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?

Passenger Takes Justice Into His Own Hands

September 30, 2012 Passenger Stories

During a flight back from Amsterdam a fight broke out among several passengers. The plane was pretty empty, but it turned out that one guy had a grudge against a group of three women. It all started when he barged past them when they were on the plane and they had harsh words and asked him for […]

14 comments Continue reading →

The Mistakes of Youth

September 26, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

So here is my own personal flight from hell story (with multiple parts, some my own fault, others not). I had recently graduated from a university, and having not had the chance for a proper vacation in quite some time, I decided a trip was in order. After a little scrimping and saving (and a […]

9 comments Continue reading →

Rio de Janeiro Here We Don’t Come!

September 23, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

On August 20th, 3 colleagues and I left Newark Airport destination Rio de Janeiro via Charlotte, NC for a 3-day business trip. After a 2 hour layover in Charlotte, US Airways Flight 800 left to Rio de Janeiro around 10:30 PM. About one hour into the flight, the captain announces that we have a “red […]

1 comment Continue reading →

Traveler Refuses to Trade Seats

September 21, 2012 Seat Stories

I was flying from LAX to Maui in an aisle seat. A father and his maybe 5 year old son took the other two seats. The father was quite irritated that the airline had changed their seat assignments and split up the family. He then proceeded to apologize in advance for climbing in and out during […]

9 comments Continue reading →

Piles of Poop

September 18, 2012 Senior Stories

My husband and I were connecting in Phoenix via Southwest Airlines and finishing out our last 45 minutes until landing at John Wayne Airport. We were riding up front on the left hand side of the plane. A very large, overweight female senior was seated in the front row on the right side. She was […]

4 comments Continue reading →

Security Sweep for Swapped Plane

September 17, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I know this is not necessarily a flight from hell, as most of it went pretty smoothly, but we did experience a delay that I found funny so I wanted to share. I was flying from PHX to MSP, so it was a large plane and it was booked full. Boarding took quite a long […]

3 comments Continue reading →

Trip to Nairobi Nixed by Volcano

September 15, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

It was the end of May 2010 and I was going with five other people on a medical mission trip to Kenya, right after graduation from my nurse practitioner program. We were flying Delta from Atlanta to Nairobi via Amsterdam. About an hour or so after we took off, the captain got on the PA […]

4 comments Continue reading →

Air Force One Screws Up Travel Plans

September 12, 2012 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I was flying from Boston to Billings, MT via Detroit and Denver (the only way to get a decent fare was to have two stops). The Boston-Detroit leg was uneventful, and I wandered around the Detroit airport looking for a way to pass the time on my two-hour layover. I then heard an announcement over […]

9 comments Continue reading →

Passenger Detained By Police For GPS Device

September 9, 2012 Attendant & Pilot Stories

Flights From Hell received the following correspondence from David Howe. In it Mr. Howe states that a US Airways flight attendant erroneously ordered him to shut off his GPS receiver. He says that he turned it off, and then afterwards informed the FA that the device’s use was allowed by another air carrier and that […]

19 comments Continue reading →

Cheapskate Customer Service Representative

September 7, 2012 Odds & Ends Stories

My partner and I were scheduled to leave DC on US Air on Flight 3243 to arrive home in Kansas City on Sunday, August 12, 2012. We started receiving robo-messages about a delayed flight (6 in total all with different departure times) before we reached the airport. When we arrived at the security gate the […]

8 comments Continue reading →

Child Can’t Board Because of Computer Glitch

September 4, 2012 Baby & Kid Stories

Here is a Kafkaesque nightmare from United Airlines. Our family of four took a one week vacation in California. We bought our roundtrip tickets two months in advance, including seat assignments. The flight from the East Coast was fine. Trouble found us when we tried to check in for the return flight.

5 comments Continue reading →

Troubled Twins & Cranky Ass Clown

August 31, 2012 Passenger Stories

Several weeks ago I took my 9-year-old daughter to Disney World for the first time. We flew from PHL to MIA with little difficulty, where we connected for what was supposed to be a 30-minute flight to Orlando. It being summer vacation and our destination being the home of Mickey, the plane was naturally swamped […]

11 comments Continue reading →



← Previous Entries

Next Entries →