Two weeks ago, I experienced my first ever emergency landing. And I didn't even know until we landed.
The flight was proceeding normally, despite the snowstorm that had just started in Denver. The captain announced that we would be landing in Denver fifteen minutes. Denver has six runways, so there is hardly ever any delay in landing. However, five minutes later, the captain turned off Channel 9, so we could no longer hear the air traffic control communications. Ten minutes later, some of us realized that we were circling the airport. About fifteen minutes later, we did indeed land. However, after landing, the plane stopped, and we were greeted by emergency vehicles. Finally, the captain got on the intercom to let us know that we had just had an emergency landing. Apparently the front steering was out, and they had to land the plane using the rear breaks to steer. How nice of them to tell us! The captain then told us that since we had no steering, we couldn't drive to the gate. Instead, we had to wait for a "super tug" to come and tow us in. Forty five minutes later, we finally made it to the gate. While we were waiting for them to pull the jet bridge to the plane, I was talking to the purser who told me this was her first emergency landing in twenty two years. Meanwhile, a rather rude guy who was sitting next to me interjects, asking why United can't be on-time like Southwest. It was all I could do not to laugh at the guy; Southwest is fairly notorious for having late flights, especially when the flight is later in the day. However, given the snowstorm, I decided to let the guy know that I had checked flights on my phone just a few minutes prior, and guess what! Most of the canceled flights were Southwest flights. That shut him up in a hurry!