Flights From Hell flies you into the crazy skies with stories about the adventures and anxieties of airplane travel.

Commercial airline travel takes us far, far out of our comfort zone. We're herded into cylinders that zip hundreds of miles per hour at 30,000 feet, subjected to security screenings, confronted with delays and lost luggage, rushed to catch connecting flights, constrained to small seats, scrunched up with strangers, and surrounded by pathogens. Is it any wonder we end up becoming a bundle of raw nerves by journey's end?

Flying The Sickly Skies

October 30, 2007 Illness/Medical Stories

I was the inflictor of hell on a flight from Heathrow to Dulles. Toward the tail end of a month long trip to Kenya, several members of my class had battled some mysterious stomach ailment…you see where this is going. By time we had connected from Mombassa to Nairobi and landed in London, I thought […]

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DJ Becomes MD

October 30, 2007 Illness/Medical Stories

On January 2007, I was returning home from spending New Years with friends in NJ. The flight to St. Louis was to take about 3 1/2 hours, and it was a VERY early flight. Still slightly hung over, I boarded the plane expecting to get some sleep on the way; that didn’t happen. The flight […]

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Kidney Stones And Eva: The Dreadful Duo

October 30, 2007 Illness/Medical Stories

I had travelled to beautiful Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to attend a military conference. Unfortunately. I was forced to spend the three days of the conference in the local hospital enduring treatment for kidney stones. Following surgery to remove said stones, I was released (with a final dose of Demerol and other pain meds) and subsequently […]

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Pills And Thrills

October 29, 2007 Couples Stories

On a Virgin Atlantic flight from London Gatwick to Las Vegas, I was seated next to a couple who were flying to Vegas to get married. The first hour of the nine hour flight was relatively pleasant. I was telling them about things not to miss in Vegas and they were telling me their courtship […]

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The “Virtual Marriage”

October 29, 2007 Couples Stories

In 2004 I was on a flight from Houston to Phoenix returning from a business trip. I found myself in an aisle seat near the back of the aircraft sitting next to a nervous man who had never flown before. I assured him since the weather was good and we were on a “first-world” airline […]

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Lip-Locked Tousled-Haired Twenty-Somethings

October 29, 2007 Couples Stories

My husband I had just arrived at the Seattle airport after our honeymoon Alaskan cruise. The flight back to Minneapolis was supposed to depart at 11 pm, but much to my disgust the flight was delayed due to bad weather. So there we sat exhausted, in much need of sleep, with no options of catching […]

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“Ample” Lady

October 27, 2007 Portly Stories

Flying from Kansas City to LAX, full flight, my wife and I took our seats…well, not exactly. We had the aisle and center, an “ample” lady was in the window seat. Because of her size, she could not get the arm rest down; she was spilling into my wife’s seat. I volunteered to sit there […]

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Squeezed By A Portly Passenger

October 27, 2007 Portly Stories

I want to preface this story by saying that I am not disparaging of fat people in general. I’m a woman. I know it’s hard to lose weight. That said, if you need two seats for your big ass, buy two seats for your big ass. That said… I was on a flight from San […]

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Brat On Board

October 24, 2007 Baby & Kid Stories

My flight from hell happened on an overnight flight from Paris to Detroit. Before we boarded the plane my husband and I noticed a very loud, very disobedient young girl wreaking havoc in the terminal. I laughed and commented to my husband that with my luck, that child would be on our plane. Well, not […]

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Toddler Creates Turbulence

October 24, 2007 Baby & Kid Stories

I was on a cruise for 7 days, and the last night we all decided to stay up all night and see the ship come in to port and watch the sun rise. When I finally got on the plane, expecting to sleep all the way home, the toddler behind me had different ideas. He […]

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Best Friends

October 24, 2007 Baby & Kid Stories

I was on a non stop flight from Tampa to Toledo in a wide body L1011 I think they’re called. I was seated on the right end of the middle 5 seats, beside a family of 2 boys, an 8 year old girl, and their mother. As we’re taxiing to the runway, this little girl […]

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Pungent Perfume And Dirty Diapers

October 24, 2007 Baby & Kid Stories

On a long, long flight from Amsterdam to Singapore about 10 years ago, I was seated next to a very pleasant Vietnamese woman who was going back to her native homeland for the first time in decades. With her was her 2 year old granddaughter. After about 45 minutes into the flight I noticed that […]

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