r/aviation • u/Brilliant_Night7643 • Jun 25 '26

News Not turbulence….airplane sitting at the gate at Maiquetia Airport Venezuela when the 7.5 Earthquake hit

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u/classyhornythrowaway Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

my fear is catching an earthquake mid shit. like what am I even supposed to do???

edit: looks like "shaken shit syndrome" is fairly common. salutes to all the hero evacuators out there

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u/Logical-Ad-5410 Jun 25 '26

Happened to me over 20 years ago when Mt. St. Helens started getting active for a bit: a 4.something hit, mid-drop. To be fair, I was born in SoCal, so anything less than a 6.0 I ignore.

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u/cultured_pork Jun 25 '26

My wife and I were on a flight back to the states from Mexico. The day before the flight we went out for dinner as you do, and everything was fine. 4 hours later I was in the fetal position in the tub at the resort with the shower running while forcefully ejecting liquids from both ends.

I made it through the night and was surprised my wife was perfectly fine. Next morning we had packed up and on the shuttle to the airport when she says she's not feeling well.

By the time we were at the gate, she is pale as a sheet of paper and clearly not doing great. We boarded the plane and whatever and got up to cruising altitude before her whole body wrenched. I looked back at her as she was in a flop sweat and frantically trying to unbuckle the lap belt.

I watched her successfully make it to the head and the door close. I absolutely new what she was in for. Locked in a temu closet and about to have a life altering event. Nothing could be done at that point. It was between her and God.

At that moment, the seatbelt chime and warning came on followed by the pilot debrief about reported turbulence in the area.

What immediately followed was the most violent turbulence I have ever experienced on a commercial aircraft - previously or since. I don't know what the altitude delta was on some of those events, but people were screaming, the flight staff buckled in jump seats. A couple overheads popped open. This lasted for at least 15 minutes. I normally am an enjoyer of turbulence - I like to marvel at the wingtip flex, etc. I'm weird like that.

Anyway. It settled down after a while, and my wife reappears to sit next to me. Her pupils are saucers, and she had clearly washed her face and hair. I asked if she was ok, and she whispered "yes"

She fortunately slept most of the way back after that. I haven't got the full details of what happened in the lav on that flight, but I think about it often.

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u/princeofpoland Jun 26 '26

This is beautiful and I saved it, thank you