What is the worst flight experience (civilian or military) you've ever had?

ENS Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 09:57:58 -0500

From an entire flight of screaming children to being stranded on the runway for hours and missing your connecting flight.. What is your worst flight horror story?

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 14 at 2016 10:03 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 10:03:28 -0500

Not yet.
Army dropped me off in Chicago once, delayed flight. Too many people bumping into each other, very busy airport. The USO was quiet though.

Response by ENS Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 14 at 2016 10:14 AM

ENS Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 10:14:41 -0500

I fly commercial quite often and have run into so many bad experiences.

1. During a white out blizzard, I got stuck in Chicago O'Hare for 4 days. I left almost broke because of how expensive things were. I wasn't the only one in this situation, but it still wasn't fun. They brought out emergency cots for people to sleep in. I stayed up the entire time. I believe I fell asleep the moment I buckled up in the plane. I didn't wake up until touchdown.

2. The plane "broke down" on the tarmac and we were in the plane for 3 or 4 hours until they decided the aircraft was "safe to move". During this time, the flight attendants kept yelling at people saying that the "seat belt sign is on" and they couldn't get up. People eventually stopped listening. We were returned to the terminal and had to wait for room in other aircraft to start moving us to. Thankfully, I didn't have another connection.

3. I got stuck in Customs when trying to fly back into the United States. I kept telling the customs agent my flight time and they would tell me to "wait until your name is called". Eventually she told me to stop asking about it and to wait like everyone else. I went up one last time when I said, "Ma'am, my flight is leaving in 15 minutes and my name still hasn't been called." I was then scolded for "not coming up sooner." I had to bite my lip. She said Id need to catch tomorrow's flight - which I refused claiming, "I want to return to the US on any flight." Got me to LAX on the next flight.

4. "Uniformed Services" can be interpreted in many ways. Most airports are happy to allow active duty military to board with ID. However, there have been several run ins with miserable SOBs who disagreed. A boarding agent told me, "Uniformed Services means you need to be in uniform, so unless you're going to put a uniform on in the next 5 minutes, get to the back of the line." This guy was "vibrant" and had a lot of attitude. He made an announcement clarifying that if anyone in the military wants to use their military benefits, they need to "be dressed like it." // Another time I was in the TSA Pre Check line (before you needed the pre check on the ticket). I was told, "No son, you don't get the privileges, your uniform does." There was a Senior Chief behind me who went ballistic on the guy. "I guess they only send the uniform home in a box, huh?" I nearly missed my flight and didn't get to say goodbye to my family. They changed this so that everyone needs to have the Pre Check on their ticket.

Response by PO1 Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 14 at 2016 10:19 AM

PO1 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 10:19:46 -0500

lady kept putting her seat back and flipping her hair over the seat. I kept moving it out of the way; never knew I did it. Stealth!!!

Response by PO1 Brian Austin made Nov 14 at 2016 11:11 AM

PO1 Brian Austin — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 11:11:07 -0500

Flew from Okinawa to Travis AFB. Had some demon alien child next to me who literally cried the entire way. I felt for the mom, we were both pretty miserable..lol It did prepare me for eventual international flights with my own 3 demon alien kids though....lol. So it was a learning experience.

Czech Air flight from Prague to Kuwait City, it had no recirculating air, horribly stagnant, hot, smelly. Of course in the window seat next to me was a hugely obese and hungover KBR employee. He ended up using 3 airsick bags. The worst was the vomit stuck in his really bushy beard. "It was a crazy birthday party", he said. I said "It smells like it." He laughed, i didn't.

Response by CPO Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 14 at 2016 11:50 AM

CPO Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 11:50:53 -0500

C130 November 1999, from Iceland too Bangor Main, then Bangor to Porto Rico, long flight. We had cross winds flying from Iceland too Banger and it was rough kept going up and down and crew Chief kept looking at at engines,every minute. This regular 8 hr Flight on a C-130 ended up being a 11 hr flight up and down, at one point the Crew Chief took flotation devises out and told us to be ready.

Second: Would be my third deployment Iraq, IA on a JTF, Flying from Kuwait too Baghdad, a normal 1 1/2 hr flight,ended up being a 5 hr flight. We had to stay up do to Air Red and some IDF, rough ride, they made the decision to stay on mark, with fuel getting low.

Third: Flight back after my 1 yr IA, flew out of Kuwait, on a civilian contract flight, had around 45 Navy IA's 20 Marine IA's and a small Airforce security unit. We got up in the Air and about 1 hr into flight we herd a load pop and some engine noise, looked out and could see some flames in one engine. The Pilot came over and told us we were heading back too Kuwait. I was the flight OIC, so had to make a decision on go back to Camp Afifjan, or the air terminal in Kuwait. I chose to go back too NCRC Command we just left, good decision, as if we stayed at air terminal would have no showers and couldn't get to our bags. That was the shit trip. We had some Navy Pilots that were on IA also and they told me that was a Catastrophic failure in the air and we were lucky! They had to hire another contractor to come pick us up, two days later.

Fourth: Flight from Porto Rico too Gitmo Cuba on a C-5 with all our equipment, the hard right bank all aircraft have to take flying into Gitmo to avoid Cuban airspace.

Five: Flying on C 141 with all our equipment and some Marines from Kadena Air force base, Okinawa too Pohang Korea 1990 Team Spirit Joint Training exercise, landed in a ice storm with runway icing up. We had to do a combat off load as that was part of the exercise and that sucked with all our gear on bored.

Those are just Air plans, I have some crazy HELO ones also.

Response by CSM Richard StCyr made Nov 14 at 2016 12:05 PM

CSM Richard StCyr — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:05:51 -0500

Chopper in Baghdad, checking the obstacle belt for Operation Lions Gate, the chopper nearly hit the guy wires for a communications tower and the pilot took evasive maneuvers. I would rather be shot at in the Hummer, at least you could do something. Kind of a captive audience in the choppers.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Nov 14 at 2016 12:28 PM

SN Greg Wright — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:28:03 -0500

Flying from SF to Manila. Plane pushed back and then started taxiing with the speed brakes deployed -- I was sitting by the wing and could see them. Bad Things Happen to aircraft that try to take off with them deployed, so I started getting really scared (I was quite a bit younger), and was about half a second from getting up and running to yell at the crew. Somebody finally caught it and they closed them before we hit the main runway.

Another time, returning from Manila to SF, the Philippine Airlines flight set down with one strut off the runway for whatever reason. That was pretty bumpy.

Response by Cpl Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 14 at 2016 12:29 PM

Cpl Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:29:17 -0500

Every flight in an H46 scared the crap out of me, no but seriously, I never had a bad military flight, but domestically, two.

Fight One: On a connector between Detroit and LaGuardia, we picked up a bunch of Korean tourists. Shortly after takeoff, turbulence! One of them got air sick and it was fairly obvious they had been eating kimchi. And on queue, one after another, they all started getting air sick. It was the longest 45 min I've ever spent on a flight.

Flight two: Leaving Detroit on a flight to Houston, we were diverted to San Antonio due to weather. We sat on the tarmac in San Antonio for 2 hours with no AC to conserve fuel and phones were to remain off. I should have got off and made other arraignments, but the pilot didn't tell us it was a tropical storm so I stuck it out. After landing in Houston, the airport closed due to flooding, no rental cars could leave and flights were delayed unless temporary windows opened for takeoff. A few passengers and I decided to find food while waiting for the delays before cancellations.

While passing an agent counter, a woman was screaming at the agent. Apparently, they were sitting in the plane waiting for a window when her two minor children began getting agitated. She asked the hostess if it would be OK to head to the McDonalds for some food to sate the children since no snacks or drinks were being offered. When she returned the airplane was gone, with her children on board. I lost a connecting flight to DFW due to "weather," but those on my flight didn't have the worst of it.

I never flew Continental again and it was the only time I've ever written a letter to customer service. Continental should have given us the choice to make new arraignments while in San Antonio by informing us of the real issues at Houston Intercontinental.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Nov 14 at 2016 12:44 PM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:44:39 -0500

Well this wasn't a mid-air story, but nonetheless it was my most uncomfortable flight ever and I haven't been in a commercial aircraft since.

So here I am a motivated Junior Marine heading down to my A school to learn my contribution to the Marine Corps. It's a late flight so the Terminal is pretty empty. Go through the security checkpoint and they wouldn't let me take my unopened bottle of Gatorade which I bought right there. I was mad, but I drank most of it and threw it out.

The guy behind me though made me more nervous to fly than I ever thought possible. He went through the screening 4 times. 3 of those times he set the alarm off because he "forgot" he was carrying knives on him. Each of those times he only turned over 1 knife. Finally he didn't beep and they let him pass. No being brought to the side for further screening. No being questioned on why he was attempting to board a plane with 3 concealed weapons.

I was given the 3rd degree for buying a Gatorade at an airport but this man tried to sneak 3 blades on board and nothing came of it. I literally watched this man like a hawk until I landed again and left the airport.

Haven't flown commercial ever since.

Response by SGT Philip Roncari made Nov 14 at 2016 4:19 PM

SGT Philip Roncari — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 16:19:23 -0500

A ten hour prop flight from Fort Dix to Fort Lewis 1965 with a short freezing stop over somewhere in Minnesota I think,air sick the whole time along with every body else,but the best was that beautiful "Huey"taking me out of the field for "Deros "never had a better flight !