Worst flight turbulence you've experienced?

[Anonymous]

Baltimore to Richmond. I was 6 months pregnant. The flight attendants weren't allowed to get up for the entire flight. It was awful, but somehow made me less afraid of flying.

[Anonymous]

my worst -- I do not know if it is really turbulence at this point. But it was in 80's. I think it was in 1986 sometime in mid June; I was flying to visit my parents.

We landed in a thunder storm. Today, it would not happen. Hit wind shear on final approach, hit the runway hard, bounced a couple of times. The plane was taken out of service after the flight for repairs.

[Anonymous]

We were bumping around and I could hear one the flight attendant let out a couple of screams during the dips. I overhead them say that the pilot doesn't know how to fly this type of plane and they were scared and bitching about what the plane was doing.

[Anonymous]

I have scolded flight attendants for their word choice, "we are going to ATTEMPT to land ..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On a red eye home from Hawaii with my entire family. Plane had been overbooked so they had seated us separately all over the plane. Hit an air pocket and the plane dropped several hundred feet. The seatbelt sign was off. They had just served dinner. Food was everywhere. People hit the ceiling and were injured. We were halfway to the mainland so there were no good options and we just kept going and made an emergency landing in SF in the middle of the night. 7 people were carried off on stretchers. News cameras met us as we walked off the plane. It made national news. It was surreal. They said no one could get up until we landed but my dad ignored and went to check on all of us. My nephew was 1 and was riding on my SIL’s lap. Thank god she had a good grip on him at the time and he was fine. But since that trip my dad refuses to let us all take the same flights to vacations.

Indeed. He could have died, as other infants before him in that kind of situation. So glad your family was safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have scolded flight attendants for their word choice, "we are going to ATTEMPT to land ..."

Heh I was on Pakistani Air and the pilot came on and said "Inshallah" (if Allah wills it) "the plane will be landing soon..."

Not reassuring!

[Anonymous]

There is a route flying from Dubai that takes you over the mountains on the Iran/Iraq border. It is always turbulent.

One time a guy didn’t stay seated and belted and he hit the ceiling.

We ended up in Isfahan.

So I’ve been to Iran!

[Anonymous]

So much turbulence, so many hours on planes. I've flown (literally) millions of miles.

Some of the worst: flying from Tokyo to SFO trying to beat a typhoon, so on the edge of it for over 10 hrs. No meal service, no movie (this was in the late 70s), no drinks, nothing. Flight attendants stayed seated the whole time--it was nonstop turbulence for the entire flight. Seriously doubt they would ever do that nowdays. Can't imagine how many barf bags they went through on that flight.

Two flights where people hit the overhead due to not being belted in, one reroute to Gander, Newfoundland, and one reroute to i don't even remember where. I never take my seatbelt off for anything except a quick trip to the lavatory. Kids are not allowed to unbelt ever, and they were in carseats and belted for a long time. Never lap babies, I've seen how that goes.

I once had to make DS pee into a bottle because he really had to go, and I refused to let him get up and go to lav during bad turbulence flying into Salt Lake City. Approaches into mountain cities (Denver, SLC, etc) are always prone to it.

[Anonymous]

Last August we were flying from Salt Lake City to Dulles. We were about an hour into the flight when we dropped hard.... like EVERYTHING went flying and the flight attendants who were up hit their heads on the ceiling. It was SO scary. We must have had a wind sheer over the mountains. My son (who is 11) is now terrified to fly. He was trying to get off the plane we took to Mexico for spring break. I held him into our row.

When we landed at Dulles several hours later, the EMTs were called for the flight attendant who was injured on the SLC to IAD flight. It was so scary.

My son (who is 11) is now terrified to fly. He was trying to get off the plane we took to Mexico for spring break. I held him into our row.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the repetitions in the prior post. I thought I was cutting and pasting... but apparently just ended up copying the parts I was moving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worst turbulence period was flying through a storm from DCA to Chicago. Very bumpy and made my normally iron stomach upset.

Worst turbulence “experience”? When 12 month old DD shat all over herself and me when we pushed back from the gate for a 7 hour flight. We had light turbulence for the first 40+ minutes of the flight so we were required to remain seated. She and I spent about an hour covered in her poo until the turbulence cleared. Last time she flew as a lap infant.

This is the worst! The smell! OMG those poor folks seated near you two. Oh well, it will make a good story for the grandkids.

[Anonymous]

I'm not nearly as scared now that I don't have my kids traveling with me. They're grown, so not usually traveling together. And better too if I don't have DH with me. It's seeing loved ones worry/afraid that is particularly difficult.

[Anonymous]

Not turbulence per se, but many years ago I was flying from JFK to Rome and I had a window seat and soon after take-off I saw flames come out of an engine and the plane shuddered. A few minutes later the pilot announced that we needed to return to JFK but we needed to dump fuel over the Atlantic because we would land too heavy. The entire runway was lined with fire trucks on our touchdown and a bunch of tires blew out. It turned out that we had hit birds.

[Anonymous]

I hate flying and this thread is making me so scared and nervous for my upcoming trips this summer.

[Anonymous]

Emergency landing in Baltimore (, instead of dulles), greeted by empty runway and tons of fire trucks and ambulances due to landing gear malfunction. We hit and bounced but all ok....plane was damaged, towed in...