I’ve been flying for a living more than 25 years, upwards of 135K miles a year, all domestic. I could write a book. I have experienced every sort of delay you can imagine, and some you can’t. Let’s just do the crashes, yes, I have managed to be in more than one, which is about as likely as winning the MegaBucks…
In the closing days of 2001, I flew from Toronto to Sao Paulo on an overnight flight. Early in the morning, minutes before the sun broke the horizon, we were somewhere over northern Brazil. Most of the plane was still asleep with their window shades closed. I was in a window seat on the left side of the plane and had…
About 30 years ago I was returning from vacation in Las Vegas, and had to change flights in Chicago. Not a big deal, the terminals were right next to each other, with almost 90 minutes between flights.
That seems... normal. There’s so much absurdity in air travel, I suppose once you fly enough, you become unfazed by weird reasons for delay. At this point, I assume I’m not making my connection in Chicago. It’s just too easy for weather to shut down half the runways. The last time I was delayed and missed a…
Hmm. Where to start.
Once during one fuel crisis or another, I had to wait on the tarmac for an hour and a half for the pilot to get permission to fly to another airport, an hour out of the way, to fuel up, because fuel at this airport was too expensive. I started to ask the people seated around me if they’d volunteer their credit cards…
Spending an entire flight in the lavatory of a 757 with food poisoning.
The Wednesday night before the Mexico City F1 race (Senna had yet to land on his head). We circle the airport for an hour waiting for a landing slot. Pilot comes on the intercom, “I’m sorry, we have waited too long, we have to divert to Acapulco to refuel.” We land in Acapulco. Everybody disembarks so Mexicana can buy…
One for me, one for my grandmother.
The multiple stops were still a thing from smaller cities when I was traveling a lot in the ‘80s. I remember landing in places like Charleston, WV and Roanoke in particular.
Everyone is doing negative ones, so here a few positive absurd things that have happened to me over the years:
The evening before a morning flight..I fell asleep to an infomercial featuring a Jamaican woman with huge eyes....the next day she was seated next to me..
Me and the group I was travelling with were invited into the cockpit once because one of us has a friend who is a pilot, and he knew our common friend would be taking that flight, which happened to be piloted by a close friend and colleague. He decided to surprise us asking his friend to invite us to visit the cockpit…
Ya, my trip to Fairbanks, AK last month was a shit show I don’t want to ever repeat. I’m just glad I was by myself and not with my kids or any other humans I call my friends...lol.
Flying out of Atlanta early in a morning in a small twin jet. After just about 20 minutes into the flight, the right side engine basically exploded with a big bang. The plane started shaking violently, and it’s sorta tipped to one side, everyone was genuinely freaking out, especially this one lady across the aisle, a…
nothing too crazy but a brief list:
I took my first flights in the mid 1960's. At that time, there were a lot more flights that made multiple stops along the way, even remarkably short hops. I was in the Army, headed from Raleigh-Durham to LaGuardia. The trip was supposed to include brief stops at Byrd Field in Richmond VA and at Washington National.…
Flying out to visit my sister from Rochester to Indianapolis, via O’Hare on United. Got to the airport to find that snow was approaching Chicago, so my flight was cancelled. BUT, they sent me to Northwest, with a transfer in Detroit. So, I took the transfer, and boarded the DC-9 to Detroit. Quick flight to DET, and…
I boarded an American Airlines flight with an X-Acto knife.
i flew into calcutta with my older sister and my elderly dad before the turn of the millenium. a couple of years beforehand, i had backpacked in india for 8 months. my dad had served in the army airforce during WWII as a flight surgeon officer/ search and rescue paratrooper in papua new guinea and india, flying…
