This happened to us many years ago. It was so bad that when I asked my husband should I buy a watch from the gift trolley his reply was "Buy all the b----y watches, we won't live to pay the credit card" But we survived and although the next flight we took made us very nervous we got over it. I am a widow now and fly on my own quite happily.Time is a great help, a cliche but true.

We had the same sort of experience on an Easyjet flight back from Majorca 9 years ago. There were so many empty seats people were even asked to move in order to balance the plane. We spent the whole flight seatbelted, couldn't go to the toilet, no bar service etc. People around us were actually praying- it was so frightening. However it didn't put me off flying again, as I'd flown many times before with no problems. Of course there was some apprehension, but the next flight passed without incident & so far so good.

Years ago flying from rimini to glasgow

The plane took of in a thunder storm, and while in the air we hit an airpocket, the plane dropped 10,000ft according to captain

I brought up all of my food

One thing to think though when getting on a plane now is how when all that stuff above was going on, being thrown about the place etc, the plane made it through. So now when you hit some turbulance hopefully you'll think it is quite normal and the plane can cope!
A couple of years ago coming back from mahorca we hit bad turbulance and I got very worried but I looked over to the flight attendants and they were just carrying on as normal as though nothing was happening so I relaxed a bit!

Usually Im reassured by cabin crew but the the cabin crew were told to sit down and they didn't look to happy and one was constantly in contact with the captain

You are right though, I doubt we will hit as bad turbulance again so anything else now I know the plane will cope!

I think once Im up in the air again I will be fine

We were in a really bad flight once, thunder and lightning, turbulance, plane shaking, the works, I'm sure the plane was struck by lightning

It did make me nervous for the next couple of flights but I'm fine now.

@ kedi

The sky was really pretty as it was all purple and you could see the bolts. The cabin crew told everyone to open the blinds on the window....as soon as they sat down we closed them again, and so did most people and it was making us feel even worse lol

I've never been a good flyer, I used to get a window seat and sit there with a baby blanket over my head with the earphones blasting my favourite music into my ears, I didn't want anything to eat/drink or talk to anybody, every "normal" sound the aircraft made, would make me jump out of my skin.
Quite a few years ago now, we went to Alicante on a 767 plane and everything was fine until we started to descend and went straight into a humdigger of a storm.

Two smaller planes due to land before us were diverted to Ibiza, but the captain decided to circle above the storm until it passed, as we had plenty of fuel left.
Jaysus, I thought I was going to die, my life and all the things I should have said and done flashed before me.
When we attempted to land, we got feet from the landing strip and it was raining so hard that the pilot lost sight of the runway lights, so whoosh, up we went again, it felt like being on the big dipper in Blackpool pleasure beach ...people were crying and being sick.

Then we circle for what seemed like a lifetime and the pilot was in contact with someone on the ground in Alicante Airport about the weather conditions down there, so, he said something like " we'll see if we can make it this time" Make it ? I was absolutely terrified, I dug my fingers into my poor hubby's hand hard enough to draw blood.
The experience screwed me up for years and whilst I still don't like flying, I seem to have trained my mind not to think about anything, no noises, nothing, and I always think "if I can survive that experience, I can survive another one", although I do NOT want another one, and time is a big healer.

Sanji

A few years ago we were on our way back from Lanzarote flying in to East Midlands..there was a horrible storm and it was very windy, you could feel the plane being dragged around. We would see the wings bending while the Captain was trying to fly the plane. He aborted the landing attempt and we went back up to have another go...he made it at the second attempt in pretty much the same conditions. The plane landed at an angle and you could have heard a pin drop as the wheels hit the runway. Even as he was trying to stop the plane, you cold feel us being buffeted about.
Eventualy, we made it to a stop and the captains voice was heard saying "welcome to Alton Towers, we hope you enjoyed your ride." before apologising for the somewhat bumpy landing.

I worked as cabin crew with XL for 2 years and got quite used to turbulance. Quite oddly, since i've given up being cabin crew i've gained a bit of a fear of flying!
I've been in really bad turbulance before and if you're not sitting down your feet can come off the floor and you can go up in the air, which is why some of you would have seen crew sitting down and strapped in during bad turbulance. But the more you fly the more you get used to it!

hi, i was never really scared of flying as a child, but i dont think you are as children? they dont seem to fear much. but after a few yrs of not flying and due to go on my first hol abroad without parents, just me and my boyfriend i was reallygetting quite nervous about it, all was fine and we continued to go on holiday yearly sometimes twice a yr and got to enjoy flying again. then not last jan but jan before we were going to egypt the longest flight wed took so far, the flight itself was fine but when we came to land the pilot had to abort the landing but we wernt told why untill after. alls we new was that the plane a few feet from the ground started shooting back up into the sky quite steeply and there was lots of turbalance and it was at night too, seemed to make it seem a bit more scary.

it felt like we were waiting for ages when the pilot came on and said he was gving us a tour around the bay as there was another plane on the runway! we soon landed safley but with a bit of a bump, but i was so so scared i really thought it could be the end. i was a compleate bag of nerves on the flight home, it was smooth but i was so terified i ended up having a few beers and a couple of dizipams that id had from a previous flight when i used to be nervous then.

come the summer we went on hol again to majorca with family, i was quite nervous about theflight but new it was only a short flight and thought that i had to do it to get over it or eles i feared i may be too scared to fly again, anyway we had good flights there and back, execpt a bit of turbalance on the way back and the plane actually jolted at one point, but i was ok and didnt have any diazipams lol (due to the fact id lost them! but still) but i did have a few drinks to calm me a little which worked quite well and i was glad to land and be back on the ground, but id managed the flight without any hysterics lol.

so yes i think it can be done, it is nerve wracking but i think after a few calm flights youl be able to feel more relaxed about it again and if we didnt try to get over these things wed never go anywhere would we! ill more than likley be nervous next time we go on hol abroad, i think lots of people are but if we want the nice holidays we have to try to get over it or deal with it best we can really.

Coming back from a trip to Florida a couple of years ago we were virtually on the ground when the plane shot straight back up at full throttle. The silence in the cabin was absolutely complete (which didn't help my nerves). Eventually the co-pilot came on the intercom, apologised and said there was another plane on the runway so we had had to abort our landing. We circled for a few minutes before coming into land, only to stop short at the end of the runway. Once again the co-pilot came on the intercom; this time with the announcement that smoke had been seen coming off the wing on the left side of the plane and whilst they thought it was nothing we would have to wait to have it checked. It was nothing, but I couldn't get off the plane quick enough. Since then we have flown twice to Australia and I don't particularly enjoy the experience.

I think at some time or other all of us will experience turbulence in our lives.

Twice for us. Once flying back from Benidorm and more recently in 2008 on our flight back from Sanford. We boarded the plane at the tail end of a hurricane that had been there whilst we holidayed. We sat on the runway for at least forty five minutes in the hopes that the lashing rain would calm.....................but it didnt so the decision was made to take off We did and boy was it scary. We had to stay sea belted for 35 minutes after take off and the turbulence was not at all nice Whilst us four adults were probably white faced, thankfully the five kids found it amusing

It certainly had not and did not put me off from flying as I am sure that no doubt we shall encounter it again, and until we do i am not worrying. We flew to Majorca fine last year and we are due to go to Benidorm again in May and I am not at all bothered about getting on the plane

A few years back we hit an airpocket and went down a few thousand feet. Although I got a fright at the time I thought no more of it when booking my next flights. Well, I was petrified all the way through the flight. I had had umpteen flights before the bad one and never panicked so I knew I shouldn't be panicking now. Someone recommended Bachs Rescue Remedy and I gave that a go on one flight and I was fine. Not sure if it actually helped or if it was just the psychology. Have to say though that I am no longer comfortable when there is bad turbulance- but I don't panic.

When an aircraft flies through turbulence it does not drop "thousands of feet". Variation in altitude is measured in tens of feet. In a lifetime the average flier would be unlikely to encounter severe turbulence more than once or twice.

Im booked to go away twice this summer so Im going to have to get over it fast lol I wasn't terrified on the flight in December, just a little jumpy and kept asking...what's that noise.... which for me is strange as I have never been scared to fly before.

Thanks for all the stories

makes me feel alot better!

One thing to think about is the plane you're on probably does at least 2 trips every single day!!! So if you times that by how many planes fly around the world(not literally) every single day and then divide it by how many plane crashes there are each year you'll see that you're more likely to get hit by a bus! Plus even some of those that come down can land in a river and all the passengers can get off!