Are You Nervous Flying? Michigan Man Shares His Terrifying Flight

Getting on an airplane always makes me nervous, and taking off is always the scariest for me, and from what I have heard from some pilots it is the most critical part of the flight.

Flying dozens of times in my life, most flights for me have been pretty painless.  If you have not guessed the man on the terrifying flight is me, and frankly, I am still pretty shaken by it.

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I was flying out of Detroit last week to Vegas to see my daughter with a stopover in my hometown Chicago.  I knew the weather was not good in Vegas with heavy rain and temps in the '40s.

About 35 minutes before the end of the flight the captain came on and asked all the flight attendants to sit and stay seated till we land.  I knew at that point we were in for a rough landing.

The Pilot Tried To Warn Us

He then told us there are high winds and unusually heavy rain in the Vegas area and that it is gonna be very bumpy and a rough ride.  At this point, my hands started to sweat and I can feel my heart racing.  I locked eyes with the gal next to me and we both had that look of, uh oh!

About a minute later the plane speeds up and the plane starts diving steeper than I have ever experienced. There was terrible turbulence, the 737-800 would fall for a few seconds, turn quite a bit sideways, and then catch again.

It was raining so hard that it looked like millions of steel marbles were flying by the plane. I was trying not to think about the mountains that surround Vegas.

After 20 minutes of this craziness, I finally see the lights on the ground.  At this point, I thought maybe we will make it. The flaps go down and I start to panic a bit less.

Then It Gets Even Worse

Then all of a sudden as we are about to land with the plane shaking side to side and still dipping,  I hear the engines start roaring, the flaps go back up and we take off again,  the engines were screeching as if to grab some lift.

The captain announced quickly there was heavy wind shear and we have to try it again, it was a missed approach. So we had to go through this all over again. The next 25 minutes were hell.

When we finally landed the plane which was completely full of folks, everyone started clapping and crying with joy that we made it.  God was for sure with us on that flight and I felt like I got a 2nd chance at life.

Flying Is The Safest Way To Travel

Getting on a plane statistically is the safest way to travel.  I know what they say when it's your time, it's your time, but what if it's the pilot's time?