1) Bomb scare en route from SLC to CVG. Plane made an emergency landing (in Kansas City I think, but I can't find any link to confirm which airport we landed at). I made it onto CNN as they interviewed the guy next to me while we were in a holding / detention room while they searched our airplane. It resulted in about a 4-5 hour delay.

2) Felt sick with the flu. Decided to alter my normal travel routine and eliminate the leg that I usually took from Cincinnati to Detroit on Thursday night. I'd get the same meal at the same restaurant on Thursday night. The next day I'd meet with clients, have lunch and fly back home to SLC on Friday afternoon. This is the flight that I usually would've been on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comair_Flight_3272

Everyone died.

Runner up 1:
Flew into Pittsburgh, arriving late evening. Drove up I-79 to Eerie, PA. This was prior to cell phones. Hadn't been to Eerie before, and the winter fog was thick. I was worried that I missed my exit in the fog, so I took the next exit, stopped by a gas station to ask for directions. Got to my hotel and checked in about 25 minutes later. Turned on the late news only to see breaking news of a robbery-homicide at the gas station I had just stopped at.

Runner up 2:
Flying into SLC (October, I think). Beautiful, calm weather. Chilly but blue skies and sunny. Just a few feet off the runway, the plane suddenly lurched steeply upwards and to the right, with the engines screaming. I wondered if we were going to hit the control tower as we headed west towards Kennecott's smelting plant. We climbed rapidly, then leveled off and dropped rather quickly, nose down towards I-80. Thankfully, we leveled off, then climbed again, circled around and lined up for another landing attempt. The pilot announced that another plane had made an excursion onto our runway and that he'd had to take emergency measures to avoid a collision. He apologized for not saying anything earlier but he had been busy trying to avoid other incoming aircraft on approach to the airport.

Runner up 3: Wife and I were coming back from Switzerland. Arrived at the airport about 4 hours early. We both watched a crew of 4-5 mechanics arguing and jabbing their fingers at the exposed engine (cowling and covers off). They scratched their heads while staring at the engine, argued and excitedly pointed their fingers at various locations - for over 2 hours. We decided that maybe flying together wasn't such a great idea with small children still at home.

Unfortunately, I have several more stories, ranging from failed brakes, to twice landing on runways lined with emergency vehicles with lights flashing. Other stories include dumping 50,000 pounds of fuel as we turned around after two hours of flight during an overseas journey due to engine problems and didn't want to land too heavy and tear off the wings. Other stories are about losing an engine during flight and dropping several hundred feet. Or about trying to land at Sault Ste. Marie during a snow storm, only to pull up again and circle around and try again, and again. Or flying around *massive* thunderstorms, or flying around an active volcano to avoid scouring the engines with pumice. Or having to go out a few hundred miles to avoid the radiation from a newly blown up building at Fukushima on my way into Asia.

No, I'm not a pilot.