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?

“Flight Of Fear” Cartoon

July 22, 2009 Non-Stories

The This Modern World cartoon below features a panoply of flying hell issues which are described in numerous stories on our site – poor customer service, portly passengers, cell phone use, delays, annoying passengers, dissatisfactory flight attendant service, crying babies, animals, lousy food, plane problems, lost luggage and, of course, the dreaded reclining seats. Can […]

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Bathroom Odor Causes Gag Reflex

July 21, 2009 Odor Stories

I was flying from Washington to Nashville. I knew something was wrong when I got on board, I had been assigned the aisle seat in the last row on a very small regional jet, i.e. just opposite the bathroom. My seatmate, a young college student, had her face hidden under her turtle neck sweater. I […]

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A Horrible Trip

July 20, 2009 Baby & Kid Stories

In February I decided to fly from St Louis to Ottawa (Canada), with a stop-over in Chicago on United. I was travelling with my 3 yr old daughter and 8 month old son. I do this trip a lot, but usually do the stopover in Toronto. I opted to fly thru ORD, which was more […]

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Beware The Frogs

July 19, 2009 Animal Stories

I have read many of the stories on this website, and I can say that I have shared most of these experiences. I have been thin and sat next to a person who was grossly overweight, and I have been grossly overweight and sat next to a thin person. There is usually a way to […]

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Scanner Loses Belongings

July 18, 2009 Airport Stories

Going through security in the Orlando airport and running late as usual, I placed a satchel containing reading material into a plastic tray for x-ray scanning; the top of the satchel was below the top of the tray. On top of the satchel I placed my eyeglasses, watch and car keys. I cleared the body […]

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Passengers Expected To Proceed At The Speed Of Light

July 17, 2009 Delay/Cancellation Stories

My girlfriend and I recently had a flight from San Francisco, CA to Tampa, FL with a layover in Miami via American Airlines. The problems started in San Francisco, when our flight was supposed to leave at 11:45pm. Due to the airport not scheduling the correct information for the flights, they double booked the gate […]

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Injured Escaping From Body Mass

July 17, 2009 Portly Stories

Traveling from Indianapolis to Dallas, I had a window seat and no one seated next to me. Then it happened, a late passenger comes down the aisle and lands next to me. He was large and smelled strange. After he got situated, he spread out in his seat into my seat. He even lifted up […]

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Trapped Like A Rat

July 17, 2009 Senior Stories

During one of my flights I observed a woman who must have been at least 90 years old stand up in the aisle to go use the lavatory. As she peered down each aisle she suddenly realized that beverage carts on opposite ends of the aisle were slowly moving in towards her. As she kept […]

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Puke On A Poor Passenger

July 16, 2009 Odor Stories

My plane was 2 hours leaving from Seattle going to Atlanta. I was sitting in the aisle seat with a mother and her adult daughter sitting next to me. The daughter paged the F.A. before we took off and asked for some ginger ale because she had an upset stomach. The F.A. brought her the […]

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The Loudmouthed Passenger

July 15, 2009 Passenger Stories

I was flying from Denver to LA. I was in First Class and thought there would be no problems with the people. Wrong. The guy next to me would not stop talking at the top of his lungs. You would have thought he was screaming to someone in the back of the plane. I tried […]

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Mr. Poopy Pants’ Relative?

July 14, 2009 Odor Stories

In 1988, while working for American Airlines, I had the misfortune of running into a possible relative of the now notorious “Mr. Poopy Pants.” It was a hot, sunny day in July, as the Boeing 727 from Dallas had just arrived. It was late, as usual, and this was a turnaround flight. Once the passengers […]

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Lodged Tightly Between Flesh And Fuselage

July 12, 2009 Portly Stories

I had to grab a last minute flight from Raleigh, NC to Birmingham, AL with a change of flights in Charlotte, NC. U.S. Air at the time was flying Fokker 100s for the short hop between RDU and CLT. The Fokker had 20 rows of seating with 2 seats on the left and 3 on […]

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