That United flight that hit severe turbulance and diverted to Denver.......

[Stinky The Clown]

.... have you ever been on a rough flight, like that?

I've had a few. One in particular, maybe 10 years ago. I was flying from BWI to SFO on a United flight (by coincidence). The in flight sound system allowed you to listen to the radio transmissions from the flight deck. The first officer could be heard asking other flights in the area for a fix on smooth air. We had been slogging through a heavy chop for well over an hour. She would be told that it was smoother at 24 or 26 or even as low as 18. The United people had given her permission to request any smooth altitude they could find (high altitudes save fuel and make more profit for the airline). We were all belted in and there was no cabin service.

We hit a hole in the sky. We were told we dropped around 20 feet. It felt like a thousand. The plane felt as if it belly flopped into the bottom of an empty swimming pool. We were fortunate, having been belted in. No one was injured at all and we made it to SFO in fine shape. The air smoothed out maybe 10 minutes after the bad bump.

On another flight, long before that one, I can still see it in my mind's eye. A cherry tomato floating in front of my face. The plane did a sharp drop (not as severe as the incident above) during meal service. The cherry tomato was on my salad, with my fork under it. I had somehow catapulted the cherry tomato with my fork and it floated for a second as we were dropping.

The flight last night was not so lucky. Apparently the seat belt sign was off and the passengers were "free to move about the country". There were a lot of injuries.

I used to fly a whole lot more than I do now. I long ago learned that being buckled in is far better than a try at a few seconds of weightlessness followed by a sharp, too-fast stop.

[HipChick]

1. Over a decade of flying...a couple of near misses...enough bad turbulance

to make me write my 'final' letters..

[MannyGoldstein]

2. I was in a small-ish plane that hit "clear air turbulence"

Scared the crap out of me. It was a beautiful day, flight was smooth as silk - then suddenly a big bump. Definitely not the worst turbulence I've ever been in, but when everything is crystal clear and it appears out of nowhere, it's not obvious what's going on as it is when you're in or over threatening clouds. I thought we'd had a mechanical event.

[marmar]

3. Never one where there were injuries......

But a flight from Detroit to Atlanta that hit severe turbulence in a T-storm near ATL. The flight attendants even sat down and were looking really nervous.

[gateley]

4. On a Western Airlines (!) flight from LAX to SEA, unfortunately sitting next to

some drunk guy who wouldn't leave me alone, wham! Up and down, side to side, nose pointing down, nose pointing up, drinks flying throughout the cabin, stewardesses (as they were called) hauling ass to their seats to get buckled in. Lasted an eternity, about 10 minutes, and all I could think was my god, I'm going to die with this drunk drooling all over me.

When I was about 13 was flying from SEA to BOS and we went through a thunder/lightning storm. It was night and the lights had been turned down and the flashes of lightning would light up the cabin. My mother had her rosary in one hand and was cutting off the circulation in my arm with her other hand. Pretty scary, but I'd rather die with my mom (who was praying!) than with a drunk cowboy any day! :hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

5. We were sitting in FirstClassInTheBack** when the plane got hit by lightening

A bulb in the main cabin lights went off like a flashbulb. Te FA, sitting across from us in the galley, just looked at and went back to reading her book.

**The exit row across from the galley in the back of old Delta DC8s