Has anyone ever experienced extremes of air turbulence when flying? I did and I think it was probably the scariest experience of a very long and adventurous life; one in which I have nearly died a few times.
About eighteen months ago, I and a couple of lady clients boarded a Ryanair flight and lifted off from Murcia Airport at dusk. We just about made it into the cabin as huge storm clouds were gathering and rain was already splattering on us as we boarded.
We hadn’t been in the air long when the plane just dropped. It was ike one of those fairground rides where everything just falls away from you and you just plummet. This time there was no apparent stop. The plane was literally dropping like a stone: no air beneath its wings / fuselage: a vacuum.
Then an explosion as it hit air: it was as one imagines hitting the ground. A explosion like crash. How the hell the wings or tail weren’t torn off I had no idea.
Without repeating myself this went on for about twenty-minutes. The plane gathered height and then like being in a lift in which the cables had snapped, just dropped like a stone again, until it once more ‘crashed’ on air. The plane was clearly at the extremes of endurance. Awful stress noises and the buffeting! I can best describe it as being in a football, which is being kicked from one end of the field to the other.
The passengers (including me) just knew that this was ‘it’; there really didn’t seem to be any way the plane could survive the constant hammerig, the stress.
The children, bless them, were screaming and hysterical. Most of the women were too. Many were crying. Some of them men shouted out each time the plane plunged. Most just sat grim-faced, eyes closed, hands gripping the arms of the seats as we waited for the end.
Another quiet spell but we had had a few of them before yet another plunge. But this one lasted, and lasted   ...  until we landed in Liverpool two hours later. The air turbulence had lasted about twenty-minutes during which time we were all convinced the plane was about to break up. The relief was palpable on landing ; there was the biggest cheer I ever heard.
One of my f****** clients was lighting up as she went down the steps of the plane; the air filled with the pungent smell of airline fuel. It had been her first flight. The last too I bet.
I would love to see a mock-up of what actually happns. Unbelievable.

I haven`t been anything as bad as that.

On a flight from Corfu we flew through a thunder storm just after take off, it was pretty due to it being 4 am and the sky lighting up it surrounded the aircraft in a pink glow.

Landing in Rimini, Italy we were very low, turning steeply towards the runway and hit a few gusts, made the plane drop sideways, that was fun as it was mid day and you could see the crash site.

The worst I had was flyin to Malaga over Spain and we hit major turbulence, not as bad as you, but still made me uncomfortable.

Malaga can be a bad landing airport as it`s position with mountains and the coast usually makes for a cross wind landing.

We came onto the strip once in what felt like sideways. The wings always seem to be flexing a little too much for comfort.

My cousin on a transAtlantic flight to the States needed medical attention to a cut on the head after a bad storm mid Atlantic, he`s only ever flown once since in 8 yrs.

From what I gather a lot of budget airlines don`t carry enough fuel to fly around most storms, they and many carriers fly through them, having faith within the industry to ensure the plane is safe.

I have noticed though that the more I fly, the more uncomfortable I am with it.

In July last year my wife and I were flying with BMI from Manchester to Newquay. It was hammering down as the plane taxied out and every time the pilot braked we could hear a grinding noise from the undercarriage. We were sitting above the wings. It was the same noise you get when your car brakes are worn down to the rivets. I remarked to my wife that it sounded as if the brakes needed relineing but thought no more about it.  It was quite a bumpy flight,due to the bad weather and as we came in to land at Newquay all you could see were black clouds. The plane was swaying from side to side and then we came out of the cloud at rooftop level, we couldn’t have been more than 50 ft off the runway. Suddenly the pilot opened up the throttles and nearly stood the plane on its tail and we were climbing back up. He said he had to go around again,due to poor visibility. We flew through the clouds,circling for about ten minutes then came into land again.  I noticed the cabin crew were looking quite worried and one of them went into the toilet,coming out a few moments later wiping her mouth.  She had obviously been sick. As we came into land the same thing happened again. This time there was some screaming from passengers. After circling for another ten minutes,thepilot announced that due to the bad weather we could not land and would be returning to Manchester.  We landed safely at Manchester but when the pilot applied the brakes the grinding noise could clearly be heard. My brother,who was waiting for us at Newquay later said that ours was the only flight that aborted its landing there that day.  Did the pilot know that the brakes were faulty and wasn’t willing to attempt a landing on a shorter runway in the rain? We’ll never know but it did seem too much of a coincidence.  Scared? Of course I was! :sick:

:coolsmile: By the way Mike, are you the same Mike Walsh, :coolcheese:  Ex Regiment?

My worst flight was to Amsterdam out of London City, in a smallish plane.  We were delayed for hours due to high winds, which the powers that be finally decided had dropped enough to risk a takeoff… because of the location the ascent from City is really steep, and the wind buffetting was terrible, the plane seemed to be lurching and vibrating so much I was sure it would break up.  It wasn’t until the next day I realised how every muscle in my body was aching from the sheer effort of bracing myself (and trying to hold the plane together subconsciously I guess!)  Even the regular commuters on the flight looked a bit anxious…  I was dreading the return flight, which was a total breeze, despite the same acute flightpath (fastest descent ever, I thought we’d overshot and were aiming for Heathrow…)

Maya

The only time I soiled my Y fronts was on a package holiday to Madeira

Before we took off we had been warned by the Hoilday company rep that the weather had been
“difficult” and that delays were extremely likely.

However, we took off more or less on time and had a smooth flight until
within sight of Madeira.  We then circled,  (I counted nine or ten times
round the block), before making our first attempt, which the pilot aborted a
few seconds from landing.  The second attempt was the same.  We landed
rather hard on the third attempt and quickly came to a shuddering stop.

Now I do a reasonable amount of air travel, and have not experienced
anything like this since my Calcutta-Dhaka commuting days in Fokker
Friendships. 

I believe that they have now extended Funchal runway, so landings may now be more hum drum.