“The woman sleeping next to me started to convulse, and she began vomiting all over my right arm and lap. All I could do was reach up and hit the call attendant button. After 30 seconds she woke up with no recollection of what happened, and it had never happened before.

They relocated the woman and I excused myself to clean up.” – reddit

“On a three hour flight I was sat between two obese women who were a mother and her grown daughter. They kept talking over me and I asked if one of them wanted to switch with me and they laughed, “oh no! We are fine! Mom wants the window and I like the aisle.” So I had to just sit there between them awkwardly with my arms crossed (they both claimed the armrests) while they talked over me.” – reddit

“Having to fly back home from across the country cause of the pops falling into cardiac arrest and not expected to make it. I had one phone call with my mother explaining the situation and that’s all I heard from anyone. I was pt on a plane home with the thought that my dad had passed at some point during the flight. Being on a 8+ hour plane trip with the thought of not seeing your father ever again and every painful emotion racing through while being in the air with a plane full of strangers was one of the worst moments of my life. Hope I never experience anything like that ever again.

But will add once I hit the ground, was told that my father had woke and was making progress against the odds. Glad to this day I still have him.” – reddit

“Was flying back to the upper Midwest from Jamaica (fairly long flight) and hit a big storm over the ocean before hitting the mainland. My buddy was sitting next to me and had just gotten back from the bathroom and we hit some major turbulence and didn’t have his seat belt on when the plane dropped a good 20 or 30ft. It was like a full free fall moment out of the movies, everybody’s drinks and all, and he flew up and hit the ceiling and then came back down. Meanwhile a lady that was part of the one of those Jesus trips, like the groups all wearing the same t shirts, in the row next to us starts hyperventilating and screaming that she doesn’t want to die over and over. She also straight up shit her pants. Turbulence eventually went away but the smell of her shit lasted the remaining 3 hours of the flight.” – reddit

“Peed myself cuz the seatbelt sign wouldn’t turn off.” – reddit

“Riding a C-130 out of Baghdad for the short hop to Kuwait for mid-tour leave. We go hell-bent for leather down the run-way, and two engines conk the fuck out and we skid to a halt.

“Gawd, glayd that didn’t happen whilst we was in the a-yer” announces the North Carolina Air Guard tabbaco-chewing crewchief.” – reddit

“Flying search and rescue for a buddy’s plane that went down.” – reddit

“Was doing one of my required 5 jumps in airborne school in the army. It was a combat jump so we had our weapon and gear strapped to our harnesses which made it difficult to cinch up the harness properly. Later when we were on the plane, we had to circle the drop zone because of some ranger candidates ahead of us. During that time I got the worst motion sickness I’ve ever experienced. I was sweating profusely and fighting the urge to vomit with everything I had. We finally got to jump and when my parachute caught me, it fully cinched up on my balls. All hell broke loose and I vomited all the way to the ground. Still had to gather my parachute and run to the rendezvous point.” – reddit

“Business class was overbooked so I volunteered to move back to economy class in an aisle seat by the bathroom. I got a two for one deal for doing so.

While sitting in my new seat, right before taxiing, a kid and his mom came hauling ass toward the bathroom. Right before the kid gets to the bathroom, he projectile vomits in my lap.

I cleaned my clothes the best I could, but I smelled like puke the entire way back home.” – reddit

“On a flight to Chicago to visit family, caught the flu. Shortly thereafter my immune system got overzealous and attacked my pancreas’ insulin-producing cells, leaving me with type 1 diabetes.” – reddit

“Arrived for a Jetblue flight from NY to Arizona due to to leave at 5pm to go to a close friends wedding. Flight ends up being cancelled and no other flights were being offered to get there before the wedding the following day. I decide to buy a ticket with Delta leaving at 930 and deal with Jetblue later. They board us and we head out for the runway. Pilot announces that our flight is being delayed for take off and we’ll be moving soon. So i close my eyes while we wait only to wake up and discover we’ve been waiting for an hour and a half now. Shortly after, pilot announces were being recalled back because were not leaving anytime soon. At this point its midnight and no sign of leaving. Around 1245 the pilot says were finally leaving and head out to the runway again. Again the plane is told to hold and wait, and we wait out there again for 30 mins before were told the flight is cancelled. Its now 2am and everyone on the flight is on line to speak to the desk staff. They tell me the only flight they can book me to get me there before the wedding involved me going to Phillidelphia, transfering to another flight to Georgia from there, and then ANOTHER transfer at Georgia to Arizona. I gave up and went home.” – reddit

“I think I was about 7 as it was right after I’d started flying between parents for visiting. I was sitting next to this older kid when the plane started rumbling. I didn’t exactly know what turbulence was so I asked the kid. “Oh yeah, we’re going down,” he said. I was like… Bitch what. And he goes “Yeah I’ve done it a couple times, only a few die everytime so you have nothing to worry about.” Amazingly I didn’t start crying, but the dipshit was actively trying to scare a 7 year old girl travelling alone.” – reddit

“You know how certain passengers are forced to buy a second seat? You know how sometimes do to issues of improper hygeine or excessive inebraition some passengers are prohibited from boarding?

I was seated next to a woman who manged to evade all of these restrictions. She was drunk, unwashed and overflowing her seat and occupying most of mine. Through the duration of of the flight she sweat, spilled, drooled, sneezed and coughed all over me. By the end of it I was covered with a strangers bodily fluids and about three rum and cokes. It was horrible. It was also a fully booked flights, moving was not an option (I checked).

I should also add, my television was inoperable fort he duration of the 5 hour flight as the ample girth of my neighbor had enveloped the controls and my feeble attempts to access them were met with drunken aggression. Needless to say, at the end of it. I tossed my favourite hoodie in jean in the bin of an airport washroom as they were fully soiled by my neighbour. I changed into some dirty shorts from my luggage and ventured out into the Candian winter to brave my journey back home.” – reddit

“Throwing up on 25-30% of my flights from motion sickness. I’ve been on 60 flights so far this year.” – reddit

“I was about 11 or 12 and we were on our way back from a trip. There’s this cute little 2 or 3 year old sitting behind me so I start playing with him and his mom asked him “do you want to share your apple with her?” So this little shit threw this fucking apple at full speed right directly into my eye and gave me a semi-black eye for a few days and the remainder of the trip was so awkward between him and I. I hope his baby strength disintegrated as the years went by. Not really a “horrible” plane experience but definitely I haven’t forgotten.” – reddit

“I once flew into Indianapolis. Good lord.” – reddit

“I was traveling to Europe June of 2009 shortly after the French plane from Brazil crashed, Air France flight 447. We were exactly over the same place it crashed and there was the most INSANE amount of turbulence due to a storm.

Whatever idea you have in your head, multiply that by at least 100. It was so bad that me, my mom and my sister and the rest of the plane were crying, some more than others. Everyone knew what happened to the French plane not even a few days before. My mom was making a prayer for us–my mom, 14 year old me and 8 year old sister had to accept death.

There was this Norwegian lady who was knocked the fuck out and woke up an hour later when it was not as bad. When she woke up she was hysterical, everyone told her this was much better than what we faced an hour ago.

I seriously hate turbulence on plane rides.” – reddit

“Layover in Charlotte and my flight gets delayed. No worries I’ll just have a few drinks and watch Thursday night football. Now I’m a smoker. There is nowhere to smoke inside of security. I drink a little and think to myself “I could really use a cigarette” but check the time and decide against it. Head back to my gate only to see our flight was delayed an additional hour and a half. Sold. I walk out, smoke my cigarillo and start heading back through security. The TSA agent sees me THE ONLY PERSON GOING THROUGH SECURITY and holds up his hand telling me to stop. He then closes the gate and says “it’ll open back up at 4 AM” I try to plead my case and he just says he doesn’t know what to tell me. And then leaves. Dumbfounded that I was just thrown into this situation I stood there in awe that he would shut the gate in my face like that. I turn around and ask the police officer if there were any gates open. Nope that was it. Missed my flight that wasn’t going to take off for another hour. Got a hotel and am now about to head back to the airport to catch another ride.” – reddit

“Flew from NYC to Sydney, which was already 18 hours on a plane in coach. The woman behind me had a two year old that she insisted on setting on top of my head every time they would get up or sit down. I get it, lady. Flying with kids is the worst. Just please stop dropping your rugrat on my head every ten minutes.” – reddit

“Was flying back to the states from Japan. The flight in itself was already a really long one. My family and I were seated at the very back of the plane, couldn’t get any more back than that as far as seats went. Anyways, halfway through the 9-10 hour flight, a couple rows ahead of us we just hear this poor woman frantically screaming in another language, I believe it was Mandarin or something along those lines. I looked up and saw her constantly screaming something, it must have been name or a cry for help. I believe it was her husband, he was unconscious and wasn’t responding.

The flight attendants came by, and they even managed to find a doctor who was on the plane. They dragged his body toward the back of the plane and found he didn’t even have a pulse and were applying CPR to him literally right next to my sister who was sitting on the other side right of me. They constantly tried but nothing worked. He died from heart failure, and according to the people with the gentleman, he had many health issues. After they stopped, the flight attendants asked my family and I if we could move seats. They had to wrap the body up in blankets and move him somewhere until we landed. They planned on putting him in one of the bathrooms and sealing it off for the remainder of the flight, but their regulations didn’t seem to allow that. So instead, we moved and took the seats of the family of the deceased. They ended up buckling him into my seat, and I ended up sitting where he sat.

So for the remainder of the flight, there I was sitting in the seat of a man who just passed away. While his body was buckled into the seat I was previously in. It was a really strange feeling, it wasn’t comforting at all. Because of our positioning, turning the plane around wouldn’t have mattered. We were hours from any land that could offer medical help, It’s frightening to be in a situation where no potent help will come. I hope the family found some peace.”

– reddit

“Getting stuck on the tarmac for five hours in Bahrain.” – reddit

“Hung over off peppermint schnapps on a little commuter turboprop seated right next to the engine, too nauseous to have eaten even before the turbulence started. It was 5 years before I could stand the smell of a candy cane again.” – reddit

“On a commercial flight, the pilot tried to land three times but couldn’t because of turbulence, so we had to head south to the nearest airport.” – reddit

“Coming back to the States from Korea, second leg from Japan to Texas. I had a bad stomach flu and i puked into a large garbage bag. I am 6’8″ and 340. When I throw up, I wretch LOUDLY. Multiple times. The poor Japanese people around me were trying to move as far as they can. My wife was sitting behind me and wouldn’t take the bag so I could fill a new one.” – reddit

“I was on the maiden flight for Israeli Airlines and the pilot was feeling frisky and was doing all sorts of crazy aerial maneuvers in the sky. Felt like riding a rollercoaster most of the flight.” – reddit

”

I was on a 8-10 hour plane ride, there was a kid behind me who would not stop kicking my seat, even after; His mother, my mother, and I asked him to stop. And the kid also was singing the lego movie theme song on and off for 3 ish hours.

I hate that lego movie song now.” – reddit

“My worst, but more importantly, my friend’s worst. We were flying EWR to DEN for a ski trip this year, ate steamed pork dumplings in the airport after work for 8pm flight. My meal was fine, but my friend started getting ill before we even boarded. The next 4 hours were his personal food poisoning hell, he filled our entire row of sick bags and bags donated from several neighbors. Spent at least 1.5 hr in the toilet. Was bad.” – reddit

“Flying from Shanghai to Chengdu on an old Airbus plane. Dude in front of me puts his seat back…only it goes WAY back to the point that I had to put my snack box on top of his seat. I’m 6’3 and was pinched in the seat for the duration. And the guy in front couldn’t have been more than 5’2″.

Bonus. Guy next to me picked his nose and put it on the seat in front of him. Multiple times.

Safety tip: the cost difference of a biz class seat in China is negligible. That was my first foray into central china and the last time I flew coach there.” – reddit

“Pilot told us to pray during an emergency landing. 0/10 would not recommend feeling. Used to love flying now I am terribly afraid of it.” – reddit

“Sat right behind first class, the woman next to me complained and griped the entire flight (2 hrs) that first class had food/cookies and that she wanted some, she then continued to do so as well disembarked. She also was talking rather loudly at one point while we were taxiing on her phone segueing with who I could only assume was her daughter.” – reddit

“The Russian guy sitting next to me on an international flight. He got bombed on little bottles of Skyy vodka and passed out with his head facing my direction. He breathed pickled sour vodka breath on me all the way across the Atlantic. Seven hours into the flight it was leeching out of his pores and he stank like stale alcohol. Most miserable flight of my life.” – Reddit

“Tough call. Either my emergency landing in Paris where I swore I was going to die (and accepted death quite quickly) or the time I had a fever and passed out for 8 hours straight. That also felt like death and happened to be a flight out of Paris.” – Reddit

“Seat recliner in front of me, chair kicker behind me, and two rather large men on either side. All the way from Dubai to Manila.” – reddit

“Dad’s a pilot. We were coming into Sydney airport when he called me up to the cockpit to tell me that the landing gear light wasn’t coming on. That meant maybe the gear was down, but the light was broken or maybe it was not fully down. He said he’d make two more attempts then wind it by hand, and if neither of those things worked we would have to ditch into the ocean. It was very, very nerve wracking. Eventually (I think, I was quite young) we had the light come on and ATC confirmed our gear was down so we landed without a hitch.” – reddit