Airlines that scare the tar out of you

AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Adam Zucker
What is the scariest airline you have ever flown? I'm not talking about most annoying or aggrevating but the kind of airline you where you thought there was a real possibility that something might fall of midflight.

Mine was Dominicana. Not sure if they are even in business anymore. They used to fly from JFK to the Dominican Republic. We flew an old 727 and I think they were the 3rd owner or lessee of the plane. Some of the seats would not stay upright. I swear they used blue and orange ( the airlines colors) spray paint to paint the tray tables and other parts of the plane. Accelerating down the runway at JFK the thing bounced up and down like a 1974 Caddy without shocks.

The Dominicans returning home bought everything that would fit in a steamer trunk on the plane with them including 5 gallon jugs off cooking oil. We flew out of Pakistani International Gate and flew to a town called Puerta Plata on the north side of the island. When we flew home, before we took off they made an announcement in Spanish ONLY and I thought I heard the words Santo Domingo the capital on the south side of the island. Sure enough we turned south over the midisland mountains ( NY was obiously north) We landed in Santo Domingo about 40 minutes later ( not on the itinerary) and we found out one of the mains on the left truck was flat.We got off they emptied the luggage and used some contraption to hand jack the dang 727 up and change the tire. Apparently they were already on thin ice with the FAA and could not afford to land in the US with the flat.
 
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China Northern.

The aircraft was an old Russian Tupolov. There were no assigned seats and it was first come first serve. There also was a fist fight between a couple of people trying to get on. Three people would not get off even though they had no seats. After about 30 minutes of the crew trying to get them off the pilot decided they were staying put and we took off SRO with the three guys standing in the aisle.
 
Wasn't too scary, but around 1983 a US carrier from Dallas to Houston in a taildragger, the door split and the bottom half was a few steps....throw your luggage in the pile in the rear of the plane, open the window to smoke, and spent most of the flight turning an overhead screw back in and watching it vibrate back out....Your post just brings back that trip.
 
Alitalia in the 60's flying from Venice to Milan. It was a very tired DC-6 with rips in the seats, seat backs that wouldn't stay up, Oil leaks bad enough that the top of the wings were wet and shiny. Passengers that wouldn't stay seated and ran from the front of the plane to the back and back to the front so that the trim was constantly changing. The engines were constantly being throttled up then pulled back. I think the pilot would drift up too high then throttle down until he was at the bottom and repeat it all over again.:nonod:

I was delighted to get on the ground and I took a train for the next leg.:)

I have also been in an Iberian Caravell (SP ?) where they were spiraling down through a hole and we were pulling Gs in the back. I wasn't scared on this one--I was having fun:D--I'm not to sure about the other passengers.

Cheers:

Paul
N1431A
2AZ1
 
AdamZ said:
What is the scariest airline you have ever flown? I'm not talking about most annoying or aggrevating but the kind of airline you where you thought there was a real possibility that something might fall of midflight.
QUOTE

Greenlandair circa 1978. It was a DC-6 from Sondre Stromfijord to Amsterdam, NL. It was half PAX and half Cargo - and by that I mean it was split down the middle. The cargo was some heavy industrial equipment (Oil Drilling stuff I think) - strapped to the floor on one side.

Anyway, we took off and presently they announced that we would be landing in Iceland for fuel. I dozed off, then woke up to see a large rocky island passing by on the left side. Must be Iceland, I thought - there isn't anything else out there (and we were obviously not landing). There was no announcement, but we droned on for more hours. Then suddenly the pilot announced that we were diverting to Brussels - Amsterdam was below minimums. We droned on and on - and they said nothing more. Finally, I sensed that we were descending - but to where? I could see nothing, as it was solid IMC. Down and down we went - then suddenly were on the runway. If that landing wasn't below minimums, I have never seen one! You could see nothing but the ground out the window, and we taxiied around for what seemed like a half hour before arriving at the terminal. Guess what? We were in Amsterdam after all! There was no explanation from the crew. I still wonder how much fuel remained in the tanks.

I might add that I made that flight back and forth several times, and there never was any real problem. Coming in to Sonde Stromfijord involved descending low over the icecap, then continuing down into the very long canyon that forms the fijord (solid rock walls on both sides). The view was spectacular (and fortunately it was CAVU when I flew that direction).

Dave
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Ecuador, flight from Guayaquil to Quito. Tickets bought on SAN, but they did not have a plane available, so they borrowed one from SAETA. It was a theadbare Caravelle, formerly Alitalia's (all placards in Italian). Turkey in a burlap sack, head through a hole, in checked baggage.

Flight was actually just fine, service pleasant (home-made candy on a dish as snack).
 
Flight from Sao Paulo to BA. I can't remember the airline, I think it was Argentinean though. 757 and the seats against the hull were higher than the ones against the aisles - i.e. I swear the floor was sagging (probably not but sure seemed that way).
 
Not nearly that scary as that but, I flew US Scare aka US Air from Philadelphia to Dallas on an A-319 about 3 years ago. The plane flexed so badly that some of the overhead bins would pop open on their own. You could hear what sounded like the skin of the aircraft popping as the aircraft flew. They had some of the overhead bins permanently taped shut with white duct tape. It seemed kind of surrealistic.
 
Alitalia, 1970, DC9-10 Venice to Rome. Heavy fog took the runway stopped parked the brakes then brought both engines up to takeoff power before brake release. Rotated just before the red lights, with nothing but really polluted water on the other side.
Ron
 
Domestic Indian airline (IndiaAir?) in 1992. Ancient 737 from Bombay to Bhavnagar. Half the overhead bins fall open and about 1/4 of the oxygen masks deploy on departure. I'd just worked a Mexican project and was used to the overhead bins opening...

Lining up to land the pilot just used rudder...yup, skidding around the sky in a 737.

I was very pleased to be on the ground. I wasn't so happy thinking that the only way back out was with the same airline...
 
Oooh. I second Scott Migaldi's CAAC experience. Ilyushin ?I68? in 1980. Compressor stall. The pax in the back lit a fire to cook their soup. There were more pax onboard than seats.

It was truly OMG.
 
Kabo Air - Nigeria 1997.

Was supposed to fly from Lagos to Enugu.

We waited for the plane seating on the TARMAC under a scorching sun for about an hour :eek:

After boarding the antiquated 727 (which was literally falling apart), the crew (Ukrainian pilots) tried to start the engines dozens of times unsuccessfully.

Mechanics started to work on the faulty engine while we sat in that pressure cooker - the temperature inside the plane (no APU = no air conditioning) must have reached 50 degrees C.

After almost collapsing from the heat, I decided to walk down the stairs and take a look.

What I saw was nothing short of astonishing - a bunch of local mechanics, cursing and shouting, trying to figure out what was the problem amid the scattered parts of the engine they just had dismantled.

I decided it probably wasn't too safe to stay around - went back inside, grabbed my bag and just walked away - I jumped the fence and stopped a taxi (hard to believe but true).

That was the first and last time I tried to fly with local airlines in Africa :D.
 
bbchien said:
Oooh. I second Scott Migaldi's CAAC experience. Ilyushin ?I68? in 1980. Compressor stall. The pax in the back lit a fire to cook their soup. There were more pax onboard than seats.

It was truly OMG.
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Ahhh that happened to me on Peoples Express ( remember them) three loud bangs with the 727s engines restarting at 10,000' Did not expereince the campfire in the back thankfully.
 
AdamZ said:
Ahhh that happened to me on Peoples Express ( remember them) three loud bangs with the 727s engines restarting at 10,000' Did not experience the campfire in the back thankfully.
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I'll bet the number of seats >= of humans on board though......

Remember a during this phase of my life I had just completed service on a military transport flight deck, then on a tramp freighter. It was everything I was trying to escape.

Sigh.....
 
bbchien said:
I'll bet the number of seats >= of humans on board though......
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Friend of mine once told me about a flight he had 20+ years ago on one of the Vietnam airlines. Folks brought various live animals on board (including a baby goat that was stuffed into the overhead). As the airliner pulled onto the runway, the flight attendant took 20 people from the front of the plane and made 'em stand in the aisle in back ("Balance"). They were allowed to return to seats near the front after plane reached altitude.

Ilyushin....
 
And I thought Reeve Aleutian Airlines in Alaska was bad back in the late 1970s. Lockheed Super Electra was the most modern plane they had. Anchorage to Adak (and back later on). The only airline where I needed a drink and they didn't serve alcohol. :D

I didn't experience it, but the story (sea story?) was that Pat Kelly (RAA's chief pilot at the time) was on approach to Adak and called for the lights to be turned on. Adak was 0/0 and replied that the airport was closed. A bit later Kelly was back on the radio, "Hey, Adak, turn on your lights!". "Adak is closed" "I don't want the runway lights, I want the taxiway lights. I'm on the ground!" :yikes: Oh, and Kelly was killed some years later. He was walking down a sidewalk in Anchorage and a car jumped the curb and hit him.

I rode Alitalia for the first time (and, I hope, the last) this summer. Nothing scary, just annoying.
 
While sitting here in safety, the continuing storm having thus far dropped about 8" of wet snow and with the worst predicted to come later, I've read all the horrifying flight stories.
One would think that AdamZ's originating story was with the most proficient carrier.
Witness: "When we flew home before we took off" ....... now that's pretty efficient flight service, to arrive home "before" taking off. Oh, for the lack of a comma after "When we flew home," separating the two thoughts.

I suppose I should suit up and walk to the bottom of the hill to get my newspaper and mail. It's just short of 500 paces, round trip; and at the beginning of the last 40 steps the ascent has played tricks on the backs of my legs.

HR
 
AdamZ said:
What is the scariest airline you have ever flown?
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My first time flying to Vegas, I was on American Airlines.

"Hi, this is Bob, I'm your chief flight attendant today. I wanted to let you know that you will have a choice of meals today. We have a BBQ beef brisket sandwich, and a turkey sandwich. Please have your choice ready when we come by."
...
"Good afternoon, this is Sally. As I get set up for meal service, I wanted to let you know that we have two meal choices today, a pulled pork sandwich and a chicken sandwich. Please let us know what you want when we come by."
...
"Hi, this is Bob again. I've consulted with the flight attendants, and we frankly are not sure what is on the sandwiches. One is a BBQ sandwich of some type, and the other is a white meat. We tasted them, and they are both very good. So please let us know if you would prefer BBQ or white meat when we come by."

Ok. Not scary. More funny. I guess you fly to Vegas and you take your chances... (I had the BBQ. It was quite good. Still have no idea if it was pork or beef.)

Chris
 
colohan said:
My first time flying to Vegas, I was on American Airlines.

"Hi, this is Bob, I'm your chief flight attendant today. I wanted to let you know that you will have a choice of meals today. ...
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An AA flight attendant wouldn't recognize any food on their flights these days. It would probably scare them so badly that they'd have to call the air marshal up to shoot it.
 
roadwarrior said:
An AA flight attendant wouldn't recognize any food on their flights these days. It would probably scare them so badly that they'd have to call the air marshal up to shoot it.
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ain't that the truth. OTOH, the stuff you get in F on the AA transcons out of LAX is better than what's available in the terminal as carry-on, so I guess it's a matter of perspective.
 
gprellwitz said:
Well, I guessed First class, so to me it is a mysterious and unknown place!
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I've been to Oz and peeked behind the curtain. I can tell you that there is not that much difference. A first class meal is usually a tiny packet of chex party mix, if that unless you're flying across an ocean.
 
My rule of thumb is to stick to front-line carriers travelling in the first world. It works pretty well for me. I haven't been anywhere more rustic than Greece and Mexico, and I'm going to keep it that way. (Well, Poland and East Germany in the early 70s, but that was by ocean liner, and I had no say in the matter anyway).
 
This is not really in the spirit of this thread, but the best in-flight meal I've had is in Business Class on Air Tahiti Nui, an A-340 flight nonstop Papeete to JFK......

More in line with the thread: The scariest flight I have had was on a US major (can't remember which) from BOS - ORD - SFO in about 1969. We took off in a snowstorm, had a bumpy climbout, and about 3 minutes into the climb we hit what everyone back then called an air pocket. It felt like we fell vertically about 1000 feet, hit the bottom with a terrific jolt. Overheads spilled contents, but everyone was still belted in so I don't recall any injuries.

After the incident, we continued to fly at low altitude (pressure breach in the fuselage?) at a reduced speed because we were in the clouds all the way = continuous turbulence. When we got to ORD, they took that plane out of service and gave us a replacement bird. (The original flight was supposed to continue.)

The landing at ORD was the smoothest landing I've ever had in a commercial airliner. The PF was babying that plane onto the ground. I never found out what if anything happened to the plane...

-Skip
 
roadwarrior said:
I've been to Oz and peeked behind the curtain. I can tell you that there is not that much difference. A first class meal is usually a tiny packet of chex party mix, if that unless you're flying across an ocean.
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That's not accurate. Granted, it's not what it used to be in the 90s, but it's still white table cloth, real silverware, and all that. Like Bill said, it's better than what you can buy at LAX (why do they have such terrible food selections in their terminals?!?).
 
roadwarrior said:
I've been to Oz and peeked behind the curtain. I can tell you that there is not that much difference. A first class meal is usually a tiny packet of chex party mix, if that unless you're flying across an ocean.
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That is not true. First Class is not what it used to be but you still get meals. It is mostly on flights that are at least two hours long. Just this weekend I got a fruit plate, yogurt, and croissant on the flight from Tampa to Washington DC. I could have had a cheese omelet but I was not in an egg mood.

First class on any overseas flight is always a lot better than domestic first class. On a long haul flight it is a multi-course meal with several breaks to have a nice drink. On AA to Japan I always enjoyed the lobster appetizer. I often would forgo the main course if I could talk the FAs into letting me have extra lobster after everyone else had been served.

And if you are curios this is what first class on a 747-400 looks like these days. And yes the seat fold out into completely flat beds.
 

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smigaldi said:
That is not true. First Class is not what it used to be but you still get meals. It is mostly on flights that are at least two hours long.
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I don't know what the official policy is but, based on what I've experienced it seems to depend what time of day you are flying also. The same route might serve a breakfast, lunch and dinner but other flights between might get nothing.

I've been burned before because I thought that I was going to get fed because I was traveling 1st class and had been on that route before only to get nada.
 
smigaldi said:
I have not been a 777 all year. In 2010 I am switching back to AA which did an upgrade a little while ago. With any luck I will not be on UAL much any longer.
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Ouch. Until I get upgraded 100% of the time (which I don't, even as Global Services), I'm not going to subject myself to AA's E-.
 
roadwarrior said:
I don't know what the official policy is but, based on what I've experienced it seems to depend what time of day you are flying also. The same route might serve a breakfast, lunch and dinner but other flights between might get nothing.

I've been burned before because I thought that I was going to get fed because I was traveling 1st class and had been on that route before only to get nada.
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You always get at least a fruit plate in FC on United and AA.
 
sba55 said:
Ouch. Until I get upgraded 100% of the time (which I don't, even as Global Services), I'm not going to subject myself to AA's E-.
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Agree. E+ is a huge advantage for UA. At least I'll have that for the SEA-ORD leg on Tuesday. The rest, ORD-PHL-SWF and SWF-PHL-SEA on Sunday is all US Air.
 
My dad is a Nigerian Sarkin Yaki -- that is, War Chief.

No kidding. It's true.

It's also true that he is as Caucasian as the day is long.

I bet you wouldn't know that he is a Sarkin Yaki just by looking at him. But he is, and he has the ceremonial robes and cane to prove it.
 
Never had a scary airline flight, but I've had doozeys in other people's GA aircraft.

Actually, I take it back. I was on a flight into Detroit (scary in and of itself) and at about 8K feet I noticed us slowing down. I said to myself that we were going awfully slow, and if someone didn't do something we might get into a stall-spin situation, my sight picture wasn't all that different from the one I have in the Cherokee. I then chided myself that I didn't know anything about airliners and it was all probably fine. Just then I then heard the engines spool up, all the way up.
 
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