Story #1:
A couple of years ago my wife, daughter and I were flying from Tampa to London via Chicago. Leaving Tampa on a lovely September afternoon, we were about half an hour into the flight when we were told to expect turbulence as we got closer to Chicago. About half an hour later we were informed that Chicago was now closed due to an electrical storm; however we were being allowed to continue as we had a medical emergency aboard. The flight got bumpier and bumpier, and just a few minutes before landing the plane was almost flipped sideways by a gust of wind, then we were struck by lightning. When you are about to land in a storm, a blinding flash and loud bang has the same effect as a powerful laxative.
Story #2:
Flying into Reno, NV in 1997 with the now defunct Reno Air, my flight hit a thunder head on approach which caused a sudden drop of over a thousand feet in elevation. I was not afraid – there just was not enough time for that. The pilot tried to correct for the drop. All I can say is that’s the hardest landing short of a crash I have felt; the pilot probably has nightmares.
Tagged as:
pilot,
reno air,
weather
When I was a boy in my late teens my mother and two of our friends were flying back home to the UK after spending a week in Portugal. While we were boarding our plane we noticed that it looked old and rusted and seemed to be falling apart by the second. The inside was also quite shabby looking. Shortly after take off and reaching cruising altitude we hit a big and I mean BIG storm. Everyone was staring out of their windows at the huge black mass that we were flying into. It was when we all heard the first rumble of thunder that we began to get wary. Soon our windows are streaming with flashes of light as dozens of lightning bolts zap up around us. It was quite a terrifying experience as we were all sure we would be hit. To make matters worse the wind got very powerful and began to rock the plane side to side. It was getting difficult trying to stand up in the walkways, especially in the toilets.
Without warning there was a HUGE blast of thunder and the plane rocked violently as it was hit by a sudden powerful gust of wind sending all those still standing, staggering. The seat belt sign came on and the captain came over the intercom asking everyone to please return to their seats. The plane continued to violently to rock side by side and I was certain this bucket of bolts of a plane was going to fall apart. One of my friends starts crying from terror as we jerk seemingly out of control. I could tell from the looks on the flight attendants that we were in trouble. But amazingly we landed in the UK shaken but unharmed. I had wobbly legs for the rest of the day!
Tagged as:
weather
In the winter of 2000, my mom, dad, sister, and I flew from San Diego back to Michigan, where most of my extended family lives. My parents were raised in Michigan and this winter was the most snow they had seen ever. The day it stopped was the day we were going to leave, flying out of Grand Rapids to DFW and on back to San Diego.
We get to the airport for a late afternoon flight to DFW. Right at the gate, they are offering travel vouchers plus $200. My sister wanted to fly back to Michigan that summer with her best gal-pal, so the offer piqued the interest of my sister and mom. My dad and I had tickets the next night to the Holiday Bowl, and did not need the vouchers, so we were flying no matter what. They raised the dollar amount a little bit more, and my mom and sister were hooked when it reached $400 plus the vouchers. They would not fly that night, but go the next night into O’Hare and fly first class from O’Hare to San Diego. My aunt came and picked them up as my dad and I flew on to San Diego, flying in a sardine can (we are both 6′5″) from Grand Rapids, MI to DFW.
So my sister and my mom arrive the next afternoon at Grand Rapids and as they take off, in another sardine can, snow begins to fall. They get into Chicago without delay but the snow is coming down hard.
They board at the normal time and are sitting in first class and ordering the drinks. They watch the plane get de-iced three times and finally the FAA comes aboard saying that the flight was cancelled because the flight crew would be up in the air past the amount of time they were legally able to be. At that same moment, O’Hare closed due to weather. Because it was the airline’s fault that the flight was canceled, my mom and sister got put up in a nice hotel… with no luggage. The luggage had traveled with my dad and me.
Fast forward to the next day and my sister and my mom board their flight to San Diego, not in first class, in the back of the plane, in their same clothes from the night before (after some bath tub cleaning in the hotel room).
Their flight was supposed to come in at 8:30pm and I started tracking it online around 7:30 to be able to tell my dad when to go pick them up (we do the circle the drop off and pick up, we don’t do parking lots.). I tell my dad to leave about a half hour before. Right as the garage door closes, the flight path does a quick curve up to Los Angeles, not the gradual slope down from Chicago to San Diego. This was the era before cell phones, so I could not call my dad back.
Probably at the same time, on the flight, the pilot comes over the PA to say, “We’ve been fogged out of San Diego, we are being diverted to Ontario!” My sister (15 years old) yells out, “We’re going to Canada?!” to the amusement of those sitting around her, including my mom. (Just in case you are still confused like my sister, there is an Ontario, CA that is about a 38 miles inland from LAX.) They would not wait the fog out, but take buses down from Ontario, a 3 hour tour.
So my mom and sister arrived 2 days after my dad and I did, for travel vouchers and cash, but not riding first class.
Tagged as:
baggage,
hotel,
weather
Note: I’m flying from Roanoke, VA to Boston via Philadelphia. This particular Friday, every airport above the Mason-Dixon line is swamped by this huge winter storm system. as you can guess, nearly every flight into Roanoke gets canceled.
But that’s not the worst part. Because Roanoke has a regional airport, the most innocuous weather systems can shut the place down. And it just so happens that fog does it. And fog has covered the place for four days now, so that’s four days of backed up flights. My initial flight to Philadelphia (on the previous day) gets canceled. So I rebook for the following morning flight through La Guardia and stay overnight at a local hotel. Next morning, fog hasn’t lifted, so that flight gets canceled. I rebook again, this time through Charlotte (Charlotte was all clear). Better yet, there’s a plane sitting at a nearby airport ready to take us there. Now, we just had to wait for the fog to lift. Seven hours after the scheduled departed time, fog still hasn’t lifted. Flight gets canceled.
Now 15 minutes later, either by sheer dumb luck or God just felt like being funny, the fog lifts for good, and now the ticket agents are desperately trying to get the flight reinstated. After another hour and a half of waiting, we see our chariot of hope, a Dash-8, land.
From Charlotte, I get to Boston at midnight; later than I hoped, but at least I got out of Roanoke (where I might have needed to stay an extra day for the next available flight). It’s a good thing we flew out of Charlotte on a 757: because we flew right into a blizzard when we got into Boston.
Tagged as:
weather
