>>1612957I had a similar experience flying from Spitsbergen to Andøya with a layover in Tromsø back in winter 2015. We took off in the first major storm of that winter. I'm talking white-out Arctic blizzard. I couldn't believe it but whatever, what do I know? Anyway, from the moment we took off until reached Tromsø the turbulence was outrageous. I've never experienced anything like it. Not only were we dropping through the air but we were being buffeted from side to side massively. It felt like being in a bumper car, shunted left and right, up and down. I would have been thrown from my seat if I'd taken the belt off. Because it was winter it was dark outside but I remember on the descent seeing lights from buildings on the mountains and feeling like one big drop or shunt would have us smashing straight into a cliff. I fervently remember thinking that that was that; I'm actually going to die. I was sweating like a pig and gripping the arm rests. After what felt like an eternity we finally touched down in Tromsø. The worst part was that the storm was still raging and, whilst the first leg was in a 737, we still had to fly to Andøya in a tiny, twin prop, tin can of a plane. At one point on this leg of the journey the pilot announced "don't be alarmed at the noise you're about to hear. Ice is forming on the propellors so we're going to accelerate to try and detach the ice. You'll probably hear it hitting against the cabin".
It was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life and I've had regular plane crash nightmares ever since.
