight ? I once had a bird strike in Stockholm, amazing brakes on the plane, plus smell of burning in the cabin. Followed by 6 hour delay and about 10 people refusing to fly on the same plane I also remember it being quiet and me saying out loud '**** me'.

Funkii Munkii

Hit by lightning coming out of HKG on B-Cal many years ago, quite exciting as a 17 year old, as soon as I hit 30 i'm **** scared of flying

Funkii Munkii

Totally agree with you there Carl

I'm sure its down to maturing and having dependants and realising you're not bullet proof and wont live forever, you sort of lose that "No Fear" factor you have when you're younger, but most of all having no control.
A friend of my ex wife was a captain on the London-Rio run for Varig (MD-11) and he said its as easy as driving a car and the only time we should worry is at take off and landing as the aircraft is under the most stress at these times, especially the engines, well when you're asleep at 35000 ft and you hit turbulence and wake up in a cold sweat Sh1tting yourself those words mean nothing.
Recently I was lucky enough to fly from Rio to Chicago 1st class on United on a B-777, I had a bed seat it was fantastic until I hit that turbulence again, even stranger when you're asleep in a bed for a minute I thought I was at home in bed and then the realisation kicks in and I started bricking it again

Give me Terra Firma everytime.

David_Dickson

Last flight I was on was RyanAir to the South of France (Boeing 737). I had the window seats at the wing, which I like.
Its good to see exactly how flimsy the wings are. When the flaps and stuff are extended for take-off and landing it looks like a meccanno set!
Anyway, whilst we were at cruising height, There was a steady trickle of some fluid out of the cowling of the engine nearest me. wasnt fuel, it looked quite viscous, maybe hydraulic fluid? dunno.
I was in the "should I say somehting or not" dilema.

camk

also seen a crushed crow in the rear flaps once When they went down coming into land the wing flapped around.....

fast bloke

Ever time I get on a plane something goes wrong.
First time I was on a plane (aged 11) it was a 28 seater twin prop. I got the window seat behind the wing. About 2 minutes into the flight the prop on the wing I could see stopped turning. Captain came on before landing and told us to get ready for a bumpy one. It took 5 attempts to land the thing.

Came from Gatwick to Belfast on a jet and the small tail jet stopped working. This one generated the electricity, so 40 minutes in darkness ****ting ourselves. Landing was fine

Shannon to Belfast in a transatlantic 747. Bird hit the wing and got stuck in one of the flaps. Captain advised us during approach to prepare for crash landing AFTER touchdown. More brown streaks but no problems.



Returning from CGD to Dublin last year the cabin filled with smoke. Crew said they knew there was a problem but while they did not know what it was there were no safety issues. Landed in Dublin and got tracked down the runway by about 3 squillion fire tenders and ambulances. Parked at the end of the runway and got off via the bouncy slide while the fire tenders foamed the wings 'just in case'

This year I am travelling by boat. First step will be to grab two life jackets each and check the lifeboats

camk

Fast Bloke,
Drop me an email next time you're flying. I'll make sure I'm not on it Lucky White Heather indeed

NotoriousREV

5 hours into an 11 hour flight from Mexico, we're in exactly the middle of nowhere somewhere over the Atlantic and the Captain makes an announcement in a very serious tone:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is to let you know that we have a fire warning light on here in the cockpit...










DRAMATIC PAUSE...










This is because someone has been smoking in the toilet"

Damn, my heart stopped beating for about 2 minutes, the plane was filled with complete silence after the first part of the announcement followed by sighs of relief after the second. We then got a lecture about not smoking, against the law etc. and we were asked to help identify the culprit.

Nevetas

Landed at Warsaw and skidded across the runway (it was about -10 anc covered in ice)

All the oxygen masks popped down.

Only damage done was needing a new pair of boxers.

My mate is a hostess on Emirates, she's being doing it five years and never had so much as a blocked toilet! Best fly emirates

boxst

From said hi-jacked thread! :

CamK:

One problem, one nightmare. I used to fly several times a week, around Europe and the Middle East and to the States / Far East twice a month. Less so now thankfully, but still quite often:

Problem: Coming in to Heathrow on a Virgin flight from Los Angeles and the landing gear wouldn't deploy. The captain said that this was the case after about 30 minutes of flying. He then tried some interesting "manoeuvres" to dislodge the landing gear. It didn't work. So they landed on foam on the runway. Everybody on the 'plane was completely silent and thought they were going to die. The landing was much smoother than most!

Nightmare: Travelling back from the Middle East and before we took off the pilot said it would be a bit rough as there were storm clouds and the path didn't allow them to get high enough. Took off.. fine. Then 30 minutes later the 'plane dropped 500 meters, shook like hell, oxygen masks came down. Complete panic and mayhem. Captain said "Sorry" but it would be like this for a while. And it was. For three hours. The 'plane would travel for a little while, drop several hundred meters with lightning around and shake. I thought that I was going to die.

Steve.

Project ST

My favourite one was having a Delfin taking off on runway 27 at Manston (iirc) which I was due to land on - I was on short finals in a Cessna 152 and received the "go-around" about 30 seconds from touch-down. Not badly handled for a second solo-flight.

Would have been better if I hadn't then landed on the A23 instead of runway 27... ahem.

Pete Croney

I am more nervous of getting on a passenger jet now that I have a pilots license!!

The reason why landings and take off are more dangerous is because you need at least two of three things to fly a plane... speed, altitude and skill. When landing and taking off, you have very little of the first two

If anyone does ever see something leaking, I would advise that you discretely let the cabin crew know ASAP.

Leslie

Try 250 feet AGL through the mountain passes at night. Certainly keeps you awake.

Les

johnfelstead

Flying back from the Cyprus rally last week we landed at manchester airport to see some fire engines on standby. They followed us to the docking area after holding us in the middle of nowhere for 15 minutes. We were told once docked that the engine was reporting very high temperatures and was at risk of a fire. I couldnt beleive it hearing people moaning that we werent told about this before the landing, like what are we going to do, blow on the thing?

Not strictly a problem, but when i was learning to fly gliders we used to do cable break simulations where during the initial cable tow (land based cable launch rather than an aircraft tow), the instructor would pull the release and you had to sort the mess out and land safely. That got very interesting when you were around 300ft when the cable went as you had to nose dive the thing to pick up speed and then pick a spot to land with not a lot of thinking time. Really great stuff.

CooperS

Went to Verona with work on a boneshaker De Haviland turboprop. On the way it was VERY cold and the wings started to ice up, so the pilot activated the de-icing tools on the wings which expand the leading edge and crack off the ice, this makes an almighty BANG followed by tinkling of bits of ice clattering down the side of the plane, I've been on before when this has happened, so I told my boss what it was, they do both wings seperatly, so a few seconds later, the same thing happened on the other side, one guy in front of me was breaking his neck trying to get the stewardesses attention, I swear he'd actually **** himself ;o)

The pilot came on and explained a short while later, but loads of people were cacking it, well funny!

midget1500

hmmmm well several years ago flying out of JFK our flight was delayed a good few hours as one of the ground crew was struck by lightning!

also, taxi'ing down the runway at belfast city airport in a small turboprop jobbie just before take off it comes to a stop. pilot says technical fault and flight cancelled.

oh, and when taking flying lessons in a good old cessna 152 (equivalent to a 20 year old metro!) doing a spiral dive at 2500ft is good fun!

i've also caused several horrendous plane crashes but thankfully they were only model aircraft

Katana

I recommend watching Alive and Cast Away before flying. Adds to the experience.

Nimbus

Hey John, I didn't know you flew Gliders as well

I agree, the cable breaks are quite "interesting". The worst ones are at the "undecided" height were you have to decide whether go land ahead (Full Airbrakes ), or try a quick 360. The low breaks are fun too <30', just after the transition into full climb.

As some on here may remember I was faced with this a couple or years ago when I was half way up the climb. I heard a load "BANG" and thought "OMG - Cable Break!". I pushed the nose hard over (lots of mud and dust flying up in the cockpit), and was greeted with the sight of the cable still attached to the glider and leading down to the which No way was I going to try and get back into the climb, so I pulled the release. So I'm at about 400 feet looking down the airfield thinking, "oops, end of airfield looks a bit too close" and opt for the 360. As I'm going around my mind is racing, concentrating on the tasks, thinking "****, ****".

Go down OK. All I could think about was how disappointed I was. I should have checked the ASI to make sure it was a Cable Break before pulling the release, but my reflexes cut in and I just pulled it . After I had explained it all to the instructor when we met up at the launch point, he was very good about it and said I had done the right thing (even though I knew I had not). I felt really crap the rest of the day as I had let myself down. Still, learnt another lesson...

Pete Croney

Les

Something like this then...



Rather you than me!!

GaryK

God yes the worst time coming into land at gibraltar a couple of years back. Flight was fine all the way but by the rock you often have a micro-climate and there was bad wind shear, coming into land the plane was all over the place, had to do an abort and go around, came in second time (cabin was now very quiet) and it was worse than the first time, plane was pitching and rolling, I was scared one of the wings was gonna clip the runaway because we were rolling at low altitude.

It was a big sigh of relief all round, one of the cabin crew got off the plane and broke down in tears and people on the gallery watching were gob-smacked, yep it was bad let me tell you. Three BA planes had been in before and all aborted cos they couldnt land. After that I vowed *never* to fly into gib ever again!!!!

Gary

what would scooby do

Had 45 minutes of severe turbulance coming back from Korea or Hong Kong (can't remember).

I rather enjoyed trying to drink my wine and not wearing it..

Pilot came on aftwards and said it was the longest period of turbulance he'd ever heard of.

spider

iTrader: (1)

Night flight back from Kai Tak (Hong Kong) to Heathrow in a BA 747 a few years back - I'm sat chatting to the guy in the seat next to me who happens to be a Cathay Pacific pilot.

After a couple of hours, when most folk were asleep, there's a thump and a rumble. I ask him "Is that what I think it was?" His dead calm reply: "Yup, looks like we're going home on three engines"

Felt like I was in an old black & white war film about a 'wizard prang over Hamburg'.

One of the reasons why I hate flying EROPS in twin engined stuff - now matter how able these modern Boeings etc. are supposed to fly on just one engine I feel better having a couple 'spare'!

Cheers,
Steve

Reffro

Had my fair share of turbulance, dodgy landings (Debonair BAe 146 landing at Luton on one side of the main undercarriage, then the plane hops side to side down the runway), abandoned appraoches, but the three that stick my mind are the following.

Aborted take-off from Antigua on a BA747. We went chugging down the runway, and then the captain hits the anchors big style and we slowly taxi back to the terminal. Then spend 6 hours waiting for the crew to repair the problem with the help of technical bods over the radio. Only time I've ever had an abandoned take-off.

Flying Qatar Airways 747 back from Doha, they have a stop at Cairo. What they also have is the son of the Emir playing 747 captain, you could always tell when he was in control as he liked to fly the plane like it was a fighter. Anyway they also have nose gear cameras on the the plane, so everyone is sat there watching the approach to airport on the screen, turning sharply we see the runway hove into view, then just as quickly it disappears the aircraft levels its wing. Aiming for the desert and about 100-200 ft above the ground the engines are then set to screaming full power, as we pull up. The camera then got switched off and the first officer took over the approach to land smoothly second time round. The head steward who was ex-BA with 20 years experience later admits that was the most scared he had ever been.

Landing at Antigua on a BA747 again, this time we're coming in with no flaps into a runway known to be on the limit for 747's. Antigua's government had been told to lengthen the runway if they wanted to continue receiving 747's as the international airlines were unhappy with its length. Very bloody scarey, don't know what speed we landed at but if it was under 200 knots I'd be surprised, as we were screaming in. The engines were on full reverse virtually as the main undercarriage touched down, and the brakes then came on very fiercely as we wizzed past the under-resourced Antigua fire dept vehicles. Not much fun I'll tell you, but full marks to the flight crew, as in the end we still had about 300 yards of runway to play with, otherwise we were going to be the biggest skipping stone seen in the Caribbean.

Apart from that, its all been uneventful in the 200+ other flights.



[Edited by Reffro - 7/7/2003 4:14:13 PM]

daiscooby

Two sping to mind:
Flying from Bristol to Belfast City airport in an old Bombadier twin prop. Force 5 blowing like mental. For those who have taken the 3.15 from Bristol on a Sunday it stops in the Isle of Man. sideslipped into there at almost 45 degrees. Now to fly into Belfast City airport you basically fly up the coast going north and as you get to the top of Belfast Lough you just hang a sharp left. We did the usual and lost about 2-300 feet straight down at full port bank. Oriental woman two rows back screamed and vomited, luckily missing me, I carried on reading the Sunday Mail, cool as fvck, on the outside

Second one was when I was in the Army. In a Herc on ex and without warning it did a " dirty dive " to land. Basically a straight Pepsi Max type nose dive. ******** here had just unstrapped , went weightless for 2 secs and hit just about everything. Double fracture of the radius and broken scaiphoid in me right arm. Still made me do jankers in plaster .

Kevin Greeley

I've taken off in a plane more times than I've landed in one.

jazzyjeff

June last year on an internal flight from Chiang-Rai to Bangkok on Thai International (Airbus A340). Was on final approach to Bangkok when the plane started circling. Said to the wife that something was wrong and with that, the Captain boomed over the tannoy that we were having to circle as a monsoon was approaching Bangkok.

He reassured us that we had enough fuel for 2 hours circling (!) or to return way back to Chiang-Mai (Northern Thailand). Ground Control had informed him that we were the only plane on the perimeter and that if there was a gap in the monsoon, we would be able to land (just!)

Within a minute and without warning, full flaps were applied and the plane went into a steeper dive than Nemisis!! Everyone was absolutely peeing themselves. He kept it in this dive until about 150 feet from the ground when he levelled the plane up and made a perfect landing, thank god. Credit to the pilot. Halfway down the runway, the monsoon hit Bangkok International Airport and no flights were allowed to take off or arrive for at least an hour and a half whilst it took its course.

Never seen such severe rain and wind in all my life. I was a bag of nerves but the wife, who normally won't go near a ferris wheel, was bloody loving it and asked if she could go round again!!!! She was more bothered about getting her hair wet when we had to make a mad dash from the plane to arrivals. Beats me!?!

^Qwerty^

Read some of these. Some are grim and include details of death etc.

AAIB

Some are plain mad, there is one in there where an airline aborted a takeoff, due to..........















A DOG on the runway.

SiPie

Flight returning from Gran Canaria around 10 years ago....

Things falling from lockers... plane dropping thousands of feet at a time.... mega storm... folk praying, being sick, screaming, crying, passing out ....

Great flight

It's why I just love flying now