Marks & Spencer turbulence
I think it was 2003. Me and the missus had enjoyed a lovely road-trip style holiday around California / Nevada / Arizona visiting national parks and cities nefore flying home from LA.

Driving about 500 miles a day is fun but tiring and I'd done it for almost two weeks, so was understandably tired. The plane was delayed 'gone tech.' is the phrase, I believe. Once boarded, we were duly informed that there would be no in-flight entertainment for our 12 hour journey. About 7 minutes after reaching cruising speed, I fell asleep and stayed that way until we passed over Ireland.

Fortunately for me, I'd slept throough the spot of turbulence we'd encountered mid-atlantic.

According to my wife (and verified by the pallid and perspiring faces of the other passengers) this hadn't been just 'Little bit wobbly, makes your tummy turn' type turbulence. It was 'Watch how far the wing tips can bend, lift-you-off-your-seat, flight attendants buckled in and shitting themselves' type turbulence.

My dear wife went to great lengths after we disembarked, to relay to me her annoyance at the American woman on her other side frantically screaming "OH MY GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!"

Fucking traumatic indeed. It being the North Atlantic, there wasn't even the possibility that we may crash land and be stranded on a mysterious tropical island inhabited by strange magnetic forces and fantasy polar bears to find that our lives had unknowingly been previously interwoven.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Fri 30 May 2008, 16:10, Reply)