Airport Horror Story
I was wondering if anybody cared to share their Airport Horror story 
Mine is the following:
I was moving with mom from Argentina to Italy, we were very short on money so we took the cheapest flight (this was 1994) Aeroflot, (russian airlines, for those lucky enough to have never travelled with them ). They told us that it would have quite a few stops, but we didn’t mind.
Our journey begun on the 6 of June, we departed on time from Ezeiza (Argentina) quite late at night, our first lay over was Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) for 2 or 3 Hours; we arrived at 4 in the morning so the airport was closed all we had was warm water to drink and we were confined to a small area of the Airport. Might I add ad this point, that I had pointed out to the air hostess that there was no water in the bathroom (she assured me it was coming…?!) When time came to get back on the plane we got onto the bus, when the door closed there was a terrible stench (we couldn’t make out what it was) once on the plane, the smell persisted, and it was even stronger, everybody started looking at these young Brazilian guys that had borded, the smell came from them!
They seemed completely oblivious, people started getting very agitated, the smell was unbearable, after a few minutes Airport police came on board and started checking papers…long story short, we where taken down, made to recognize our luggage, after almos 3 hour delay, we found out that they were carrying drugs and they had rubbed something disgusting on them to cover the smell from the dogs.
We finally left, towards the Salt Island (small islands of the coast of West Africa), we again departed late…this leg was completely uneventful.
We Arrived to Algiers (at which point the bathrooms were disgusting!!!!!) it was very early 6 or something, the first thing we did was run to the bathrooms…to discover they didn’t have available bathrooms for women! We then proceeded to hijack the mens, which was unacceptable to Algerian sensibility, they eventually gave us a latrine to use.
Apparently at tha point there were very many Russians working in Algeria, so when the plane departed quite a few of them got on, to my amusemente, I discovered there wasno seating for them, so the stood or sat in the passage way the full 6 or 7 hours to Moscow (about a dozen of them) .
We finally arrived to Moscow, with almost 8 or 9 hour delay, we were locks (padlock, huge chain and all) in a small section of the Airport, the soldiers were looking at us through the glass doors, like monkeys in a zoo. By this point you had people in rages over their lost coonections etc. Finally we got onto the plane to our final destination, Rome, we got there without major hickups.
We landed in Fumicino, 60hs later, the 9 of June!
My ears were forever spoiled, pressure has become a bit of an issue!
So, this is my horror story. :D What’s yours?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:46 am
Wow some crazy stuff~
I think the worst I’ve ever had was when we got laid over in Hong Kong on our way back to Shanghai. Anyways there was typhoon in Hong Kong, a plane had crashlanded and the entire airport was shut down. So we all had to spend the night at the airport.
Unfortunately we had chosen China Eastern Airlines. They didn’t arrange any overnight accomodations for their passengers so everyone pretty much had to take care of themselves. My mom wanted to save money (and really there is no point in spending lots of money for a one-night stay at an expensive airport hotel) so we just lounged in the waiting area. It was cold, we had no blankets but for some reason we were given these plastic covers? I forgot what it was really, all I remembered was I was sleeping under clear plastic bags (it did help the cold from seeping into my skin though) and spent the night at Hong Kong International Airport.
Not as horrifying as yours but still unbelievable nevertheless.
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March 31st, 2008 at 6:12 am
Hmmm, I don’t think I have a story to match that one. One of my worst ones was when I got a flight from NY to Buenos Aires, but to get to NY I got a second flight (unrelated), which got delayed, so I missed the other one.
Aerolineas Argentinas was under no obligation to reschedule or anything, but out of pity they let me fly on the next flight–24 hours later! I decided not to leave the airport and go into the city, and spent a rather interesting 24 hours.
Two events made for a really good travel story. The first was that some guy traveling to Dominican Republic found out I spoke Spanish, so he talked nonstop for like two hours, until his flight was scheduled to leave (at around 2 a.m., by which time I was reaaaally tired). And prior to leaving, he asked me to marry him. HA!
The second was even funnier to me. Early in the morning, I went to the bathroom, lugging all my stuff, because I didn’t want to leave it outside. I was SO darned tired, that I put my suitcase beside me and used my other bag as a pillow and just laid down for a little while. And I promptly fell asleep. I awoke to the sound of a male voice asking if anyone else was in the bathroom… it was a security guard, checking up on me. I guess someone had notified them and they wanted to make sure I wasn’t sick or drugged or something like that. =)
I’ve had a few other flight delay/cancellation experiences, as well as one in which I couldn’t locate my passport after getting my tickets, going through security and at least another check-in point. I returned home and processed a new passport within a couple of days, only to find the old one precisely where I knew it should have been all along. =)
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March 31st, 2008 at 6:14 am
Was this in 1999? I just posted a reply to this thread mentioning “losing” a passport… and this was precisely when Typhoon York went through Hong Kong and a plane crashed in the landing.
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March 31st, 2008 at 10:51 am
WOW lol, that’s crazy!
“they were carrying drugs and they had rubbed something disgusting on them to cover the smell from the dogs.”
WHAT WAS IT?? I need to know… for educational purposes..
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April 1st, 2008 at 1:09 am
I sure hope nobody was at T5 in Heathrow!
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April 5th, 2008 at 8:21 am
I’ve heard a story about Aeroflot involving seats not being bolted down, but nothing quite like that.
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