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 Prohibited From Peeing

July 7, 2010 Attendant & Pilot Stories

I was on a flight from London Heathrow to JFK in cattle class seats with the surliest bunch of flight attendants it has been my dspleasure to experience. I travel frequently in many parts of the globe, know what a difficult job they can have, and do my best to be a good passenger for […]

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Concerned About Flap Canoes

July 6, 2010 Airplane Stories

I make my home in SE Alaska, so our only carrier is Alaska Airlines. On a southbound trip out of Sitka, I was seated in a window seat on the left side, just behind the wing.  As I settled into my seat for the short flight, I noticed an anomaly on the left wing.  You’ve […]

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Rocker Praises Portly Passenger

July 5, 2010 Portly Stories

I am in a rock band that is somewhat famous yet not famous enough to own its own private jet. So needless to say my band mates and I fly a lot. On one of our flights I walk down the aisle and was horrified to see the huge man sitting there in my seat (aisle […]

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Question From Broad Shouldered Passenger

July 4, 2010 Portly Stories

All – this is not a story, but a question to all of you kind souls… This has to do with size. I am 6’1″ and 280lbs. However, I fit in the seat and I prefer the arm rests down. I never need a seat belt extender, but my shoulders are 2 -3″ wider than the seat […]

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Fog Fills Plane

July 4, 2010 Airplane Stories

I was on a flight from Caracas, Venezuela to Barcelona, Venezuela. It was a “dark and stormy night,” as they say, so we were bouncing around with lightning flashes punctuating the cabin with white flashes. We hit something, maybe a wind shear, or something like it. The plane plummeted sharply. We lost cabin pressure and […]

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Passenger Has A Possible Seizure

July 2, 2010 Illness/Medical Stories

My fiancee (now wife) and I were just about to land in Amsterdam (red-eye from Detroit, Airbus A330, seats A & B, ultimately going to Scotland for her sister’s wedding) when the passenger in seat C started shaking. A friend of theirs from another row came to their side after the actual landing, but a […]

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Big Guy Gobbles Brown Bag Lunches

July 1, 2010 Portly Stories

A few years back, the airlines had a short stint where they had a big cooler full of brown bag lunches that you had to pick up on the way into the airplane. This was before they cut out in-flight service completely. This story happened at that time. I was in Phoenix, traveling back home […]

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Lost Luggage Leaves Traveler In A Lurch

June 30, 2010 Luggage Stories

My parents are a little bizarre in that they don’t fly together. No matter what. Period. Full stop. So you can imagine the nightmare that sometimes ensues when they travel internationally to visit me, between layovers, different cities, and delays. They cut their own holiday short and I’m left to ferry back and forth from […]

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Pile Of Puke

June 29, 2010 Airport Stories

My story is not so much a flight from hell as hilarity. I’m in the security queue at MIA – the usual tedious routine of shuffling forward two inches every 10 seconds, slowly travelling the cordoned zig zag area designed to maximize the walking distance between two points. Behind me a mother and her young […]

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Lengthy Layover In La Paz

June 28, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

I was once flying from Lima, Peru to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with a layover at La Paz, Bolivia. The flight to La Paz was very pleasant; we arrived and parked at the gate while we exchanged passengers. The layover was supposed to be about 1 hour. Five minutes after we arrive at the gate, it […]

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To Paris We Go… After Traveling Through Hell

June 27, 2010 Delay/Cancellation Stories

Summer of 2006 and my classmates, teachers and I had been planning since the beginning of the school year to spend three amazing weeks in France. We made plans to visit Paris, the French Riviera, a ski resort, and castles. We arrived at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport excited about the trip to France. All we […]

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The Tolerant Ticket Agent

June 26, 2010 Airport Stories

I always try and accommodate myself on the way to the airplane seat. I use the Metrolink and subway system to get to LAX from a southern California suburb. I print my boarding pass from home. Upon arrival to the airport at the bag drop off is where you pay to check in your bags and […]

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