Forget lukewarm food and turbulence, the real terror of air travel is far worse than the average traveller could have ever imagined.
Frequent flyers see the inside of a plane far more often than the rest of us, and so it’s no surprise they’ve run into some pretty horrible happenings.
They are also happy to share their pain.
Reddit user goberkfell asked: “What’s the WORST experience you’ve had at an airport or on an airplane?”
Being the premiere chat forum for people who love to over share, it wasn’t long until users from around the world began to chime in with tales hilarious as they were horrific.
From seat spillers to ridiculously long delays, onboard animals and untimely deaths, there's nowhere this thread didn't go.
"I was on final approach to [Montreal] with my sister on a British Airways 747 when we hit a flock of geese. Our plane took in over 100 geese," wrote Danimac44.
With all engines on fire, alarms going off and the cabin preparing for a crash, the plane was "in the air for another 15 mins when we saw all the fire trucks waiting for us. We had made peace with the fact that we were going to die in those 15 mins. Then what NO ONE wants to hear, "Everyone brace for impact, brace for impact!" We had no power, and the cabin was filling with smoke. We landed, fireman basically stormed the plane like navy seals, and all 141 souls were off that plane in mere moments!"
"I opened my eyes to realize I was on the floor and had passed out. Source: iStock.
For psycht, the problem wasn't so much the flight itself, but rather the food poisoning they'd picked up before boarding.
After being hit with a wave of sweat upon leaving the tarmac, psycht ran to the toilet and began vomiting. Moments later though, "I opened my eyes to realize I was on the floor and had passed out (how did I even fit on the floor is still a mystery). It took me a second or two to realize I was still on the airplane and not sure how long I was out."
Tragically, that's not the worst part of the story.
"Most of the vomit was in the toilet and I had managed to think I was ok and tidy'd up a bit, go to my seat and wait it out till we landed (still on the tarmac at this point). When I sat down, I felt a squish in my pants."
Thankfully, the flight attendants had stepped in by this point and ordered the plane back to the terminal, where paramedics were waiting to take over and help the seriously sickly traveller out.
A view that's painfully familiar to any flyer who's ever experienced a delay. Source: iStock.
To be honest though, the worst flying experience award definitely goes to docpleasure18, who wrote, "Flight from Michigan to Florida, pretty short flight. Guy next to me warns me he sometimes gets sick from flying. I fell asleep and woke up to him projectile vomiting all over me. I was in the window seat and it went all up the walls of the plane and entire plane smelled putrid."
We would understand if they never wanted to fly again after that experience.
Some people 's problems weren't quite on the same level though.
Sharing a problem that is very real for all of us, DongLaiCha wrote, "One time they were out of Dom in first class and I had to settle for a glass of Veuve".
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I got diverted to an entire other continent once from the Middle East. They bumped me to Business Class which I lapped up no end :)
The flight attendant looking after all the 'D' seats (maybe 4 passengers) introduced herself by name, and offered menus. She then offered me a drink before take-off, and I requested a glass of champagne. She returned to present a bottle of Dom, and asked whether Dom Perignon would be OK. I couldn't help but ham it up, and said overly calmly and quite smugly 'Oh yes. I think it will do. Thank you Jane.' lol hahaha The woman in seat C next to me had also been divrted and bumped up to business class, and she was rueful she'd only thought to order a Baileys (it was about 1am, she was tired). She wished she'd known champagne was on offer. So I then said 'I'd like to shout my friend here a glass of champagne please.' So she got her bubbles too. We were greatly amused with our silly antics. After that we put on the satin PJs provided to us. We looked uber daggy, but they were so comfortable. I had no idea when I'd be back in business class so we wanted to act silly-posh and enjoy it all.