admon

With the summer looming and everyone going away, just look forward to that ridiculously full flight.

With that in mind, who has the best flight horror story?

Spugsy

perth - newcastle.

Had to leave apartment at midday so get to airport at 1pm, flew at 5pm, then had to stop off at singapore airport for 12 hours after the 13 hour flight, then flew to london, that took about 12 hours I think, then wait at london for 5 hours at 5am for 10am flight to newcastle.

37 hours travelling.

Good christ, AND it was BA who were appalling.

Inselaffen

Tower Air - Paris to JFK - Ageing 747 which smelt of vomit. Vomit smell was explaind when the food arrived. Disgusting.

BA - Tokyo to London - entertainment system had broken down - 13 hours in economy with no movies or music! - consoled myself by chatting to a blonde trollydolly who gave me 5 mini bottles of champers when we landed

Balkan Air - Sofia to Paris - business class food included a cup cake with one of those edible metalic looking balls on top (Classy). As the plane touched down the runway was surrounded by emergency services. Announcement made that there was a bomb threat on the flight - told to get out bags from overhead lockers ready to evacuate the plane quickly. (good idea to take the bomb off the plane with our bags). Plane stopped next to 2 refuelling planes (good idea to put a bomb next to refuelling planes). Doors stayed shut on the plane for 20 minutes during which we were all stood in the aisle with our bags.
We got off the plane onto one of those busses where the body lifts up. the bus reversed 5 metres from the plane and then stopped for another 20 minutes before finally heading to the terminal where we were allowed onto the Airport Finger, surrounded by police andtaken through immigration in small groups of 5. so that took another 30 minutes before we even got to bag claims. Overall it was great fun!

admon

Last year had to sleep on a bench with the wife outside the airport, while we waited 4 hours for a transfer flight..

although it was Mahe airport in the Maldives, the bench was next to the warm lapping waters of the Indian Ocean and it was about 75degrees.. so no that wasn't really a labour at all...

Although i was on a ryanair 'bus' to brussells a few years ago that instead of landing, 'bounced' on the runway causing about 30 people to hit the overhead lockers (while still in their seatbelts) before the playing accelarated off again for another lap in the sky before making another attempt...

My pet hates are babies on planes.. In my opinion, small children shouldn't get discounts, they should pay at least double for the disturbance they cause to other passengers...

Inselaffen

not as bad as being sat next to a stupid beatch who starting doing her nails on the plane. no consideration how the fumes would annoy other passengers in such a confined environment! i told here in a not too polite manner to put the stuff away!

Spugsy

christ I bet, that stuff can knock you out.

twinkle-star

A BA night flight to Abu Dhabi the air con was broken but stuck on freezing cold they handed out an extra "thin" blanket but run out of coffee as they had served it to the Business class first...
We had a nice cold roll and some chilled water instead served in a plastic bag! I just BA!

lionheart

Took a Turkish charter flight to Istanbul a few years back. The problem was that the pilot must have been a novice. It took three extremely bumpy attempts before he managed to land at Gatwick. The passengers gave him a standing ovation when he finally made it, those who weren't scared shitless.

The Dean

I assume that's not Perth in Scotland???

Now that WOULD be a nightmare flight...!!!!

W10

Not too many horrific experiences beyond a few African 'I hope we make it' type flights where I closed my eyes and amazingly found religion for most of the journey.

I was on an Emirates flight from athens last year which ended up taking 15 hours. We took off more than 4 hours late, the AC unit apparently broke (despite a load of pasengers seeing smoke from the engine) resulting in us landing in Cyprus and being kept in the airport for more than 6 hours (with the announcement that they'd put us in a hotel if the problem wasn't fixed in 30 mins being made 6 times over a four hour period)

Great fun - and of course - no compensation

weescot

I couldn't pinpoint a single one, but I will never fly Trukish and KLM again because of extrenely rude and unreliable service - cancelled flights and unwillingness to get you to your destination... My worst landings were at Isle of Man (on 4th attempt - crosswinds), Gatwick (struck by lightening (quite common apparently) and Calgary (fog and runing low on fuel) - where the pilot reminded us t read the emergency card moments before landing - it was an excedingly bumpy one!

I think an airline that develops a "child friendly" section for families in the ever growing economy sections will win a loyal following from those seated in all areas.

The Dean

I once began a flight with something that I had been led to believe was strictly against the regulations laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority.....

......... my plane flew from London......... to London (supposedly illegal due to having to fly acrosss Luton flight paths or something?).

Was supposed to be a flight from LGW to Northern Cyprus, via Anatolia or some such........

Upon boarding, a steward with a cheesy grin, and not a hint of apology, or even any sense that it might be construed as an unwelcome piece of news, said: "You're going to Stansted first."

Plane from there to same destination had technical fault so my plane became "both" flights...... except the other flight was via somewhere else, which now meant TWO stops en route.

And guess what? Nobody had thought to reissue boarding passes to the Stansted lot - so we welcomed about 100 new passengers who had boarding passes with the same seat numbers as those of us who were already on board......

Laugh? I thought I'd never start.........

arbroath_abroad

in 99 we were patrolling around the Falkland islands/south chile and my granny passed away...
The navy flew me in a lynx to Punto Arena in chile where i got on a cargo plane which was a little twin engined thing and it flew me at pretty low level to Santiago, where i waited for 6 hours before flying to Buenos Aries, where i waited for another 5 hours before flying to London. 3 hours in london before flying to Aberdeen where my dad collected me at the airport....

all in all nearly 2 days travelling....

another classic flight (most forces peeps will have done this) RAF brize norton to the falklands, in a tristar jet..no entertainmnet, booze, rock hard sarnies given to you by RAF staff. quick refuel in asension islands..think the whole flight time is around 20 hours

penguinbar

Flew United 2 years ago from New York to Australia. I'm petite and I felt cramped in the seats! 6 hrs to LA . 6hr layover in LAX which is a horrible airport. Flight was sold out and I had a man with awful BO next to me and a woman in the aisle across who kept getting sick. Food was awful and they made you pay for food from NY to LA. Entertainment system was not working on a 15 hour flight. Rude flight attendnts as well! Never again on United! I even gave my miles away to Make a Wish foundation fromthat flight !

Spugsy

I said never again to BA but I flew with them a few weeks back to London then Toon then back to Dubai, and they were really good, food was ok but they were all dead friendly and the sergvice was great.