First Time on a Plane: Where Did You Go?

[hallelujah]

I think a couple years ago. Over the water,…..ANA smoke in the cabin (there were some frightened passengers), emergency landing south of Tokyo. Overnight and then another flight/plane into BKK.

Thank fuck you were close enough to dry land when that happened.

[hallelujah]

on a local flight

That's scary enough already in Indonesia.

[Backspin]

First time on a plane ? Abbotsford to Chilliwack and back

[hallelujah]

Did the pilot want to throw you out of the window after about 60 seconds in your company?

[Saint Willy]

That's scary enough already in Indonesia.

Indeed.

Sriwijaya or Batik Air or Manado. One of those types, not becaues I was skint, but the better airlines just didn't bother with those minor routes.

[HuangLao]

About 6 years old.
Saigon to Udon.
C-130 transport [with escort]

[russellsimpson]

First time on a plane ? Abbotsford to Chilliwack and back

There's only thirty miles between them. How long was the flight, ten minutes?

[tomcat]

What about your worst time on a plane?

...on an EgyptAir flight (1977) from Cairo to Kano, Nigeria: the pilot accidentally (I assume) raised the plane's braking flaps mid-flight causing the craft to suddenly drop like a stone until he corrected his action: no apology, no explanation...plenty of Allah-this and Allah-that from soiled passengers...

...on a PanAm flight from JFK to London, the turbulence was particularly bad. A number of passengers (probably drunk) continued to flop around the aisles despite pleas from the flight attendants to strap in. One harried attendant managed to reach the intercom and shout: "If you want to die, that's your business, but think of others whose bodies your flying corpse might hit! Sit down and strap in!"...

[tomcat]

C-130 transport [with escort]

...you were allowed to bring your escort?...

[russellsimpson]

Evening flight out of Bangkok (the old airport) heading for Kolkata.

On board, around sixty already lubricated Sikhs all sporting a huge orange plastic garbage bag on their head, myself and perhaps four others. They were a noisy lot and after ordering a drink or two they were becoming downright rowdy. Soon the cabin crew had lost effective control of the passenger compartment, the Sikhs were yelling for more booze, and the hostesses had withdrawn towards the captains quarters closed the curtains and turned down the lights. I swear I heard one of the mob screaming "I'll crash the plane, I'll crash the plane" It turned out to be a very very long flight to Kolkata.

I guess the nature of that particular flight was that it was rowdy as there were no police to meet us on arrival.

[Saint Willy]

On board, around sixty already lubricated Sikhs all sporting a huge orange plastic garbage bag on their head, myself and perhaps four others. They were a noisy lot and after ordering a drink or two they were becoming downright rowdy.

Sikhs do not drink alcohol.

[KWAN]

First flight circa 1960. London to Paris. Coach/Air. Flying from Lyd/Lympne (?) Airport in Kent. Landing in Beauvais - then coach into Paris. One week B&B on the Left Bank. All together change out of 15 Quid.

[Joe 90]

Aeroflot flight from Zambia to Angola to Moscow. All non Africans upgraded to business class and the party of all parties started. Everyone getting pissed and smoking, someone playing a guitar. The trollied dollys getting onit.
A magical flight.

[Mandaloopy]

Norwich to Amsterdam when I would have been 5. First solo flight with no parents London-Houston-Anchorage when I was 16.

[russellsimpson]

Sikhs do not drink alcohol.

That's interesting KW because I had wondered why I was running into Sikhs in Bengal.

However, Sikhs are some of the biggest boozers I've known (as far as your alcohol comment is concerned)..

They were certainly dressed like Punjabi's.

Still, a very unrelaxing flight.

[Headworx]

What about your worst time on a plane?

On a 747 somewhere between Singapore and Manila, so long ago that smoking was allowed and I was sitting in the very back row. They'd just served a meal when we hit turbulence and the plane littererally dropped out of the sky, I've never experienced a feeling anything like that even on theme park rides like roller-coasters. By pure luck I had my seatbelt on, unlike pretty much everyone else onboard, and from the back row I watched a sea of people in front get launched upwards with many hitting the roof of the plane. We dropped for a few seconds before abruptly levelling out and the screaming stopped but by then quite a few people were hurt and the plane looked like a tornado had passed through it with all the meal service items strewn around, there was coffee dripping off the roof! Once it was all over people were bleeding everywhere and moaning in pain asking for help, many were crying, the smell of vomit was strong, and others dropped to their knees in the aisles to pray. Got to Manila where it took hours to disembark as medical staff took hurt passengers off first, and there were a lot of them.

Never seen anything like that since and don't want to, have never sat in an airline seat without my seatbelt on either.

[tomcat]

have never sat in an airline seat without my seatbelt on either

...nor have I...loosely buckled...

[reinvented]

they bloody do
some cracking Sikh pubs

[Headworx]

...nor have I...loosely buckled...

Exactly. For take-off and landing I adjust it tightly but for in-flight, just tight enough to know it would keep me planted if we ever dropped out of the sky again.

[Troy]

I've never had what is considered a bad experience when flying on a civil airline. A couple of bumpy rides during the monsoon season but that's about it.

My wife did have a bad experience flying Thai Airways, Udon to Bangkok, during the monsoon season. The plane hit clear air turbulence and dropped a couple of thousand feet. The trolley girls ended up lying on the floor and there were several injuries on board.

The worst experience I've had was sitting on a Virgin Flight at LAX waiting for an engine fault to be fixed. It was Christmas eve and we had to sit on board for 4-5 hours before they declared the plane U/S.

[Lantern]

Very first flight, 1984 flying out of Heathrow going to Australia, with no intention of ever going back. Due to dock strike, got off in Bombay, went to Goa (Anjuna Beach) for a month, when dock workers returned to work flew out of Bombay and headed to Brisbane.

[OhOh]

You were already married by the time you took your first flight?

I was looking to move jobs. At the time there were rolling blackouts due to Arthur Scargill's coal miners/government battles. Not as bad as today's lockdowns, just different parts of the city being blacked out

I saw a 3 line add in the Telegraph, travelled an interview in a London hotel, was offered a good package and went back to see my then girlfriend. She wanted to come along with me. I suggested it would be easier if we were married. Both being UK citizens we would be granted, landed immigrant status, as I had a job offer.

A discussing with her family was positive, a quick marriage, and we left a drizzling Manchester. A large box of things went by sea, a couple of suitcases, the dog in its crate in the hold and a few hundred pounds in our pockets. We had a great life in Alberta.

5 years latter, after us being "interviewed" and getting most of the questions correct. One I failed was, "What is Prince Edward Island famous for"? I had no idea. I was informed the acceptable answer was, "Potatoes". I did know who was head of state, the name of the PM and the type of government.

We received, at an organized event and after singing en masse "Oh Canada", our colourful certificates and credit card sized non-chipped citizenship cards.

We had great lives in a great province, Alberta. Hot summers, frigid winter, Saturday night ice hockey, city and rural route living, prairies to the east, Rocky Mountains to the west, swimming in lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean, winter skiing, hot spring relaxation under star-studded night skies ....

After that any time anyone suggested, "We'd like you to go to .... here's the deal". I said, "Sure, when, how long for ...." ?

Third wife, four kids later and Thailand is my resting place now. Still having great lives.

What about you?

[OhOh]

He also said he was in Canada first, from China then the UK

Find a fairy, you need counselling

[cyrille]

Sikhs do not drink alcohol.

There are at least three different strands of Sikhism - in at least one of them alcohol is not prohibited.

There is no shortage of Sikhs who are very fond of a drop - many communities in the UK include some very keen boozers.

[pickel]

What about you?

A small Cessna for a couple hours when I was about 10.

Or were you asking for my life story?