Decompression Event in an airliner

[From_the_NEK]

Has anyone else had the pleasure of experiencing one of these?

Long version of the story:
Saturday the 25th of February my family and I (wife and two kids 4 and 7) were travelling to Orlando to go to the most magical place on Earth.
The United flight from Burlington, VT to Newark, NJ on a small commuter jet went fine. The weather when we left Burlington was 70 degrees. We landed in a hot Newark, NJ a little over an hour later. We traversed the airport to our next flight and made it to the gate with plenty of time to grab some food and drinks before boarding our connecting flight to Orlando. Boarding went smoothly but I was keeping an eye on the weather. A strong cold front was rapidly approaching that contained strong thunderstorms and winds. We pulled back from the gate and then the captain came on to inform us that due to the storms, all departing flights were grounded until the weather cleared. They gave us free movies and we sat on the tarmac for over about an hour and a half before they brought us back to the gate a deplaned everyone. 20 minutes later they put us back on. Of course the family (Scandinavians) that were sitting behind us apparently decided they didn't need to stay near the gate . They arrived back on the plane literally sweating about 20 minutes after everyone else was seated. The kids were getting super antsy about getting to Disney at this point.

And now the fun really begins...

We took off in our 737 from Newark, NJ bound for Orlando. Everything seemed fine and we reached cruising altitude around 35,000. Shortly after, as I was watching a movie, I noticed that the nose of the plane dropped and we seemed to be going into a sharp decent. I quickly flipped stations to the flight tracker screen. By the time I got there I saw that we had already dropped below 30,000 and we were dropping quick. At about 25,000' kids started screaming as they couldn't adjust pressure in their ears fast enough. Then the flight tracker screen went blank (along with all of the other screens of people still watching their movies). Then the oxygen masks dropped. I put mine on first as they instruct you to do then turned to my 4 year old that was sitting next to me. He was screaming and pulling at his ears. My stupid mask kept sliding off as I tried to keep the mask on my 4 year old. He kept pushing it off as he was totally focused on the pain in his ears.
A couple minutes later I feel the plane level off and the captain comes on and explains that the plane had experienced a pressure leak issue and that the plane had safely descended to a survivable altitude under 15,000'. We could now take off the masks. We continued to fly for another 15 minutes or so before landing at Washington-Dulles to a greeting of flashing lights of the airport's fire-safety crew.
We deplaned, and United graciously put us up in a hotel for the night. Of course by the time we got to the hotel we were only there for 4 hours before we had to return to the airport early the next morning to get on our new plane.

TL/DR
Decompression while flying sucks, especially for kids. I don't want to do that again and I'm not sure if my wife will ever want to fly again.

[babybear]

I was on a plane about 3 yrs ago - smaller aircraft on a flt from ATL to Burlington. We were about half way thru the flt and the stewardess was coming around for drinks when my ears kept popping for like 30 seconds-at that point the flt attendant was at my row and just as I am asking her if she is feeling pressure problems, the masks all pop down and by that point everyone's ears were in pain.

The pilot came on and said they did not know why we lost pressure and we had to breath thru the masks until they down to like 10 or 15k feet as we turned around and flew back to atlanta.
Then they deplaned us and gave us some chips and soda and put us back on another flt

The flight attendant said we were the calmest group she's ever seen
We were calm but mostly bc I was quietly feeling like I might not be on the earth much longer- or rather I would be splattered on the earth

[iceman]

Well I'm writing this on an airplane so I'll keep you posted if there's any excitement.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Prepare for hilarity involving baggage claim, a lit match head, and some poor bastard's ear.

.

[Dantheman]

Well, that sounds fucking horrifying.

[The SnowShow]

Geez, on a 787 Dreamliner? I thought flying those was perfection?

[BmillsSkier]

Man that sounds fucking terrifying. I feel awful for you kids (and you of course) that had to be a nightmare for them.

[Art Shirk]

No, and that sounds gnarly. I like to travel but hate flying. That's borne out of a general dislike of people and having to be jammed into an industrial sized pringles can going 500 knots at 35,000 feet above the earth with these people. It doesnt help that the damn bar has to approach me rather than the other way around. Anyway, I think I can take newfound pleasure in commercial airline travel after my flights a few weeks ago up to Tofino. I was crammed in an 8 seater built during the Eisenhower administration. The kid who "checked me in" (gave me a laminated post-it note that said "boarding pass") at the "terminal" (cubicle in a Vancouver airport terminal that even the airport shuttle driver wasn't ware of), also took me to the plane and then hopped into the pilot seat. He (and not they, as I'm pretty sure he's the booking agent too) sold the copilots seat to a traveler but made sure to tell her that "I would appreciate it if you didnt touch any of the controls during the flight." It was a bumpy ride over the mountains and the only thing between me and freefall was a poorly maintained cheftain and the few brain cells this kid didn't destroy the night before while at a kegger. Small flights are probably old hat for many, but it wasn't my favorite. I expected pitching up and down, but I've never felt crosswinds like that.

[Svengali]

[Timberridge]

In addition to coughing passengers and stale air (compressed and uncompressed) at 40,000 ft you are exposed to 50x the radiation levels compared to sea level.

[evdog]

In addition to coughing passengers and stale air (compressed and uncompressed) at 40,000 ft you are exposed to 50x the radiation levels compared to sea level.

Shouldn't that kill the germs?

[DJSapp]

Not a decompression, but Mrs. DJSapp, my MIL, and 6 month old daughter had the pleasure of being on a Jetblue flight in 2010 that landed with the parking brake still engaged. Tires exploded, fire, and friction burns on the Mrs. arms from going down the emergency slide.

Worst part was they gave all passengers a free ticket anywhere Jetblue went that was good for 18 months, but I couldn't talk the Mrs. into getting back on an airplane in time to use it to go to Costa Rica. She still gets crazy stressed on landing. Good luck with your family's scars on this one.

[oldblue]

A strong cold front was rapidly approaching that contained strong thunderstorms and winds. We pulled back from the gate and then the captain came on to inform us that due to the storms, all departing flights were grounded until the weather cleared.

Happened to by flying through that area during those storms...flight attendant gets on the mic and says, "The turbulence you are feeling right now, well that's nothing compared to what's coming up in a couple of minutes". Yeah, that was a fun ride.

[From_the_NEK]

Geez, on a 787 Dreamliner? I thought flying those was perfection?

Oops sorry. Supposed to be 737. But it was a pretty new one with the fancy double winglets on the end of the wings.

[BmillsSkier]

Not a decompression, but Mrs. DJSapp, my MIL, and 6 month old daughter had the pleasure of being on a Jetblue flight in 2010 that landed with the parking brake still engaged. Tires exploded, fire, and friction burns on the Mrs. arms from going down the emergency slide.

Worst part was they gave all passengers a free ticket anywhere Jetblue went that was good for 18 months, but I couldn't talk the Mrs. into getting back on an airplane in time to use it to go to Costa Rica. She still gets crazy stressed on landing. Good luck with your family's scars on this one.

Must not have seen the indicator light.





Seriously though, that sucks for your family.

[From_the_NEK]

Happened to by flying through that area during those storms...flight attendant gets on the mic and says, "The turbulence you are feeling right now, well that's nothing compared to what's coming up in a couple of minutes". Yeah, that was a fun ride.

The flight out of Burlington was actually really rough until we cleared 10,000 ft or so. There were really strong low level winds that caused the small Embraer commuter jet to bounce quite a bit creating several pretty strong roller coaster like up and down G-forces. My wife wasn't real thrilled with that either by my kids thought it was fun .

[LightRanger]

I can imagine what that would've been like myself (annoying, maybe uncomfortable, but ultimately shit happens), but as a dad of little kids too, ugh. That would suck.

[riser4]

No decompression. But I have been on a flight from BTV to ORD that included lots of freefall. Weightlessness is pretty awesome. Good thing I was higher than a kite. Everybody else in the passenger cabin, including the flight attendants thought we were all going to die that day. Landing in O'Hare took three tries. Hand in your sharp objects and eyeglasses, take the pillow and assume the crash position because now we are out of fuel. I did not know it was possible for a 727 to hop sideways due to crosswinds when it is trying to land and not just roll over and explode. Fortunately that was before I had kids or had even met my wife. They love the story, would have not loved the flight.

[hutash]

No, and that sounds gnarly. I like to travel but hate flying. That's borne out of a general dislike of people and having to be jammed into an industrial sized pringles can going 500 knots at 35,000 feet above the earth with these people. It doesnt help that the damn bar has to approach me rather than the other way around. Anyway, I think I can take newfound pleasure in commercial airline travel after my flights a few weeks ago up to Tofino. I was crammed in an 8 seater built during the Eisenhower administration. The kid who "checked me in" (gave me a laminated post-it note that said "boarding pass") at the "terminal" (cubicle in a Vancouver airport terminal that even the airport shuttle driver wasn't ware of), also took me to the plane and then hopped into the pilot seat. He (and not they, as I'm pretty sure he's the booking agent too) sold the copilots seat to a traveler but made sure to tell her that "I would appreciate it if you didnt touch any of the controls during the flight." It was a bumpy ride over the mountains and the only thing between me and freefall was a poorly maintained cheftain and the few brain cells this kid didn't destroy the night before while at a kegger. Small flights are probably old hat for many, but it wasn't my favorite. I expected pitching up and down, but I've never felt crosswinds like that.

Sounds like typical flights in Africa. Landing on dirt strips, making sure there are no warthog on the field, bouncing around on every thermal, which of course there are lots of in Africa. On one flight one of the passengers was notorious for getting air sick, so the pilot put her in the right hand seat and told just don't touch anything. We didn't even have post it notes for boarding passes, (just tell the pilot your name, and if your name was on his list you got on the plane) or flight schedules. We just took off or landed a strips depending on who was on the manifest that day. We ended up taking off and landing at several different strips, one of which was actually paved before finally getting to where we were supposed to go.

That said, it was great fun, but not for those who don't like flying.

[seano732]

Well, that sounds fucking horrifying.

This. I am your classic white-knuckle flyer, and if anything like that happened I'd have shit myself....Several years ago, coming into land at STL in a thunderstorm, we apparently came in too close to the plane in front of us....The pilot hit the brakes so fucking hard the chick next to me slammed her face into the seat back in front of us.....Then, the pilot apparently decided he didn't have the room to stop, so he opened the throttles all the way up, and took off again. We basically did a touch and go, in a rainstorm, with another plane full of people directly in front and (eventually) below us. Circled the airport twice and then landed. Ive never been so happy to be on the ground as I was after that. Walked straight to a bar and knocked back two stiff ones... I could go my whole life w/o that ever happening again.....

[Mazderati]

I'd have squeezed dents into the armrest.

[dtown]

Weightlessness is pretty awesome.

I have a buddy that does lots of science experiments for work on the zero G flights, he says it's pretty awesome.

[liv2ski]

No decompression. But I have been on a flight from BTV to ORD that included lots of freefall. Weightlessness is pretty awesome. Good thing I was higher than a kite. Everybody else in the passenger cabin, including the flight attendants thought we were all going to die that day. Landing in O'Hare took three tries. Hand in your sharp objects and eyeglasses, take the pillow and assume the crash position because now we are out of fuel. I did not know it was possible for a 727 to hop sideways due to crosswinds when it is trying to land and not just roll over and explode. Fortunately that was before I had kids or had even met my wife. They love the story, would have not loved the flight.

Had a similar flight from Atl to LA. Big ass storm and we had to fly right through it. Looking out the window I swear the wings were flexing up and down close to 20 feet at the tips. I love to fly but that flight had me a little worried.

[iceman]

We had a little episode a couple years ago, we're in a small plane approaching the landing strip, there's a Forest Service chopper approaching the strip from the other direction, our pilot gets him on the radio and says, wtf are you doing, get out of the way. Chopper pilot says sorry, I'll bear left and get out of the way, But instead he goes right, and right at us. Our pilot yanked us out of the way in a steep bank/roll and we missed the guy by about 50 feet, then banks back and puts the plane on the ground and we all sit there shaking for a minute, including the pilot. Dude saved our lives for sure.

[adrenalated]

Moral of this thread: pilots are BAMFs.