Anonymous wrote: And, yes, planes have been brought down by turbulence before. A British 707 did in the 1960s and more recently that Air France crash in 2009.

Turbulence definitely did not bring down the AF fight. It was pilot error. In a nutshell, they got into a bad situation but one that was manageable if they had followed the correct procedures. But they didn't and on top of that weren't communicating with each other and were both trying to control the plane in opposing ways effectively cancelling each other out. You can read about it here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a3115/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877/

Definitely New Zealand-LA. The turbulence lasted about an hour and a half with thunder and lightning, and about 10 minutes of it were white-knuckled repetitive drops of 50-100 feet every 30 seconds or so. Plenty of gasps and yells and it didn’t help that the plane was dark.

And, yes, planes have been brought down by turbulence before. A British 707 did in the 1960s and more recently that Air France crash in 2009.

But the good news is you’re 70x more likely to die in a car than in a plane. So relax on your flight, and be a little more careful while driving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone with flight anxiety - highly recommend getting an rx for Xanax or Ativan. Helps tremendously.

I just got an Ativan prescription for an upcoming flight to Europe. Dr recommended taking 1/2 pill at boarding and another if I get anxious in the air. The low dose is because my body is naive to benzos. Does that sound reasonable to all of you who regularly take something for flight anxiety?

I always take the full pill. But you can take it home before your flight and see how it affects you. I used to take one pill right before I went through security before I had to get rid of my water and then another one once I got boarded and settled in my seat. The take off and ascent was always the most scary for me so that's when I needed it most. Then once we got to cruising I would order a glass of wine (I know, I know) and then I'd be pretty much knocked out for the rest of the flight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Every single person posting here got through it. If you're at 35,000 feet it feels terrible to drop 300 feet but you are literally miles away from crashing. Planes are built to fly. It takes more than a little turbulence to cause a real problem, and the pilots have a lot of training and information to avoid the real problems. Keep your seatbelt on as much as possible and know that once you've driven to the airport you're past the most dangerous part of the trip.

This is all correct. One death on a commercial US flight in the last 9 years. That's with over 2 million people getting on a commercial flight each day. It's absolutely incredible and we should all be so thankful for the people that design, test, fix and oversee the aviation industry. It's a great example of how solid government oversight (overall) can be such a force for good.

+1. It can be scary up there but millions of us get through it.

Worst flight I had was over the Greek islands. Apparently that area is notorious for turbulence. We were flying from Athens to Santorini. The flight was postponed by one day due to high winds. Twenty four hours later we board our flight.
To say the flight was turbulent goes without saying. But it was the landing that scared the crap out of me. The plane was wavering the entire descent, even during the last seconds before touchdown. At some point on the runway the nose of the plane was at least 30 degrees off. I seriously thought we were going to crash or at a minimum end up in the adjacent field. But somehow the pilot straightened the plane and we stopped.
Everyone on the plane clapped. It was the only time I've clapped at a landing.

It wasn't as bad as some of these stories, but my worst flight experience was flying from Yerevan, Armenia to Moscow. It's about a 3 hour flight and the first half was basically nonstop turbulence (probably due to mountains). I'm a nervous flyer anyway, so I was sure I wasn't going to make it off the plane alive. This was on Aeroflot too, though fortunately the plane was a brand-new Boeing. If I'd been on one of those ancient Tupolevs that still are in common use in Russia (and occasionally crash), I probably would have lost it.

Second half of the flight was completely smooth and upon landing, the pilot said (in Russian) "Thank for flying with Aeroflot, we hope you received pleasure from the flight." A few of us passengers just looked at each other like, not so much...