Airplane Stories

You can’t fly from Raleigh-Durham to Nashville at an altitude of 1000 feet – there are mountains in the way! This wasn’t the first thought on my list of increasingly worrisome thoughts about five minutes into our flight out of Raleigh-Durham on a recent clear, sunny Sunday. The first “hmm” moment came when I realized the pilot had significantly cut the engines back. But, I’ve flown plenty of times and know that they change engine speeds for a variety of normal operating reasons – so, no worries. Not yet anyway.

As I continued to gaze out at the landscape below I began to realize it wasn’t getting any smaller. In fact, it might even be getting bigger. As in closer. Uh oh. We had clearly leveled off at maybe 700 feet and were no longer ascending or going very fast. This couldn’t be good. Now the worry meter was starting to heat up – why were we still so close to the ground, why weren’t we ascending anymore, were we losing altitude, how slow can this jet go before it stalls?

I turn to my husband – an A-lister who spends 50% of his life on airplanes. In the most well-modulated voice I could muster I casually say, “Hey – we are going pretty slow and we don’t seem to be going up anymore. Do you think something’s wrong?”

Mr. Frequent Flyer barely looks up from his magazine and says, “No, everything basically sounds normal. Maybe there’s traffic overhead.” Sounded reasonable – for about 3-4 minutes – and then, as I stared out the window, I began to realize we had begun to turn back towards the airport.

Me: “Hey, stop reading. I think we’re going back to the airport. Do you think we are going back? Do you think something’s wrong with the plane? Sh*t, we should have updated our wills. What’s wrong? I’m getting scared something is wrong. Are you worried? Blah blah blah.” My poor husband.

He finally stops reading, looks out the window and says, “Good call, I think we are going back.” Good call? This isn’t a contest. This is supposed to be a quick, 90 minute – uneventful – flight.

Me, again: “I’m getting really worried, why aren’t they saying anything to us?”

Cool, calm, collected, if somewhat insensitive husband says, “Everything still ‘sounds’ like it’s working fine.”

Me: “Aren’t you scared?”

Him: “Nope, nothing I can do about it anyway.” OK, the concept that says, “If you are going to crash, don’t worry about it, your fate is already sealed,” somehow isn’t slowing my heartbeat. I stare out the window and worry. I realize the nice lady sitting behind me isn’t worried at all. She had told me she was on the very first airplane flight of her life. For all she knew, this is how it always went. If we survived, she was going to be in for a surprise on her next flight when the plane roared off the runway and headed straight up to 35,000 feet without a slow, lazy aerial tour of the counties surrounding the airport.

A few minutes later I realize we are turning again – this time back towards our original heading. The engines very slowly start to come up to normal levels and we finally start to ascend, but very slowly. Another 5-10 minutes and the flight attendants get up and start the drink service.

So… emergency – or whatever it was – had seemingly been averted. A big question remains in my mind, though. Why did they never say anything to us about what was going on? Is it standard procedure to keep it to themselves – kind of a “need to know” basis – until it was an actual emergency? It was clearly not a normal take-off. It was also clear that the problem had been resolved. But the lack of communication left me uneasy for the remainder of the flight and way too aware of engine speeds, sounds, etc. I’m sure I wasn’t the only unsettled flyer that day and remain puzzled why nothing was ever explained to the passengers. Thoughts?

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Close to the Edge

November 15, 2011

in Airplane Stories

“African aviation has the worst safety record in the world.” Over many years and millions of miles flying across the length and breadth of Africa, I had a true appreciation of that seemingly innocuous phrase. Yeah, well it’s still safer than crossing the road, isn’t it. Is it? Depends. One of the things it depends on is the weather; I learned a lot about African weather – particularly what weather to avoid. The middle of Africa is one vast, wet, broiling tropical jungle that stretches across the entire belt of the continent; and breeds sudden, short but extremely violent storms.

I once overheard a Kenya Airways pilot and chief engineer arguing about whether or not it was safe to take off from Douala in the middle of a tropical storm, particularly as the de-icer had broken. I didn’t know what a de-icer was but it sounded like we needed ours to be working. We took off anyway. That flight, from Douala to Nairobi on Kenya Airways, was one that I knew very well; I flew it dozens of times en route from Cameroon to Johannesburg. One night that same flight took off in the middle of one of those same tropical thunderstorms – and crashed two minutes after takeoff. The plane sunk so deep in the jungle muck it took them a week to find it. I wasn’t on board, but I could easily have been.

I was working with the World Bank in Johannesburg, South Africa. One weekend I was scheduled to speak at a conference in Abuja, Nigeria on Sunday, and apart from that I had no real reason to be going to Nigeria. I had agreed to do it, but as the time got closer I got more reluctant to go. It was taking up my whole weekend just to give some stupid speech! What tipped it was that my family had just arrived in Johannesburg for an extended visit and although I could have gone, I decided at the last minute to do what my employer says and “put family first.” On the Saturday night I sent my speech to a colleague in Abuja and asked him to present it on my behalf. Problem sorted.

The next day, Sunday, I discovered that the 9:30 PM Bellview Airlines flight from Lagos to Abuja the previous night, the one I had been booked on before aborting the trip, had crashed in a tropical storm en route, killing all 117 people on board. That one shook me up: Jesus Christ, I was booked on that flight – I had flown on that same plane, many times! On Monday morning I called my colleague in Abuja to ask how the conference had gone, but before that I said that I hoped he didn’t know anyone who was on the crashed plane. He said,

“My wife was on that flight.”

Oh God….

- Brian

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October 1st, 2011, a happy day for many in China – National Day – going away day, not-going-to-work-this-whole-week day! Hence, not many people were really bothered by the extremely inefficiently run check-in line at Aeroflot’s desk at Shanghai Pudong International Airport because we were all going on holiday – or so we thought. Boarding was a little late too, but who cares – it’s vacation time!

On the plane people laughed and joked about not taking off on time because it is apparently customary for flight SU 528 to never leave on time. I did see some people freak out due to very short connections, and if you’ve ever visited Sheremtevo “Int’l” (really deserves quotation marks) Airport in Moscow, you would know just why one hour transit time would make you feel a little frustrated with your original flight being delayed an hour (and even without the delay, mind you).

It turned out we had been waiting for some passengers to finish their shopping – we actually went through passport control together, so I figured it must have been shopping or a very, very, very spicy chilli. You might be surprised, but I’m not angry at them anymore – more like grateful, I suppose.

We started taxiing to the lane and I dozed off, finally ready for my journey to begin, when all the lights went out except the emergency ones – not much of a reassurance. Their plane went straight back, the doors were unsealed, and more people boarded, but passengers they were not as they were wearing bright vests and dungarees. Nobody really knew anything, and that ignorance seemed quite genuine. Two hours after the scheduled flight should have departed, the passengers were beginning to feel a little… hungry – but still in a holiday mood, so no anger involved… yet.

The doors were sealed again, but nothing happened. They went unsealed again, a guy came on with a cloth in his hands and a slightly helpless expression on his face. We were asked to collect our belongings and leave. Outside the gate we got a nice view of our vessel – engine covers were open and a huge puddle of oil was underneath. Somebody said this had already been reported on the way from Moscow to Shanghai, but Aeroflot decided to save some money and try to go back and change the plane there – instead of sending an empty one all the way from Russia. Hail Chinese engineers and technicians who didn’t let us take off!

It took one hour for all passengers to get a silly piece of paper that entitled us to get out through immigration, and then reality kicked in. We got huddled up around the airline’s 8 square meter office and there were no Aeroflot representatives there, only airport employees. They told us to go to a hotel and wait for their call. Some did. Others demanded that their flights be immediately re-booked.

I stood in that office for 5 hours. We all did – no drinks or food, and going to the loo would mean you might lose your precious spot in the queue. People were sent to random cities in Europe – without a guarantee of having their connecting flight refunded by the airline – or in other words, with a guarantee that they wouldn’t. I got my ticket rebooked for the same flight two days later! No refund, no food, not even an apology, and God forbid it would be the same plane.

So, here comes the question – Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The answer is out there somewhere…

- Yvonne

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This occurrence happened in 2005 when I was 15 and going on a round-the-world trip with my dad. We had landed at Heathrow after a 14 hour flight from Tokyo and had to change planes to fly to Paris.

So we get onto a small BA Airbus without much trouble. Then as we are about to leave comes the captain’s voice: ”Good evening ladies and gentlemen, it’s your captain Gary here. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d love to be flying you all to Paris now but we have a bald tyre. So we are going to have to change the tyre. Please sit tight.”

Okay, I thought, change the tyre, we’ll be on our way. Captain Gary speaks again. “Right ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news: we changed the tyre. The bad news: we got the jack stuck in the tyre. So we are going to have to lift the plane up, jiggle it around and get the jack out. Now you may feel a sudden shaking but don’t be alarmed.”

This was happening while we were all on the plane. Gary comes out of the cockpit and starts talking to my dad, “Well you’re nice and comfortable aren’t you?”

My dad replies, “On the contrary Gary, we’ve just flown 14 hours from Tokyo and are extremely jet lagged.”

So after waiting about 2 hours on the plane, we finally leave the gate and get in line to take off - behind about 5 other planes. Throughout this time I was incredibly tired and jet lagged, and wondering why didn’t they check the tyres beforehand???

P.S. After Paris we flew back to London and we were just about on the runway when the pilot announces that there has been a mechanical problem and we will have to taxi back to the gate.

Two delays in a row.

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FA Overheard Discussing Problems with Plane

October 18, 2010 Airplane Stories

This May while seated in the aircraft waiting to take off from McCarran airport in Las Vegas to Honolulu, I noticed one of the mechanics kept coming in and out of the cockpit. After a while we took off. About 2 hours somewhere over the Pacific, the flight attendants were serving drinks and I heard one [...]

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Plane Leaks Soak Passenger

September 30, 2010 Airplane Stories

Three years ago I was flying out of Newark Liberty Airport on an American Airlines flight. Being a Platinum frequent flier member, whenever a first class seat wasn’t available to me I would always go to the rear seats in the plane. I usually found that there was more room in that portion of the plane since most [...]

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Disturbed Over Drops

September 26, 2010 Airplane Stories

I was recently traveling from Pierre, South Dakota to Portland, Oregon along with my wife and four kids after attending a funeral. The trip was going great – the kids were well-behaved (we even got several compliments on their behavior), everything was on time or early, and we even had time for a quick lunch [...]

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Extreme Turbulence While In A 12 Seater Plane

September 15, 2010 Airplane Stories

My dad and I flew from Denver to Farmington, NM on what can only be described as a crop duster back in 2007. When we got to the gate in Denver, which was our connection airport, the gate had been changed on us, twice. Once we finally got to the plane they told us we [...]

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Nice Lady Looks After Young Lad

July 26, 2010 Airplane Stories

I was 13 when I met a passenger who took care of me and treated me like a son. Before I tell my story, I must explain the background situation. I was on a flight from Beijing to San Francisco when engine #1 was on fire. Apparently a passenger discovered this and notified the captain. [...]

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Almost Bonked On The Head By Overhead Bin

July 24, 2010 Airplane Stories

Several years ago I was flying Delta Airlines on a short hop from North Carolina to Florida. It was a large plane and I was seated on the aisle in the front 1/3 of the plane. It was a normal boarding and taxi, but things got interesting on take-off. As the plane lifted off the [...]

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