One time going into LAX with the weather right at minimums, the
airline shot three approaches - and missed all three! So then they
hauled us over to Palmdale and
sat for two hours. Wouldn't let anyone out of the plane "Because it's
a Military Base". Finally took off again and went back to LAX and
landed without problems.

That was the only missed approach I remember in many years of airline
travel. However, there was another occasion that probably should have
been a missed - and wasn't. I was flying from Greenland to Amsterdam,
Netherlands on a DC-6 (another story) - and they announced that we
would be stopping in Iceland for fuel. I fell asleep for awhile, then
woke up and looked out the window to see a big, rugged island going
by. I figured it must be Iceland - there isn't anything else out there
- and we were'nt landing! So on we went, and after quite some time
they announced that we were diverting to Brussels, as Amsterdam was
below minimums. We went on and on in the murk, and after a long while
I could tell we were descending. Down and down we went with zero
visibility. Then I saw the ground up close - and just like that
we were down. Good landing. We then taxiied for a long while in thick
fog before arriving at the Terminal. To our surprise, we were in
Amsterdam (as originally intended) and not Brussels! Nothing was said
after the "divert to Brussels" announcement - but I have no doubt
that, considering the skipped fuel stop, they had the choice of making
the landing or ditching in the North Sea.

Dave