5 ms·

My story: Years ago, I was on a flight where it started getting bumpy. Seat belt sign comes on. It starts getting worse. The crew starts preparing for landing.

My story: Years ago, I was on a flight where it started getting bumpy. Seat belt sign comes on. It starts getting worse. The crew starts preparing for landing. It gets worse. Captain announces: "Flight attendants sit down now!" That's never a good sign. It gets worse. We attempt to land, but apparently we hit very high wind sheer at 1000 feet, and they go full throttle and abort the landing. We wind up bouncing around in a holding pattern in the worst turbulence of my life for about 20 minutes waiting for another chance to land. Eventually, they decide it had gotten enough better to try again. We successfully land although it is very very bumpy. Captain announces, "I need a beer."

WalterBright 9y ago
My dad was flying a DC-3 in the southwest one day, clear sky, no trouble expected. Suddenly, the plane started shaking violently. All he could do was reduce the airspeed to the minimum (to reduce the stress on the airframe) and hold on. He radioed in to report the turbulence so other traffic could avoid it. After he landed, the plane was inspected and found that the wings had pulled rivets out.
snowwrestler 9y ago
Trying to land during a thunderstorm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we had two bumpy go-arounds like that. Then the pilot said something like "well folks I'm sorry but we need top up a bit before giving this another try." The plane then flew directly across Lake Michigan to Chicago Midway, made a hard left turn in sight of the runway, and about 30 seconds later we were on the ground. Not your normal approach pattern! ATC must have cleared the other planes out for us. Maybe our pilot declared an emergency, I don't know. We stretched our legs for about half an hour in the terminal while they fueled the plane, then headed back to Grand Rapids. By that time the storm had moved on and we landed in smooth clear air.
- t0mas88 9y ago
  Getting to less than 45 minutes fuel on an IFR flight plan (all airliners) is an automatic full on emergency. Usually you request urgency from ATC before that so you can land with just over 45 min (+ whatever is needed for taxiing) of fuel available to avoid having to use emergency procedures and a lot of paperwork. So probably that's what your pilot did as well. Two go-arounds and then flying to the alternate airport would usually get you very close to the 45 minute final reserve on normal fuel planning.

WalterBright 9y ago

My dad was flying a DC-3 in the southwest one day, clear sky, no trouble expected. Suddenly, the plane started shaking violently. All he could do was reduce the airspeed to the minimum (to reduce the stress on the airframe) and hold on. He radioed in to report the turbulence so other traffic could avoid it. After he landed, the plane was inspected and found that the wings had pulled rivets out.

snowwrestler 9y ago

Trying to land during a thunderstorm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we had two bumpy go-arounds like that. Then the pilot said something like "well folks I'm sorry but we need top up a bit before giving this another try." The plane then flew directly across Lake Michigan to Chicago Midway, made a hard left turn in sight of the runway, and about 30 seconds later we were on the ground. Not your normal approach pattern! ATC must have cleared the other planes out for us. Maybe our pilot declared an emergency, I don't know. We stretched our legs for about half an hour in the terminal while they fueled the plane, then headed back to Grand Rapids. By that time the storm had moved on and we landed in smooth clear air.

t0mas88 9y ago
Getting to less than 45 minutes fuel on an IFR flight plan (all airliners) is an automatic full on emergency. Usually you request urgency from ATC before that so you can land with just over 45 min (+ whatever is needed for taxiing) of fuel available to avoid having to use emergency procedures and a lot of paperwork. So probably that's what your pilot did as well. Two go-arounds and then flying to the alternate airport would usually get you very close to the 45 minute final reserve on normal fuel planning.