Worst airport and plane.

[markm]

Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

 

Tupelov 154 (Balkan Holidays). The worst of russian technology at its best!!!!!

[Chard]

Simferopol in the old Soviet Union on Aeroflot

 

It was a Tupolev copy of a Boeing 737 (can't remember the number) :unsure:

 

It had rivited patches on the fuselage, most of the interior lights didn't work, the passengers were all Russian peasants and I swear there were no cabin crew on it :)

 

I was flying from Simferopol to Moscow and I had to get pi$$ed to get on board. The flight was like a roller-coaster. When the pilot decided to lose height coming in to land, we just dropped about 15,000 feet, like a brick, no arseing about coming down steadily :o :o :o :(

[Mungler]

Many many years ago I flew from Stansted to Tenerife for a couple of weeks holiday.

 

The return flight was delayed 24 hours and we were on and off at least 3 different planes - each one failing to take off for a variety of reasons.

 

Finally, Airtours subbed out some Spanish airline to take us back - the problem was the only landing slot according to air traffic control was for Exeter airport.

 

We as passengers threatened all manner of stuff - from a sit in to violence. Airtours deployed a battle axe rep who basically said that we could either get on the plane and go to Exeter and then be bussed back to Stansted or that would be it and they would wash their hands - it would then be down to us individually to get flights home and then do our worst in the Courts.

 

.....anyways, the bus journey back to Stansted from Exeter took over 5 hours.

 

Don't ever mention Airtours in my company.

[Dunkield]

Tripoli to Benghazi 1996 ish - Boeing 727 that hadn't been serviced for 10 years, and flown by 'pilots' who did one flight a month so they didn't get rusty.

As walked up the stairs at the rear you could see the oil dripping out of the thing :unsure:

It was still safer than driving . .

[JohnGalway]

Flying home on Air France from Budapest to Dublin via Paris. Got a vicious pain in my head, like being stabbed in the eye with a sharp pencil, on decent into Charles De Gaulle. Off the plane, started looking for a doctor (should've stayed on and made it the crews problem, live and learn). First guy I run into wearing the Air France uniform, I ask him. I get the "talk to the hand" gesture "I'm too busy to deal with you". Parisian hospitality at it's best. Wander around for a while and decide to head to the check in desk for my second leg. I ask there, they say they'll page someone. I'd be waiting in it yet So off I go again and after an AGE I eventually find a doctors office almost buried underneath the airport. Turns out to be a sinus infection (I got the flu in Budapest) and I get a few prescriptions that cost me all of 13Euro something (gotta love France, would be 130Euro here). So doc says to me I shouldn't fly for at least a day :unsure: and after that pain in the head I tend to agree. Time to find a hotel. Now the thing is this, it's a couple of days after New Years, an awful lot of people are travelling and there's been a huge snowstorm which has delayed and cancelled an awful lot of flights... You can see this bit coming can't you? Yep they've lost my bags :( After describing my belongings at the lost baggage counter (again terribly well hidden place), I get a little Air France airport survival pack and head off in search of a room for the night. There are a few hotel desks in the airport so I ask there, no, no, no, no, no, and no... The entire city is booked up never mind the airport hotels. That is until I find one guy who says he can get me a single room in Paris. Great! I'll take it, how much? 370Euros.... You can keep it.... I'd only 400Euro left and didn't know how much a flight home would cost the next day. Well since I'm stuck here I might as well have a look around, see if there's anything interesting happening. I take the shuttle around the terminals and see the Concorde :o Lovely plane but tiny beside the others. Decide then to find somewhere, anywhere to sleep. Find a nice comfy cold metal bench.... Did I mention the minus temperatures? Wake up shivering the next morning. Off to the toilets. KA-BOOOOOoooooommmmmmmmmmm! What the ****?! A load of soldiers and police are walking in my direction. There's been a controlled explosion on a suspicious bag, nice wake up call! No warning or nothing. Seriously consider taking the TGV to the nearest port and hoping on a ferry for any friendly home port Get talked out of the idea over the phone by my sister as she reckons I'd be 47 by the time I'd get home that way. Time for a wander around to the airline desks. Air France open late so I check out all the other flights, not too bad but I'll wait. Air Frnace eventually opens and I get the next available flight out of Dodge, sorry, Paris. Boarding time comes, I'm doped up to the eyeballs on double doses of every meds I was given And after a flight stuck in the middle seat beside a very sweaty fella and a woman who never stopped talking we eventually come into Dublin. Never in my life was I so happy to be home :o

 

I'd do it all again tomorrow :o

[Baldrick]

Any Crab Air flight from RAF Brize Norton makes Air India/Aeroflot looks like reliable luxury.

[Dunkield]

We flew back from Beruit years (many many) ago on an MEA Comet, and it hit one of those air pockets and dropped about 100 feet vertically.

This was about the time when Comet's had just started to fall out of the sky - very nasty experience.

 

If you talk to anyone who has been fishing in Russia, and has been on one of those helicopters, they will be able to trump any horror story, especially the journalist from Trout and Salmon who was posing in front of the crashed chopper in the magazine article :unsure:

[berettaman1]

any flying is unerving but the worst trip me and the wife had was with Delta it was up and down all over the place and the inflight grub was not very appetising, B A for us next time.

[jcbruno]

my dad flew on a old dc10 out of havana Cuba going to Elsavador he told me the pilot was intoxicated he thought he was going to die, my worst incident was with Air Canada when they lost my luggage it finnally showed up 1 week later :unsure: