andon Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I'm not sure if this has been posted before in here but let me try now... Can you guys share some stories about traveling in planes especially those hard to forget experiences. I have countless I think, let me share a couple.... Long trips: I have traveled to Thailand 6 times, all of them with triple connection (4 planes) starting in the Caribbean (where I live), then double stop in USA, then into HK and finally into BKK. That's 2 days traveling, actual flying time is around 24 hours. I sure enjoyed Cathay Pacific's business class; sometimes I was a bit drunk when arriving in HK Strange stuff: Several -literally several- times that I have lost a connection in Miami, Fl due to hurricanes haha. I remember well in 2004 my boss used to ask me if I was stranded somewhere as usual and what was the name of each storm!!! And of course 2005 when hurricanes Katrina and Wilma showed up. Just because of Wilma I had to fly 4 countries, 5 planes, 6 airports in just 48 hours. Weird stuff: Flying on the side of hurricane Ivan in 2005, the pilot said the storm was too thick and the clouds were tall enough in several layers in the atmosphere. There's more about this one haha, just ask me later... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I was almost stuck in Chicago at O'hara for Xmas eve. Lucky for me a few guys were bad mouthing the lady in charge of who gets on the plane who had her hands full with 30 people who had missed their flights. She over heard them calling her a ***** and she called them on it. They were mouthing off and asked her to call her supervisor who was an even bigger black woman. She was told what happened and she looked at the guys and said they called you what in disbelief. Thoses rednecks spent the night in chicago and I flew on. I gave the lady a hug and kiss and ran for the plane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Last January, a flight landing into Heathrow skidded off one of the runways..a few hours later I landed (From Thai) and I can honestly say, it was my worst landing ever! We tilted to one side and I thought we was going to tip. The whole cabin had a deadly silence for about five minutes after. I think everyone thought that was it... The runways were absolutely covered in ice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamu Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Not so much a story more of a fact..... Has anybody else here ever flew in or out of Libya? I used to work their offshore and its not the greatest of airports its a bit grim ,but to be honest when your plane is taxiing to the runway and during take off thats when things get really bad.....! At the side of the runway is all the old brokendown or no longer used planes some of them stripped of peieces... seeing a load of packed up old planes at the side of the runway before you take off - now thats a please god let me get to my destination moment.... Also i have flown on helicopters loads and loads of time's, i used to also be HLO for my rig, Helicopter Landing Officer.... before your allowed to travel offshore in most normal countries your supposed to go threw training.... the training involves being put in a helicopter shell in the middle of a swimming pool - surrounded by guys with their scuba gear on and being made to escape from the helicopter underwater afetr its been turned upside down. Were made to do this no fewer than 7 different styles and times... The only way to escape is to knock the window out... Now adding this to a scary experience when you get on a helicopter to go home, and you know if it ditches in the sea and the only way for you to escape is threw one of the windows..... in a country like Egypt where they have no requirements for people to be trained or requirements like medicals where personnel have to be classed as "fit to work" to get on the chopper and be sitting next to a guy who is about 5ft tall but weights 150kilos and he is the one sitting next to the only window your gonna be able to escape from its ******* scary.... coz their is no ******* way he is fitting his ass threw the window....!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetieBabie Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Funny Pre Flight Annoucement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave40 Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I also remember the days when people were allowed to smoke in the back of the plane. It was like a party back there. People sipping wines and whiskeys, puffing away. Going to the bathroom felt like walking through a bar! Yes the good ole days when you didn't have to pay for a beer the hostie's were called hostie's (not flight attendents) and jet keresene was relatively cheap!!! !!! (yes I am showing my age) Best thing they did was to ban the ciggie's!! :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oo.Cloud.oO Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 i was on this flight.... Oceanic flight 815 and damn - whats todays date? yea its been an awesome ride 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English_Bob Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I had just got married in Istanbul and was flying back to UK with my wife. Traffic was terrible and it took 4 hours to get to the airport instead of 2. When we arrived, our plane was already boarding. Then, some a**hole had decided that everyone in passport control had to fill in a Tourist Satisfaction Survey, but had failed to provide any pens. Then all the staff went for lunch at the same time, leaving one guy checking passports and smoking a ***. We begged our way to the front of the queue (which went into the car park!) and handed over our tickets and passports. By this time they were annoucing our names on the PA system. The dickhead guard with a cigarette looked at us, saw we were desperate and demanded $100 to let us through. I was arguing with the guy and telling him we didn't have $100 on us (which was true). He blew smoke in my face and laughed at me. Then I reached out (not sure if I was going to poke him, punch him or grab his jacket and shake him), but he reached under the desk and pulled out a small machine gun and pointed it at me. I nearly crapped my pants. I'd never had a gun pointed at me before and I could imagine the impact of the bullets. Other people in the queue were screaming at the guy and my wife was crying. "$100 now!" he demanded. We ran to the nearest ATM, withdrew the cash, paid the Mofo and sprinted to the gate. When we looked outside, the plane was taxiing towards the runway and our luggage was on the tarmac. Someone radioed the pilot, who stopped and allowed us to board, using a stepladder and carrying all our own luggage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LakeGeneve Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I had just got married in Istanbul and was flying back to UK with my wife. The dickhead guard with a cigarette looked at us, saw we were desperate and demanded $100 to let us through. I was arguing with the guy and telling him we didn't have $100 on us (which was true). He blew smoke in my face and laughed at me. Are you sure the $100- was not just the normal departure tax for a guy leaving Turkey with a new mail ordered bride? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English_Bob Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 And another time I was flying from LA to New York... the plane wasn't completely full and the elderly lady in front of me had three seats to herself. She lay down across them and went to sleep. About half an hour later there was an awful smell emanating from her direction. I peered over the seat. Being American she was, of course, wearing tight, colourful leggings. Wedged in the crevice was an unmistakable brown, spreading, lumpy stain. The stench was unbearable. I left my seat and told the stewardess that the passenger in front of me had had an 'accident'. She clearly didn't believe me until she got 15 feet away from the woman and started gagging. The passengers all around were leaning as far away from this woman as possible - a bit like those Siberian trees after the meteor crashed landed in the forest. I asked to sit elsewhere and she moved me further away. Then I was able to watch the poor stewardess waking up the old lady and taking her off to the bathroom for a wash. The good news was, on my New York - London leg, they upgraded me to first class for the inconvenience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodKarma Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 wow english bob that is worse than snakes on the plane dude :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 wow english bob that is worse than snakes on the plane dude :shock: Turds in the turbulence :?: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMatlock Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 **** dude... There are German people who would PAY for that experience! (no offense to any German people) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treborz Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 I also remember the days when people were allowed to smoke in the back of the plane. It was like a party back there. People sipping wines and whiskeys, puffing away. Going to the bathroom felt like walking through a bar! But....your profile says you're 28!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazykiwi Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 The funny thing is that no one gives a crap about the two dudes up front spending all day landing on ice and snow and in thunderstorms and other **** that's just as bad. Honestly, I never think about anyone in the back and as long as I want to stay alive you should have nothing to worry about.. Only my opinion, but day in and and day out pilots do a lot of good work people never appreciate. Only when sh*t goes wrong do people take notice... Great job though, wouldn't want to do anything else! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andon Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Let me finish telling the story flying next to hurricane Ivan in 2004, btw this is the only storm that was such a big menace to Walt Disney Word that they closed it down for a day.. lucky for all Floridians that when the storm landed it was not that strong. About my flight now... we departed from Phildalphia on an US Airways nonstop flight to the Dominican Rep which usually goes down on the US east coast line. Because of the storm near by Florida, the pilot said we would have to fly east into Bermuda airspace and then turn south straight to Puerto Rico (this was farther away from the storm but necessary to fly east and away of the Bermuda triangle). After 1 hour flying we got into severe turbulence while they were serving bagles and drinks, my gosh it even caught the flight attendants by surprise as they had to hold passengers' seats to avoid falling down. The pilot then went into deep dive to get out of some nasty grey color clouds in the middle of nowhere 10km up in the air... until he found some clear skies. Later I was looking over the window when suddenly not 1, but 2 American Airlines planes passed us in less than 5 minutes each. A 737 and a 757 planes, how can I tell? I would say because those guys were less than 1 km from us as they look really big next to us and extremely fast (less than 2 seconds visible to me). It looked like if we were on a 2 lane street, they going north and we south. My guess is, air traffic on the US east coast was sent over there -far east in the Atlantic- to avoid the storm radius and the bermuda triangle too. Keep sharing your stories, there must be more good stuff out there for sure... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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