I was curious as to what kind of scary moments you have had in an airliner, preferably while sitting up front. (i.e. those oh shoot moments that scare the bejesus out of you)

 

Not in front but last year I was in the back of Southwest jet in Texas on an early evening flight, and the aircraft through either ill luck or poor planning became completely surrounded by heavy storm cells. The crew attempted to land at the original destination which I think was Houston, but waved off during final approach due to wind shear. The crew then went to its first alternate and again waved off due to wind shear. The airplane then diverted to a backup alternate, Corpus Christi barely minutes before the line closed in on that airport as well. Although the aircraft without a doubt uncontrollable for brief times during the flight, it was not the severe turbulence that scared me, it was the nagging thought that we may exceed our fuel reserves. I fueled airliners at one point and I knew that many flights do not carry a lot of extra fuel. I think we dodged a catastrophe by making our second alternate and things would have been dodgy after that. The captain profusely apologized and said this was the single worst flight he had conducted in 25 years.

 

I've had two wake turbulence encounters in my professional flying career. The worst was 12 miles in trail of a 747-400 on the same route. He descended through our altitude and the wake was enough to upset the aircraft to 7 degrees nose up and 97 degrees of right bank. On the recovery, we hit the other side and went to 4 degrees of nose down and 112 degrees of left bank.

Fortunately nobody was hurt. I did spill my coffee though... right onto the Fed that was riding jumpseat with us that day. Doh.

 

Not in an airliner but in a Citation not too long ago I experienced severe, bordering on extreme turbulence. It came out of nowhere, one moment everything is fine and the next I get pulled out of my seat and hit my head on the ceiling with a tight shoulder harness on. It kicked the autopilot off and put us into a steep dive and a steep bank. First time I have actually had to use that unusual attitude recovery.

 

Scariest thing that ever happened to me was one time, the FA called up in cruise and told us we were out of coffee. There's no checklist for extreme stuff like that.

 

What were you flying? I imagine the passengers were a little upset.....

 

Last week jumpseating on AA. Eating breakfast, hit some CAT (two guys in front of us, same altitude, reported absolutely nothing after the fact). I distinctly remember my Coke passing through my vision from bottom to top before hitting the ceiling and spilling all over.

Was a messy, messy ride.

 

After a night TO, departing Dubai in an elderly 747-100 when #1 compressor stalled and sent a fireball past the nose. FE pulled the power back, and it stopped banging and puking flame. Continued the climbout, brought the power gently back up, flew on to Bahrain and went to the hotel.

 

My most scary moments have begun, "Advise ready to copy a phone number."

 

While working for Comair outta CVG, I was on a flight from CVG-PBI. On the 200 from CVG-BHM-MCO; and on the "Bro" from MCO-PBI. Weather was "good". About 50 mi. outside of MCO, engines wind down quickly and the nose of the 200 drops about 35-50 degrees. I'm sitting in the first row-aisle seat. I'm literally hanging out of my seat by my seatbelt.

My hand prints are probably still imprinted on the arm rest.



atp