Air travel can be stressful not only for the passengers but for the crew as well. There’s a thread on Reddit where flight attendants and commercial pilots share all the obnoxious behaviors people have exhibited on board their plane. And they’re not just talking about suitcases! From leaving little children unsupervised to maintaining personal hygiene, there are plenty of things that shouldn’t happen at 35,000 feet but, unfortunately, still do. Luckily, these professionals are trained to handle even the most chaotic situations.
#1
There was a story a while back of how on British Airways a white woman was very dissatisfied sitting next to a black man in economy class. She [complaned] to the flight attendants about it and so after a while they came back to her saying “we can upgrade to first class”. She gets up to go, but they stop her, telling her that no, the first class seat is for him.
Image source: CrouxR, DC_Studio
#2
Just a passenger here. I was flying Ryan air from Berlin to London. When the steward (he wasn’t a good looking man at all, relevant) started giving the safety instructions a couple of guys who were part of a large group of friends in their early twenties started mocking him by making monkey and pig noises.
He tried more than once to very nicely tell them to listen to his instructions as they might save their lives, but they continued to mock him. He threatened to get them kick off the flight and they continued to mock. He went to the front of the plane and the pilot pulled back to the gate and they were still mocking. They opened the door and three German police officers come in and arrested the two guys for endangering other passengers by not allowing the safety instructions to go ahead, at which point the entire plane (excluding their friends) started clapping and cheering.
Image source: dmo7
#3
I have a story about people and their rude, obnoxious behavior.
I was in X-ray school at the time and my teacher and I were flying back from an annual conference that our national professional society hosts annually.
I was flying home from Las Vegas (2nd time flying in a commercial plane) and a women two rows behind me started having a seizure. No one seemed to care and her husband was completely clueless as how to help. My teacher was quick to jump out of her seat and called me to help. We attempted to life all of about 300 pounds of her and get her to where she was laying on her side in the isle. No one helped. Everyone just stared. I understand why people don’t want to help or can’t help. Totally cool with that. Some people are afraid of the situation, afraid of being sued, or just afraid in general.
What really got me is when we landed, the pilot asked everyone to remained seated until the emts got her and her husband off first, no one listened. They tried getting off the plane before she had been strapped to the back board and didn’t [care]. As my teacher and I were helping the emt’s to tell people to remain seated a man gets up and yells at my teacher. We were floored. Call me naive, but I was shocked at the lack of empathy these people had.
Image source: georgettesinclair
#4
My mom was a pilot for Northwest Airlines.
She was a woman captain, and a man comes on her airplane. He takes one look at her and says “Ugh, a woman captain. I’m getting off.” She replied, “Good, get off my airplane. There are people waiting on the standby list to get on.” The guy turned right around and got back on. We guessed he wanted her to submit and ask him nicely to come back. She told me “[hell] no.”
Image source: ChaseOP, wirestock
#5
I fly seaplanes for a living, and when we get tourists a regular question is, “When will you fly real airplanes?”
As opposed to the fake one you’re trusting your life to now?
Image source: stygarfield, Alec Douglas
#6
Had a woman freak out on a flight attendant because the cookies she was serving had cranberries in them. Apparently she was on blood thinners and couldn’t eat them. We serve a number of other options. Some people just like to complain I guess. As a pilot I try and avoid dealing with the cargo.
Image source: canadian_climber, Conor Brown
#7
Girlfriend’s a flight attendant and this is my favorite story of hers.
She had just started flying internationally and a woman in coach had decided to spread out in the middle three seats as no one was sitting in them. The last passenger was a man who was supposed to sit in one of those seats. The woman refused to get up, having sprawled out with blankets to sleep on the flight. My girlfriend tried to explain to the woman that the man had purchased one of the seats she was using. Woman didn’t care, simply refused to get up and said the man could sit somewhere else.
The guy was very cool throughout this, kind of giving a shrug to my girlfriend like, “Well, now what do we do?”
My girlfriend got the ISM (International Service Manager or Purser, as they used to be called), basically the head flight attendant and the person responsible for everything aft of the cockpit. She walked back and asked the woman to please move. Again, the woman refused, saying the man could sit somewhere else.
The ISM turned to the man and said, “Actually, she right. We have a couple of seats in first class and we’d be happy to upgrade you free of charge. Are these your only bags?”
The woman’s face was apparently priceless and she started to stutter out a protest, but by that time the three of them were already working their way to the front of the plane.
Image source: monkeyleavings
#8
A friend of mine was a flight attendant who told me that a guy called the air hostess and very politely asked if the pilot could shut off one of the jet engines so his son could sleep peacefully.
Image source: Anaslexy, John McArthur
#9
Had a 20ish year old girl going to see her SO. She needed to shave so she did so in the bathroom, turbulence pursued and she cut herself really bad. Had to bring paramedics in and they carried her out. After unloaded, the FO noticed the trail of blood down the jetway.
Edit1: FO = first officer or co pilot. Unfortunately she did not cut her leg… It was her special lady area.
Image source: NexusEvo, Tara Winstead
#10
I once witnessed a woman lay her toddler on the aisle and proceed to change his diaper. This was during boarding. I was gobsmacked.
Image source: anon, Paul Hanaoka
#11
Not a flight attendant, but was coming from Vegas to LA and some little twit in back of me started painting or nails or removing her nail polish. I didn’t know who it was at first and was like, it smells like acid in here, then realized it was nail product. The air wasn’t filtering and the whole plane could smell it. The flight attentant came over and told her to put it away because it was toxic. The girl then said, just let me finish my last two nails. The attendant was in disbelief and ordered her to put it away. Then announed on the microphone that the smell was from some passenger who insited on doing her nails in the plane and took a little poke at her.
I guess this was expected from a little LA princess…
Image source: sir_drink_alot
#12
Not a flight attendant but my father worked for an airline for over 30 years and shared this story with me based on one of his colleagues’ experiences. On a flight from JFK to Heathrow post 9/11, while the plane was about 4th or 5th in line for take-off an American lady demanded to be let off the plane. The attendant naturally refused since the doors were closed and they were almost at the runway. The lady went nuts and called 911 from her cellphone and said she was an American citizen being held against her will on a foreign airline and they were about to take off and she was going to be taken to another country. In about 3-4 minutes police and FBI vans surrounded the plane, pulled her out and grounded the flight pending further investigation. In the end she was just a nutjob who ruined everyone’s flight.
TLDR: crazy american lady calls 911 before take off, says she is being kidnapped, feds surround plane, flight gets canceled.
#13
After completing my passenger brief, they would often ask me where my name/accent was from. On no less than a dozen occasions, upon hearing that I am of Turkish heritage, would ask “You’re not going to fly us into any buildings, are you?”
Commenting on my youth: “Are you REALLY old enough to fly this thing?”
After telling a passenger to put away a phone or put on a seatbelt: “Who are YOU to tell me what to do?.” or “Would you tell your father to do that?”
They would also bargain with me about the rules or tried to argue that so and so rule that I was required to enforce had no basis in reality.
Passengers, don’t insult your pilot or flight crew immediately before they’re about to take you someplace.
Image source: Turkstache
#14
Tl;dr: monkeys, alien invaders, important meetings in the Atlantic, and Tarzan.
My mother was a flight attendant for TWA since the 1960’s so she saw a lot of stuff that people could never get away with now. For example, she once had a schizophrenic man urgently call for a flight attendant because he was claiming to be receiving messages from the aliens that they were going to intercept the plane. He could not be calmed and demanded to talk to the pilot. My mother heard the commotion, ran to first class and grabbed a silver salad bowl. She then proceeded to put it in his head and tell him it would protect him from the alien messages, so they couldn’t track the plane. He spent the rest of the flight with it on his head.
Another good one was when a man, about 5’2, wearing a tweed suit, round glasses came onto the plane, and strapped his bag into the seat next to him. My mother informed him that he had to put the bag in storage, and he very politely showed her that he had a ticket for it. He comes back later, and in place of the bag, is a dead stuffed monkey that the man is carrying on a conversation with. He politely asked my mom for a banana, to which he then attempts to feed to the monkey. Goes on like this the whole trip, and then packs the monkey up at the end of the flight.
Last short one. My mom went to the front of the plane to find a man trying to open the door. She stops him in time, and asks what the man was doing, to which he replied ” I’m going to be late for my meeting, I have to get off now.” To which my mom replied, ” but sir, we are over the Atlantic.” He then proceeds to argue with her, until my mom says, ” Oh sir, they’ve moved your meeting to the coat closet ( which they had in older days), he thanks her for the update, and sits in the closet for the rest of the flight.
She definitely had her fair share of weirdos. If people want more, I can tell the story about the man who fondled an old lady, because he thought he was Tarzan.
**Edit/Update:**
Yes, these stories are quite real, I didn’t be
lieve some of them, until she showed me a copy of one of the flight logs she had where FA’s were required to note any points of interest during a flight. I will give her a call tonight to see if she can find/scan/email one of the reports over for proof.
As for my mom being good at dealing with the crazy people, she has always been person who is very out of the box thinker. Her view on the world is unlike anyone I’ve ever met, and she is a truly remarkable woman. She’s just a creative lady who likes to do crazy things, so she gets people who are *actually* crazy.
Okay the Tarzan story.
On one flight there was this man who about an hour into the flight started making these grunting sounds every 2-3 minutes. The flight attendants continually asked him to stop, but he wouldn’t let up and was getting more and more disruptive vocally and physically, so they decided to move him to a section of the plane that had some empty seats to separate him from the other passengers. As they stood him up, he seemed to zone out. My mother was the flight attendant who lead him back, and using her charm she tried to figure out why he was acting the way he was. Suddenly, he snapped back to reality looked her directly in the eyes and said something to the extent of “I’m Tarzan, tarzan need jungle, tarzan need drums!,” after which he lunged at the heavier set ~60yr lady in front of him, grabbed her breasts and started bouncing them up and down. Took 3 flight attendants to get him off of her, and they restrained him to an empty row while they turned around the plane to land back at JFK (they had been over the atlantic). My mom, being known for handling uncomfortable situations well, volunteered to take the watch over him. He then proceeded to explain how he was using this flight to get to the moon, so he could get the green cheese that his jungle friends loved so much.
I’ll ask her if she has any other good ones that I’ve forgotten, but those are definitely the 4 best she has encountered after 25 years of flying.
Image source: Barefoot__Wanderer
#15
I am not a pilot, but my dad is. One of his best stories, while not obnoxious to him personally, caused a flight to be severely delayed and really annoyed everyone, and was *pretty creepy.*
Persons who use wheelchairs or need medical assistance are typically boarded before other passengers. A woman (I’ll call her Susan) and her elderly father (Jim) were boarded early for a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina from DFW (Dallas-FT Worth, Texas) airport. My dad is doing his pre-flight checks, when a flight attendant comes up to him and says there’s something odd about the elderly gentleman who was pre-boarded, and his daughter is acting odd. The flight attendant requests my dad come check on the old man. The flight attendant says that the old man is asleep, but looks like he may have had a heart attack or something due to his complexion.
My dad goes back and talks to the passengers and the elderly gentleman is slouched over in his seat against the window, asleep, and he doesn’t look good. Nobody wants the plane to take off with a person needing medical assistance, so my dad asks Susan if there’s anything wrong. She’s agitated, says that Jim doesn’t fly well and they gave him medication to let him sleep on the plane. Susan says her father is old, but in good enough health to fly and they are just headed home to Argentina. Susan requests that my dad not wake Jim up, and that he’ll be fine.
The flight staff are all getting a weird vibe, so my dad tells Susan something to the effect of if they can’t verify Jim is alert and in good health, they will not be taking off. She gets confrontational, refuses to get up from her seat to allow anyone to check on her father next to her, and they have to call gate security. Meanwhile as security is on their way, the woman apparently realizes they’re going to get kicked off the flight if they don’t cooperate, so she moves to let my dad check on the old man.
My dad goes over, and the guy has no pulse at all. Not just that, he’s *room temperature*. My dad thanks Susan, and the flight staff go to the front of the plane to wait for security. When they show up, my dad tells them what is going on, and they also check his pulse and then call for an ambulance.
Emergency vehicles show up, and paramedics remove the old guy from the plane. As they are doing this, the daughter is upset and continues to insist he is fine to travel, complains that their bags from their previous connection will get lost, etc.
The paramedics tell my dad before leaving that the guy is not just dead, he’s been dead for awhile (which my dad had sort of already guessed.) Apparently a plane ticket for a person is a lot cheaper than paying to transport a corpse home for burial. The real kicker is that he got on at the previous airport (which I don’t remember) without anyone kicking him off the plane. Pretty sure there’s a news story on the web for this, but it was in the 90s and I am unable to find it. [There’s several similar ones out there though.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8604663.stm)
TL;DR – Woman tries to fly her dead father home for burial by buying a normal ticket, thinking nobody will notice.
edit: This was in the 90s, pre-9/11.
Image source: Zamaza
#16
A family friend is a commercial pilot with a major U.S. airline. He was flying a transatlantic flight from Chicago to London. Midway through the flight one of the flight attendants pages the cockpit and tells him that they need help restraining a passenger in first class. He gets up and walks back to first class to find a 60 year woman hammered drunk fighting with the flight attendants. Apparently the woman was seated next to a younger man and after getting extremely drunk kept grabbing [him]. He asked her to stop and after the 3rd or 4th time he paged the flight attendants asking to be moved.
The women then got belligerent so she had to be restrained. They wound up making an emergency landing in Iceland and arresting the woman because she was so belligerent. The best part is the arrest was the least of the woman’s worries. She was permanently barred from the airline, had to incur the cost of the fuel the plane had to dump so it didn’t land too heavy, as well as the cost to make the landing, and probably had to register as a offender. Also the entire plane full of people probably weren’t too happy to have to be delayed several hours waiting for the plane to refuel and file a new flight plan.
TL, DR: Free drinks in first class can wind up costing you $30-40k in bad decisions.
Image source: anon
#17
Not me, but a friend of mine once told me that on one flight, the attendant was trying to take a lady’s drink order when her husband turns to the attendant and says, “Sorry, she doesn’t speak to the help.”.
#18
When I was flying night helicopter “strip tours” up and down the Vegas strip, despite the video briefing which mentioned several times that no flash photography was permitted and my own verbal briefing mentioning this again, people would regularly take flash photos during the flight. It just blows my mind that people would think it’s ok to temporarily blind the pilot who’s flying them.
Image source: firesgood, Ethan Haddox
#19
One of my best friends was a flight attendant for a few years so I’ve heard some insane stories from her.
My absolute favorite was when she had to wait on Nicki Minaj in first class on a flight. She said Nicki was pretty much the worst passenger she’d ever waited on. She was rude, demanding, and kept doing weird [stuff] like order a vodka cranberry and when the flight attendant would deliver it she’d take one sip, hand it back to her and ask for another. My friend told me that her whole posse kept doing this until they had gone through almost all the mini bottles. As a bartender, that story pissed me off to no end.
Image source: ElNieves, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
#20
I was an F/A on private charter flights. You know that kissy-type noise you make to a cat to get their attention? When he wanted my attention, a certain NBA star (cough-Shaq-cough) would constantly call to me like that. I politely told him my name every time, but he refused to say my name, “ma’am”, “miss” or any other form of polite conversation.
He also sulked in the corner of the plane with his headphones on the whole time, playing video games like a child, while his wife (now ex) watched their 5 kids, cut up all of their food, entertained them, and made preparations for after landing. He was totally useless the whole time. No wonder they divorced.
One of my least favorite pax ever.
Image source: cressidacay
#21
I used to work for an airline which meant I got to fly for free as a standby passenger. This is called “non-revving” (non-revenue passenger). So this one day I’m taking a flight to New York as a non-rev and there is a girl from our airline who worked as a gate agent on there with a bunch of her friends. non-revving is a delicate thing sometimes, there are a lot of rules that the airline makes you follow so you don’t tarnish their image, I almost got denied entry once because I wasn’t wearing dress shoes. These girls get boarded and immediately start acting like stupid [jerks]. it’s warm in the plane so clearly the APU hasn’t been connected to allow the plane power to run the AC. As soon as the APU is connected and activated the AC is turned on and something starts blowing out the vents. at this point the plane is fully boarded but people are still putting [things] in the overheads and stuff. what looks like steam or dust or mist or something starts coming out these vents and one of the stupid girls friends decides to shout (jokingly) “FIRE! THERE’S A FIRE ON THE PLANE!”
ON A FULLY… BOARDED… FLIGHT.
needless to say the flight attendants did not find this hilarious and they were all escorted off.
Image source: PineconeShuff
#22
Dora the Explorer without earphones on a night flight.
#23
My husband flies a lot for work (he makes Delta Diamond every year), so he’s got a ton of crazy stories about insane passengers; the most recent and ridiculous, however, took place on a trip back from Hawaii.
While he’s waiting to board the plane, he’s noticing a distinct smell of body odor. He’s doing the whole “wait, [dang], is that me?” panic, trying to surreptitiously sniff his own armpits, when he notices that a bunch of the other people waiting are all doing the exact same thing. Figuring that it’s either someone else, or that there are, like, a stockpile of raw onions nearby, he stops thinking about it. Until they board.
Because of all his Delta miles, he’s in first class, in the aisle seat. He sits down, and pulls out a book. The window seat next to him is empty, and stays that way for a while, so he’s thinking, cool — empty row! Then, just as boarding is finishing, suddenly, this horrible, pungent smell just FILLS the cabin. It’s so bad that he said literally every passenger in first class reacted, snapping their heads up to see what in the smelly hell just walked on the plane.
It was a young-ish woman, probably late 20’s, early 30’s. Very hippie-chick style, wearing sort of a flow-y top over a tank top. And she smelled like she had not bathed in daaays. Seriously, best guess is that she’d spent a week at a sweat lodge, and hadn’t cleaned herself since. And, of course, she plopped herself down right next to my husband.
Now, like I said, he’s a seasoned traveler, so he’s used to a lot, and his tolerance is pretty high, but he said this woman’s smell was so bad that his eyes immediately started watering. The flight attendant came over, and the woman ordered a Mai Tai; then she pulled out a book, and started highlighting passages. Meanwhile, call buttons are beginning to light up like crazy, with pretty much every other passenger on the plane being all, “Oh, HELL no” about being stuck in a metal box from Hawaii to L.A. with someone who smells like she [slept with] every member of Phish back in 2006, and vowed to never bathe again.
Anyway, over the next fifteen minutes while this woman sits there reading obliviously, my husband watches as the poor flight attendants have multiple whispered, nervous conversations at the front of the plane, all the while staring at this smelly lady. My husband is alternating between texting me in horror and making eye contact with the attendants, and he’s doing the Wide-Eyes-of-Terror at them, and they’re nodding at him and Wide-Eyeing right back. By this time, my husband is nervous that he’s going to get a migraine because the smell is so overwhelming, and people nearby are wrapping shirts around their faces to combat the odor. Finally, the gate agent approaches. She asks the woman to follow her to the front, where apparently, they gave her some soap and a new shirt, and sent her into the bathroom.
A few minutes later, she emerged wearing a new shirt, but still smelling atrocious (“THEY GAVE HER SOAP, BUT NO INSTRUCTIONS,” my husband texts miserably. “Can’t they SEE she doesn’t know what to do with it? SOAP IS HARD FOR HER”). She sits back down, and promptly orders another drink.
Another few minutes pass, with more wide-eyed-silent-“help me”- face from my husband, as well as increasingly *not* so silent complaints from other passengers nearby, until finally, it becomes apparent that if action isn’t taken, there’s going to be a big ol’ mutiny in the first class of a Delta plane. At this point, two agents approach the row. Now, this lady had the window seat and my husband was in the aisle, so this entire conversation had to take place with him awkwardly in the middle, pressing himself against his seat back, but the agents lean in and tell the woman that, sorry, she just can’t ride on the plane; she smells too bad, and she’s not fit to fly. She’s incredulous, and keeps saying, “Just because *you* think I smell?” and “This sounds like a lawsuit to me.” Meanwhile, the agents are being as friendly as they can be, explaining that they will happily put her up in a hotel for the night so she can take a shower, but that they can’t allow her to board another Delta plane until she’s cleaned herself off. She didn’t make that much of a scene, and they all gathered her things and walked off together.
The best part, though, was that right before she stood up, she complained that she had an important meeting back in L.A., and absolutely *had* to fly out that afternoon; in response, one of the attendants smiled and brightly said, “Well, *we* can’t help you, but I think there’s still room on a United flight!”
My husband said it was one of the most surreal travel experiences ever.
Image source: O_is_for_Olive
#24
My friend was on a flight that right after touching down had a lady from the back unbuckle and run to the front of the plane during taxiing to get off first, even though the buckled in flight attendants were telling her to remain in her seat. She kept saying how she had to get off fast to make her connecting flight. After arriving at the gate, the pilot announced over the intercom that they jetway had an issue and the plane would be de-boarding from the rear doors. He said the looks of satisfaction on all the other passengers was delightful.
Image source: wheatie
#25
Pilot here:
If you come up and make some joke about us drinking or being drunk…you just cancelled your flight. Because I’m going to go get tested right then and there.
[Get lost] if you think my aircraft isn’t “big enough”. I’m sorry we don’t have 747 from Detroit to Flint, MI.
Dont ask if I’m “awake” at 5:00am. I had to be there at 4:30, so I had to get up at 3:30. If you want me to be actually fully awake and alert quit booking these super early flights and they will stop having them.
No, I don’t make $150,000. My first officer probably is probably making under 30k. With 100k of student loans. Enjoy your cheap tickets [jerk].
Don’t get pissed if you booked a 30min connection in JFK/ORD/LGA in the winter time. You had almost zero chance of making that before you even stepped foot at the airport.
No, your bag will not fit. Quit arguing with my FA about it. She does this 1000s of times a year and sees 100,000 bags come on the plane. She knows what fits.
Yeah the plane is small. How big is your plane? Private jets are small too, maybe you should try one of those.
Don’t act like you’ve never even been outside before or seen a set of stairs when we have to deplane on the ramp. Boo Hoo. If it is raining or snowing I might have a shred of sympathy for you.
No, I don’t know what lake we are flying over. I’ve got better [things] to do on this 28 min flight than play tour guide.
Yes, I’m old enough to fly an airplane. No, you don’t want more gray hair in the cockpit. Those guys are about to die and are always falling asleep.
No, I’m not going to “grease the brakes” just because they are noisy. And yes they are “metal on metal” sounding because they are all metal.
Yes, there is a reason I have the seat belt sign on. Not because I’m a [jerk].
I don’t care if you are never flying on “A” airline ever again. Because I’ll see you tomorrow when I’m also flying for “B” airline, and then “C” airline, and then “D” airline after that. Welcome to the regionals [jerk].
Image source: summerkc
#26
Probably won’t rate versus some other things I’ve seen. (Not a pilot just a frequent passenger.)
We had a fallen soldier on a flight from Europe. At the end of the flight, the attendent requested that they let the soldiers accompanying the casket off first and please take a moment of silence for the fallen hero.
It was a big flight – perhaps 200 people – and 199 of us stood in silence. 1 a-hole three rows behind me quite loudly spoke of it being [nonsense] and noisily slammed around trying to exit his seat. (He was next to the window.)
When the other two people in his companion seats refused to move he called them “sheep” and threatened to “kick their [butts].”
I’ve but in more than 100K on planes every year for more than 15 years and it was the first time I’ve ever seen anyone even suggest physical violence, but 4 different passengers told the guy to sit down and shut up or they would be the one doing the pbutt] kicking. (Including one woman who was at least in her 60’s but still looked strong enough to do the job.)
I’d love to say the disrespectful [jerk] was a European, but I’d put his accent as someone from Boston or possibly Philadelphia.
Big props for the flight crew, one of whom stopped the man on his way out of the plane and told him that he would be putting in a report. The man smiled and said “Good.”
Then the crewman said “Yes, I really look forward to making sure you never fly on this airline again.”.
Image source: JohnnyMagpie
#27
Not a flight attendant (like a lot of replies), but on one flight the person behind me took off their shoes and shoved an incredibly smelly socked foot between the seats and onto my armrest. I swatted the foot and loudly exclaimed “what the [hell]!” He pulled it back into his own space.
I usually try to get a window seat, as I like looking out and makes it easier to ignore whoever might be sitting next to me. I was taking pictures on one flight and the woman behind me reaches forward and slams shut the shade, telling me she was trying to sleep. I mentioned that if she was flying during the day she might want to bring an eye mask if she had to sleep, opened my shade, and continued on.
Image source: wetwater
#28
I wasnt working that day but sure heard it the next. At Denver international a flight that just landed had an irate passenger. As soon as the plane hit the gate the passenger took off from his seat, opened the service door on the back of the plane. He then jumped off the plane to end up breaking both his legs.
Image source: anon
#29
I’m a pilot. Obviously the last few days have been a zoo, and Chicago has been hellish. We were going from Chicago to Milwaukee and back and then we were done with a four-day trip, so we were definitely wanting to get on with it and go home. We were all boarded and waiting for the de-ice truck to come spray us because it was snowing.
After waiting for over an hour for the truck, they finally spray us down and we start pushing back. As we are pushing, the flight attendant calls up and tells us there’s a lady that wants to get off the airplane. We tell her we can’t, so the lady then tells the flight attendant that her baby is having a medical emergency and has to get off. Fine. We pull back up to the gate and let her off, the baby looks fine mind you, and ask her if she needs paramedics. She denies medical attention and refused to take the baby to the clinic that is literally 50 feet away. They had checked bags, so we had to call rampers to dig through the cargo hold to find their bags. Finally, we had them off and we were getting ready to go again, about 2 hours late at this point.
As we were getting ready to close the door, the gate agent ran up and said that when the lady found out that we were the last flight up to Milwaukee, she begged to get back on the airplane and come with us. The captain and I looked at each other in shock, told the gate agent there was no way in hell she was getting back on the airplane, and got out of there.
TL;DR- Lady feigns her child’s illness to get off the airplane. After delaying the flight for hours, she then wants to get back on and come with us.
Image source: rlbmxer27
#30
A couple of WWF (now WWE) wrestlers were on a flight that was about to land but one of them needed to go to the lavatory. You obviously can’t leave your seat when you are about to land so they told him no, so he decide to [go] in the aisle instead.
edit: The crew that told me the story didn’t really remember what wrestler it was. It happened in the late 90s and it was on a regional plane in Ohio. Obviously the wrestler was arrested and banned from the airline. So maybe there’s a police report somewhere.
Image source: paradoxofchoice, MirkoVitali
#31
I don’t fly for a major airline, but for a smaller company in northern Canada. The plane I fly only has 8 seats, so when I have a full load of people, one person has to sit up front with me in the right seat.
One time I was flying with a full load, and the guy beside me was just one of those cocky, annoying guys that thinks they’re always right. About 5 minutes after take-off he asked me if I knew where we were. I told him exactly where we were, and then another couple minutes later he said we were going the wrong way. Being cautious, I checked my gps and my other nav aids which all indicated I was on track to my destination. I told him he’s mistaken, and pointed straight ahead of us telling him that was where we needed to go. He then pointed over his right shoulder and said we should be heading back that way. By this time I knew the guy was an idiot.
For the rest of the flight he just kept shaking his head and I kept trying to ignore him.
After we landed at our destination I just gave him the “how about you just let the pilots do the navigating from now on” look.
TL;DR Passenger tried telling pilot they were going the wrong way when they actually weren’t.
Image source: szaeti
#32
Not a flight attendant or a pilot, but my dad always tells the story of how his friend from work delayed a flight by three hours for jokingly asking the pilot “Didn’t I see you at the bar?”
He didn’t realize that because of that joke would end with clearing the plane of all passengers, bringing in a new pilot, and causing the original pilot to go through some serious [trouble].
Image source: kewlkatcalvin, KostiantynVoitenko
#33
Pilot here. Girlfriend is a flight attendant. Personally, I haven’t seen too much go wrong. Just the usual tantrums over bags and missed connections (protip: if you book a 30 minute connection, you *will* miss it). Pilots have the luxury of the locked door, but she is locked in the back with some nasty people sometimes.
* Like the time when a middle aged man screamed at her for a few minutes during a 25 minute flight because she ran out of apple juice.
* Like the time when a man asked for a glass of water during a tarmac delay. After delivering said glass of water, he dumped it on her head.
* Like the time when a man heckled her during the safety demo to the point of a needing to return to the gate to escort him from the aircraft.
* Like the many times when a passenger insists that their bag will fit in the overhead, forcing it so hard that it breaks the bin, and requires a 4 hour delay to repair.
Please, be polite to your flight crews! :).
Image source: klopek1
#34
My worst experience came from one of Delta’s “Diamond Medallion” member.. We were broken in Memphis and the Gate Agent had just made the announcement that we were delayed due to maintenance, the mechanic has been called and is on his way out. There is no known estimated time on the fix because the mechanic will have to do some troubleshooting and then we would know how long it would take to fix it. The guy calls me over and says “I’m a Delta Diamond Medallion member, so tell me exactly how long this delay is going to be” I was like WTH? I told everyone EXACTLY what I know, I [don’t care] about your airline Status..
Another good one for me.. Being an African American Captain is I always get the “You’re not Denzil Washington are you?”.
Image source: flyingguy82
#35
Obnoxious kid. Not an attendant nor a pilot. I’m in my early/mid 40s and this story is still alive and well in our family mythos. Was 10 or so travelling back via airlines from spending a few weeks with my grandparents who lovingly dropped me off at the gate. Uneventful flight apart from the wonderful lady flight attendants who doted over this cute young traveller. The plane lands and one of the lovely ladies of the sky escorts me out to the waiting crowd of people looking for their loved ones, including my mother who hadn’t seen me in several weeks and was waving and jumping up and down as soon as I came through the departure door (this was during the times when non-flyers could both escort flyers to the gate as well as go through security to pick up people who have landed)
My lovely escort saw my mother and the excitement in her and asked me “Is that your mother?” I immediately replied, deadpan, at age 10, “I’ve never seen that woman in my life.”
The next 20 minutes included security interrogating my mother on her identity and relationship to me, having too prove she was, indeed, my mother.
I have never been forgiven. But for the long life and laughs of this story within the family, it was well worth it.
Image source: crawdad101
#36
My godfather has been a flight attendant since the late 80s, and over the years he’s had some great stories. One time, one of his passengers brought her cat on board in a pet carrier. At first glance, this woman seemed to be the stereotypical crazy cat lady. However, she took crazy cat ladyness to new frontier when it came to the cat’s feeding time. Instead of cat food and a bowl of water, this woman proceeds to breastfeed the cat. I don’t want to think about how much that must have hurt. Needless to say, my godfather was unamused and firmly asked her to stop.
Edit: Since y’all seem to be enjoying this story, here’s another one for you. One of my godfather’s former coworkers was straight up crazy, schizophrenic with a streak of fundamentalism. On one flight this crazy woman was flying with a new flight attendant, a nice young black man. In the course of their flight, it comes up that this man likes snakes and has a number of them as pets. They continue with their flight, and she notices that this guy has a prodigious bulge. As she told my godfather, “I had seen a lot of endowments before I became a born again Christian, but nothing like that! I just know that he is traveling with a snake!” She reported him to security. Turns out, [it was not a snake].
Image source: Texcellence, trimarchi_photo
#37
I myself am not a flight attendant, but, when I was maybe 7 or 8 I was on a flight home from Italy. Me and my parents were in the center aisle, and to our left was an older couple. The wife was rubbing her husbands very obvious erection through his trousers. I noticed and pointed it out to my mom- who pointed it out to the flight attendant. Right away the flight attendant went over to them and politely asked, on behalf of my parents, if they could refrain from that behavior since there were children in the area. They responded rudely that they weren’t doing anything. After the flight attendant moved on they actually pulled his shlong out and put a magazine over the blatant HJ action.
Eye contact was made, innocence was lost, and that flight attendant gained a story to tell on reddit.
Image source: willworkforcats
#38
I fly at least twice a week and it never ceases to amaze me how entitled and self-absorbed some people behave on planes. Anytime I see people take their frustration out on the flight attendants I want to smack them and get them banned from all future flights. Nobody cares that you’re ‘so sick of airports’ and ‘always getting delayed’ and ‘had a nightmare getting through security.’ Sit down, shut up, and save your terrible flying stories for someone that has to pretend to be your friend.
Image source: certifiedjames
#39
I once had two unaccompanied minors traveling together. Just after we pushed back from the gate, the 8 year old boy started to have a panic attack and said he couldn’t fly, so we pulled back to the gate. The pilot announced that we were returning to the gate so that paramedics could come on and take a child off the plane. He didn’t mention what the medical issue was, just that a child was sick. One lady immediately hit her call button and suggested that we better make sure that we hold the plane for her in Atlanta since we were obviously going to be late now. The whole episode amounted to maybe a 30 minute delay and no one missed their connections. One of only a handful of times I wanted to punch a passenger.
Image source: kikichampagne
#40
(Obligatory not a flight attendant, but…)
I witnessed a flight attendant get really frustrated with a middle-aged woman who had lots of those tiny alcohol bottles stashed in her luggage. I can only imagine that the lady was an alcoholic, because the flight attendant asked her several times to stop drinking, but she kept sneaking out bottle after bottle and downing the contents.
Finally the flight attendant told her they would land and have her arrested if she didn’t stop. That seemed to do the trick.
Image source: ratinmybed
#41
Not an attendant but I fly weekly. Sitting in the aisle seat I see a guy walking toward me, I actually smelled him from about three rows away. He was stinking of sweat profusely, and turned out to have the middle seat next to me. Across the aisle is a hippy old lady. She has a long skirt on and I notice she has her feet up on her seat. Then I notice she has a nailclipper out and is cutting her toenails. Suddenly a toenail flies across in front of my face and hits my sweaty neighbor. He becomes enraged and now the argument ensues between the two most disgusting people ever about who is the most repulsive human being. Honestly the outrage the sweaty guy had at her bad manners had me laughing so hard I forgot about the smell.
Image source: anon
#42
I’ve been punched in the face, propositioned, witnessed multiple couples try to get it on in the seats, had one couple try to do it in the galley, had my [behind] pinched, watched arguments break out over seats being reclined, been told the quality of ginger ale I serve is not of a high enough caliber, seen bare feet on bulkhead walls at face level, seen bare feet ever, had someone try to stow their luggage on my jumpseat shortly before landing, and had trash dumped on my food tray while I was still eating from it.
I was a flight attendant for 5 years. I have enough crazy stories to write a book. Maybe 2.
Image source: ShinyCupcake
#43
This is a collaboration between me and my co workers. some are first hand some are stories we’ve heard from fellow flight attendants.
1) during take off a sick woman [defecates] in a barf bag (why and more impressively how is still a mystery), her husband then proceeds to try and hand the bag to my friend working…
2) a woman gave her 3 year old son tons of apple juice. the kid had to go pee during landing and we made her stay in her seat (not only is it the law but it’s also for safety)… she let her toddler pee on the seatback in front of her.
3) second week on the job and I’m coming back from Honolulu. this woman walks on board wear what at fist looked to be a very short dress. I had first thought that she wasn’t leaving much to mystery(a mystery that, I can say with complete certainty, should have stayed a mystery) turns out she wasn’t wearing pants. nope no pants, just panties. I told her once she had to wear pants only to come back and tell her a second time… my exact quote was “ma’am, put your pants on. I don’t know why I have to tell you twice”
4) this story I heard on a flight from a senior mama, she was working somewhere internationally and one passenger mixed sleeping meds and cocktails. she said he stood up and urinated on his neighbor. no amounts of apologies can mend the scar of getting peed on my a stranger.
I’m sure we could come up with more stories but that’s a start. all and all passengers and pretty well behaved. it’s a fun job and you meet all yours of characters from all walks of life.
Image source: milehighmonty
#44
I’m a flight attendant and i have list of things that are super annoying:
1. lining up to use the bathroom on the plane during the boarding process. you have been sitting in the airport for hours and you think NOW is the best time to use the bathroom while simultaneously blocking the aisle for guests and crew.
2. ringing your call light during boarding. if we are still boarding and the seat next to you is empty, don’t ring your call light to ask me if it will stay empty. i don’t know we are still boarding. plus there’s always a lot going on and i have safety procedures i have to follow before we can close the door and those are a lot more important than wondering what time we will land. i will answer all your questions if you just wait a few minutes. plus we aren’t getting paid till the door closes
3. i’m pretty laid back so not much gets to me but this [jerk] did: we have 3 bathrooms on our plane. she comes out of one of them and says someone threw up in the sink. i looked in and realized that there was no way we could clean it up with the supplies we had on board. i told the crew i’m just gonna lock this bathroom off. the said [jerk] looks at me and says “you aren’t gonna clean it? isn’t that your job? what are they even paying you for?”
with that said, just imagine the most clueless, self absorbed person you know, gather about 20 of those people together and cram them on a tube, where no one can escape for several hours, with 100 incredibly nice, decent people and you have modern air travel.
Edit: i really do love my job a lot!!!
Image source: skybunny1500
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