For some people, flying is the epitome of great travel and adventure. The thought of entering the air is exhilarating.
For others, however, flying is to be avoided unless totally necessary. There's an underwater highway connecting the continents, right? Or an impossibly strong bridge?
But as laughable as it might seem to see someone dread flying, sometimes there's a key experience that can explain all of those negative feelings they have connected to buckling up and locking their tray tables.
Curious about others' experiences, Redditor prettyKaitlynn asked:
"What's the most horrifying thing you've experienced on a flight?"
The Sudden Loss of a Loved One
"On a red-eye flight, everyone was asleep, but I can't sleep on planes. A few rows behind me, a girl started screaming, 'Mama!? MAMA!?'"
"The flight attendants walked over and then ran back. Then ran over holding a defibrillator. Then they walked the hysterical girl, who looked to be about a teenager, to the front of the plane. Then they walked back with blankets."
"When the plane landed, no one was allowed to move. A stretcher came on board and wheeled the blanket-covered body out. The sobbing girl followed behind."
"I can't imagine losing a parent on a flight, with nowhere to go and no way to contact anyone else for help, surrounded by nosy strangers in tight quarters."
- KnittinAndB***hin
"Oh my god, that poor girl. I traveled a lot with my mom when I was her age, visiting my big brother at college. I can’t even imagine the horror of this situation and how traumatic that must have been. I hope she is happy and thriving somewhere now…"
- doodle_d**ks3000
Fallen Flight 4184
"On Halloween night in 1994, I was on a United flight from Vancouver to Chicago."
"Back then, 'Channel 9' on the inflight entertainment system let you listen to air traffic control. That night as we approached Chicago, I was listening to Channel 9 when suddenly ATC told all the other planes to quiet down."
"Then they started calling over and over for another flight, American 4184, and asking the other planes if anyone else could see an ATR."
"This went on for a few minutes and then, CLICK, channel 9 was switched off. I felt a chill go down my spine."
"When I got to my hotel, I switched on CNN."
"Flight 4184 had gone down in a field in Indiana and everyone was dead."
- CohibaVancouver
Worthy of 'Final Destination'
"Just after takeoff from Ixtapa Mexico, we were climbing out over the ocean at about 1000 feet when I looked out my window. Headed directly at me about 500 feet away was a twin-engine Beechcraft (I think). I would guess it was three to four seconds from impact."
"Fortunately, the pilot of the aircraft saw us and pulled up sharply just in time, missing us by maybe 25 feet."
"My wife, who's deathly afraid of flying, asked me, 'What was that?' I said, 'Nothing,' and pretended nothing had happened until we were on the ground in the US, and then I told her."
"Without question, if that pilot had pulled up even a second or two later, everyone on board both planes would have been dead."
- lobeams
Fear of Flying
"As soon as the engines revved up for take-off, a woman started screaming like she was dying."
"The flight attendants couldn’t get up to go to her until the pilot rang the bell, about five to ten minutes. She was screaming the entire time."
"Turns out her daughter put her on the flight even though she was terrified of flying. An attendant held her hand the entire flight, walked her all the way to meet the other daughter, and told her to never put mom on an airplane ever again."
- zenos_dog
"Just so everyone knows, if you are afraid of flying, tell the stewards when getting on the plane."
"They will make sure you are checked in and will pay special attention to you to make it easier."
- DeezNeezuts
What Dreams Are Made Of
"Flying out of Chengdu China in the early 80s on an old Russian turboprop, It was a wicked snowstorm, and I thought there was no way we were taking off in that mess. Visibility was only a few hundred feet."
"I looked around in panic and I realized the guy sitting across the aisle from me was the spitting image of Buddy Holly. I recall thinking that if this guy pulled a guitar out of the overhead bin and started singing 'Peggy Sue,' we were all f**ked."
- WeekendDesigner4734
"Oh sweet, you're a Steven King character."
- moslof_flosom
Allergic to... Flying?
"This was in 2015 (luckily not during the pandemic as I probably would have been kicked off the flight). But suddenly I felt a tickle in my throat, so I started coughing."
"But I COULD NOT STOP COUGHING. No matter what I did, I could not get that tickle out. The people around me were understanding, but I decided to go to the back of the plane just to be courteous."
"The flight attendants gave me ice and that was the only thing that would give me any sort of relief."
"We finally landed. That night, I went to bed and woke up at 5:00 AM with a swollen shut eye, huge f**king lips, hives ALL over my body, and a tightness in my chest."
"Turns out I was having a severe allergic reaction to something I ate (?) at the airport or something on the plane. My throat was literally CLOSING on the plane. That’s why the ice was helping because it was bringing down the swelling."
"But here’s the weird f**king thing. I’ve never been allergic to anything in my life before OR since that incident. So it’s a huge freaking mystery. The hives also showed up in different places on my body each morning for two weeks after."
- TheReinsOfFullNight
Take Off Mysteries
"On a flight from San Francisco to Denver. The plane was loaded and it was time to take off, but we just sat at the gate. The pilot announced we would be leaving soon and that we were late taking off because they had to balance out the luggage."
"Finally around 30 minutes after we were supposed to take off, the plane backed out and went to the runway. Once again, we just sat on the tarmac, this time for another 30 minutes. The pilot got on the PA again and said we had to return to the gate because the plane was low on fuel from all the idling."
"Back at the gate, three armed law enforcement officers entered the plane and escorted a man off. After that, the pilot announced that we were finally ready to take off and that the previous wait was actually due to a security issue."
- TXRichardCranium
Unforgettable Turbulence
"Just (but didn’t feel like 'just' at the time) really bad turbulence; people’s purses hit the ceiling of the cabin and I think some people who weren’t belted in injured themselves too. People were screaming, praying, and crying (I was in that last category)."
"I wasn’t crazy about flying before, but that experience put me into phobia territory and I didn’t fly after that for probably about ten years, and still weigh it as a cost-to-benefit thing whenever I travel. It’s helped a bit to learn that turbulence isn’t really a thing that causes plane crashes, as far as I now understand, but it can feel very different in that moment to the illogical mind."
- bottleglitch
Oh, the Humanity
"On an airplane, but not technically a flight."
"Sitting at the end of the runway, the pilot was doing his pre-flight or something. There was a fireball in one of the engines. Passengers panicked, flight attendants popped the emergency doors, and the emergency slides deployed."
"It was mayhem; people knocking others down, crawling over the seats, lots of screaming. Several people were injured."
"Of those I saw, one man fell off the wing; I found out later he broke his arm and collarbone. Another fell off the middle of the slide. She went away holding her wrist, not sure of what happened. The guy in front of me on the slide tumbled face-first at the bottom of the slide, and got up with a bloodied face."
"Emergency slides are not fun. It's not like in the movies."
"The ironic thing was, there was no danger to the aircraft or passengers."
- chileheadd
Not a Question You Want to Hear
"The scariest thing was being asked by the guy on the other side of the plane if there was oil spraying out of the engine on my side, too."
- cablemonkey604
Happily Ever After
"We took off after a seven-hour delay. The plane climbed for a little bit and went into a pretty tight bank turn."
"The Captain came on and said there was smoke in the cabin, and we were going in for an emergency landing. As we were coming in, there were the fire trucks and emergency vehicles waiting for us."
"Long story short... it was a wiring harness for the coffee maker. They swapped it out without even having to deplane. We got free drinks for the rest of the flight."
- Bigkid6666
No Small Talk Welcome
"We barely had our butts in the seat and a woman turned to us and said, 'Are you two teachers?' as an icebreaker."
"We responded with 'no,' and then she said, well, she was a teacher, and she then proceeded to talk THE ENTIRE nine-hour flight about herself."
"My husband pretended to fall asleep within the hour, and I find it painfully hard to stop conversations with friendly people, so all I could do was listen to her ramble."
"Ugh, AND we were seated right beside the toilets which smelt of old pee."
- No-Lack4969
"That would be my personal h**l. Just let me read my book, lady."
- Ninyu
Chaos Ensues
"Captain here. Two hours in on an early flight, and the in-charge Flight Attendant advises us we have run out of coffee."
- scooterjay2013
A Strange Turn of Events
"I had a woman next to me on a 15-hour flight, with two kids under the age of five. She sat next to me with the kids on the aisle, and the first thing she did was apologize for what was to come."
"It was terrible, stuff constantly knocked onto the floor, a drink spilled on my leg... but that was just the woman herself."
"She soon swapped seats, and the kids just did normal kid stuff. They were not so bad at all, aside from the occasional accidental bump when they squirmed, while she continued to drop stuff on the floor: food, drink, phone, basically anything on her tray table was going to be on the floor sooner or later."
- FrightenedOfSpoons
"This weirdly sounds like something out of a rom-com."
"Her: 'I'm sorry for the trouble that will be caused.'"
"Him: 'I understand, kids will be kids.'"
"'No, I mean me, I'm a super klutz when flying.'"
"Strangers to Lovers. Annoyance softens to Endearment."
"Instant love story."
- saruhime
A Fuzzy Passenger
"Flying in a small eight-seater from the mainland to an island, a kitten got loose, climbed over the pilot's shoulder, and generally was frantic."
"That's the type of scene that disaster movies start with!"
- GSVNoFixedAbode
"Something similar happened on a flight. It was kind of funny, though, because the pilot got on the P.A. to ask whoever was missing a kitten to please come to retrieve it, in a very official, somewhat annoyed, pilot-ey voice. Pure comedy."
- ljuko
While some of these stories were amusing in the end, most of these were absolutely chilling, and it's no wonder that these Redditors don't enjoy flying or refuse to travel by airplane ever again.
It's pretty safe to say, honestly, that most of us would choose the same thing if we experienced something like this.
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