Crying And Wailing In Texas

December 13, 2007

in Weather Stories

My wife, 10 month old daughter and I boarded a flight that was to take us from Seattle non stop to Dallas in the fall. The approximately 2 1/2 – 3 hour flight left the ground at about 2 pm and we were on our way without any problems. Just before we got to Dallas we were turned away because of bad thunderstorms in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We flew around a while and they tried again, but to no avail. At this point we had been in the air probably 4 hours and were flying through these storms. The plane lurched violently up and down as the lightning crashed around us and the whine from the engines went up and down as we climbed and descended. At this point they decided to abandon the effort and redirected us to Abilene, Texas where we landed.

Our aircraft was too large for their gates, so we parked out in the field and they shut the plane down (no lights, heat, nothing, and we sat there in the dark as the storm pounded away outside). After about a half an hour a fuel truck showed up and proceeded to fuel us, but when lightning showed up, he beat a hasty retreat and left us out there again. The captain apparently ordered pizzas as before long they were passing boxes up the aisle and everyone settled down from the delay. Eventually they fueled us and sent us on our way back to Dallas, only to be turned away once again and fly through a violent storm. At this point people were crying and wailing in panic as they steered us toward Houston only to head back towards Dallas after an hour or so. We eventually landed, very roughly, and were on our way 13 HOURS from when we left Seattle! Amazingly, our little girl took it all in stride without a hitch.

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

Scott April 2, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Ok…. SEA-DFW in 13hrs (2 diversions) acct bad wx. Damn those pile-its…. They shudda landed anyhow despite the thunderstorms and perhaps killed all on board. How inconsiderate of those basturds!

Airplanes fly in the sky. The sky has

thunderstorms/snow/tornadoes/hurricanes/fog/sleet/ snow/rain/volcanic ash. If you have a problem with delays because of weather, perhaps you should have left 2 days earlier and just driven, and paid more for gas than you paid for the airline ticket

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Tracy April 2, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Scott, you do know that this site is called Flights from Hell, right? What is the point of it if people aren't supposed to vent their bad flying experiences?

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Another Scott April 7, 2009 at 9:58 am

Tracy, yes this is a site designed for "flights from hell", however for people that work in the aviation industry such as myself don't care to hear whinning and blaming the airlines for decisions made during bad weather. I invite you to read about Delta Flight 191. I am sure the people on that flight would love to be able posting there storey about landing in a thunderstorm but unfortunately they are all dead. As a person that works in the industry thuderstoms are no joke and I would much rather have a 13 hour flight than the alternative.

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ps March 11, 2010 at 4:35 pm

didnt sound like the poster was badmouthing the airline… just describing a brutal experience. At least the pilots ordered pizza. But as it was pizza in Texas that would qualify as a flight form hell in its own right.

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Sharon April 8, 2009 at 9:43 pm

Maybe the OP was saying it was the wailing and crying of her co-passengers that made it such a bad flight. I didn't get the idea he was ragging on the airlines.

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Joe Mama April 9, 2009 at 4:18 am

I didn't read anywhere where the author of the story was blaming the airlines for the bad weather. It's just one of those flights from hell that you don't have control over.

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lee March 11, 2010 at 9:38 am

wow need more iam a kid at school leran on thuderstoms more fyi

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