Flew into City Airport last night in the middle of a torrential down pour. Thunder and lightning the lot.
Spent 25 mins doing figure 8s over Dartford.
Eventually turned for the airport and the pilot comes on the intercom.
"Ladies and gents. Adverse weather at City Airport. Please do not be alarmed if our approach feels overly violent"
Followed by 3-4mins of terror as the plane lurched all over the place. Never felt a plane slow down so quickly as we came over the river. Physically thrown forward as it happened.
Never helps when you catch the stewards glancing nervously at each other!
Anyone else had any horror stories?
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This was a BA city flyer. Would have been slightly less shocked if it had been one of the little turbo props.
Much worse off the end of the runway landing at Dalian in northern China. Really was saying my goodbyes.
Close work colleague was in the last Phuket crash, again monsoon rain thumped the plane down and broke it. All those in neighbouring seats died, including his brother.
My first proper job was to help pull an plane out of Hong Kong harbour when it over ran at Kai Tak and its nose gently tipped into the bay.
Not sure what a force 8 girl is but would like to find out! ;-)
i think part of the reason City Airport is quite dramatic is the high angle of approach & takeoff, used to love my flights to the continent from that place - one of the best little airports in the world :-)
These are the times I miss Soundas.
He tells a great story about his time over Berlin as a bomb aimer when the Anti Aircraft fire took out both his starboard engines......
It's 'respite', btw - not 'rest bite' - though that did make me giggle!
Worst take off was one that Air Asia aborted half way down the runway. The pilot came on that it was perfectly normal and that we should remain calm. I didnt find it that normal.
Worst in midair was on my way to Jakarta when the plane lurched many times and people were screaming.
came down nose-wheel first. That got gasps from the
cabin crew.
On a funnier note, waiting for a flight out of Mahe to Praslin on an Air Seychelles Trislander. Sitting in a departure hut (yes, it really was made out of grass as was the runway on Praslin). The Trislander is basically an Islander with an extra engine stuck on the tail. It's a small plane and the extra engine is heavy. Pilot (Australian) sitting up front doing his pre-flight checks. Ground crew (local) loading luggage. This goes at the back of the plane. Thing is you're not supposed to load the luggage until the passengers are on board as they counterbalance it. The weight of the luggage tilted the plane back breaking the tailplane and leaving the front wheel swinging about in the air and the pilot having to jump from the plane to the ground.
Meanwhile, the ground crew are trying to put the broken pieces of tail back on.... :-O
Having eventually managed to get out of the plane the pilot then beats the crap out of the ground crew. Thankfully they found another plane for us to use!
I remember one very well. Cuba 8 years ago. Killed all 16 passengers plus the crew, two were family members of mine.
Wing was ripped off by turbalance. Rare I grant you but it happens.
Wont find me traveling on mickey mouse airlines
nice video in this article of a big Lufthansa jet making a textbook landing at the airport yesterday, bet it was a bit scary on that plane though, the approach into Calgary is normally pretty turbulent even on the calmest days
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/11/28/calgary-storm-cleanup.html?cmp=rss
Arrived to a massive storm because of it too, still got a few videos on my laptop of palm trees at 45 degree angles in the wind, but luckily it blew itself out in a day or so - awesome place after that!