Weird behavior you've witnessed on a flight

Parent Cafe
21

<p>I used to travel a lot for my job. On one flight a woman dressed nicely in business attire (skirt) sitting in the window seat 2 rows in front of me climbed over the back of her seat into the row behind her so that she could get to the restroom without disturbing the sleeping passenger in the aisle seat. It was pretty hilarious.</p>

<p>Another time I was traveling back from a VERY stressful business day in California where I had been at an inspection for a lawsuit involving a tragic death. A man sat next to me and started talking my ear off. He had just been released from the federal pen THAT DAY after serving 30 years. He had never been to a mall, was shocked at how everyone was dressed etc. He was actually pretty interesting. I didn’t want to become his new best friend, though, and fortunately, he was not landing in my home city but was continuing on. He was very courteous.</p>

22

<p>I was on a flight when the flight attendant offered a free bottle of champagne to whoever had the biggest hole in their sock.</p>

<p>Suddenly half the plane had their shoes off and were holding their feet up.</p>

<p>It was pretty funny actually.</p>

<p>Scariest: On one flight I was on, the pilot forgot to put the landing gear down. We were probably about 50 feet of the ground when he realized it. He went full throttle and we went up in the steepest climb I’ve ever been on in a plane, circled around, and then landed normally, with the landing gear down.</p>

<p>On another flight the pilot aborted the takeoff and we ended up about 50 feet from the end of the runway, which would have dumped us into Boston Harbor if he’d waited a second longer. We wound up going back to the terminal and changing planes.</p>

<p>Both on Eastern Airlines, may it RIP.</p>

23

<p>

</p>

<p>That would have put me into cardiac arrest. :eek:</p>

24

<p>I was traveling on Air Ghana. There were 3 passengers on board. We experienced severe turbulence. As I was picking up all of the papers and cups that fell, I found a white paper folded in half. I opened it It was a blank official Ghanan death certificate. I folded it back up, left it on the floor and couldn’t wait to get off that plane!</p>

25

<p>notrichenough, Your “scariest” story sounds a lot like a flight we had just last year. In this case, we had heavy winds - the pilot pulled up sharply within literally feet of landing because we were going to overshoot the runway. It was just like that scene out of Air Force One. I hear it happens a lot more than people realize. I’m not generally a nervous flyer, but this was pretty terrifying!</p>

26

<p>I was in a plane years ago that also made a last minute extremely steep climb instead of landing. I had a window seat and had been wondering if it was really a good idea to be landing on a runway where I could see a plane stopped across it! Some sort of air traffic control miscommunication problem apparently. Very scary!</p>

27

<p>I have a story about myself.</p>

<p>Both my uncles are pilots for Air India. One flies the Delhi to New York/Chicago/Toronto route, while te other one is more senior and die mainly domestic and short international flights. One day he was doing a Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi route. (Jammu and Srinagar are places in north India. Srinagar is in Kashmir, for those who don’t know, Kashmir is a Muslim dominated state which has been trying to secede, and is pretty volitile. </p>

<p>I was in Jammu and Jews flying me back to Delhi. Him being my uncle, I got into the cockpit and watched the takeoff. After I got out from the cockpit, a man came and sat down next to me. Soon, it was time to land, and the flight attendant called me I to the cockpit so I could watch the landing. As I got to get up, the man put a hand on my shoulder an force me down. The Flight attendant motioned for me to stay there. I asked him what he was doing, but he didn’t respond. </p>

<p>After we landed, I again got up to leave, but the man again forced me down. I sat there until everyone left. Then the man grabbed my arm and took me off the plane and into an office in the airport. Turns out he was an Air Marshal. He questioned me in the room for the next few minutes why I was in the cockpit, when suddenly my uncle barged through the room. He’s a pretty insinuating man, big guy with a large bear and turban, and he scared the living hell out of the air marshal. Eventually I was able to leave, but not before almost causing the Air Marshal to arrest me on the plane if I had gone into the cockpit again</p>

28

<p>Oops, indimidating, not insinuating</p>

29

<p>Nothing as scary as what is presented.</p>

<p>i flew X-country every few weeks, while in my long-distance relationship. Occasionally, The flight attendants would move me to first row, and we’d socialize. Once I was sitting with a lovely, articulate woman in her 20’s. She started talking to me about meeting her fiance’s family, and serious reservations. While I rarely talk to a passenger, she interested me. She treated me to food. Hours later, she said, “This was better than talking to a professional!” Little did she know. All thru our talk, I kept thinking about a book that talks of people you encounter for an hour or for years, who came effect your life course. That book was written by a monk, and I did feel as tho I was doing a mitzvah.</p>

<p>Woody, if your 65 y o flight attendant was Vicky, she only became a F.A. a few years ago. It was always her dream to travel to be a F.A. She had been surprised and thrilled to be able to enroll in the F.A. course.</p>

<p>On his last flight, my s/o finally got to respond to that question, Is there a doctor on this flight? While far from his training years, he got to help save someone’s life.</p>

30

<p>Pilot: “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying Elbonia Air today in our flight 987 from Bornyasherk to New York City”</p>

<p>Ethnic looking guy “Vhat? Zhis Flizht Doez not goez to Egypt? Stop Plane! Stop Plane”</p>

<p>The plane stopped in the middle of the runway and a police car (or three) and ladder truck came to pick the guy. Needless to say, our relatives at Bornyasherk International Terminal were petrified…</p>

31

<p>I swear that returning from India to the US in the 60s, there was a tiger on the plane (in a cage). Guess it was going to a zoo.</p>

32

<p>I detest flying. This trip did nothing to help those feelings.</p>

<p>Cheapo H books trip to Hawaii, taking 3 planes to get there since it is more cost effective. This is with 3 kids. We drive 2 hours to airport #1, then fly 1/2 hr to airport #2, then #3 flight from Cal. to Hawaii, ~4-5 hr? (was eternity), huge plane, this idiot shuffles a deck of cards the ENTIRE time. Not played, shuffled–like make them into the bridge thing where all make noise going back down together, again, again, again–the whole flight. People were really ****ed off. I thought I would go choke him myself. I still wonder why the flight attendant let hundreds of people go bonkers instead of throttling this guy.</p>

<p>On the way back, we had confirmed, printed tickets with seat numbers. American somehow “lost” them in their system. Although I always check in and get in line early, they made us wait until the last 5 people to board and then held the plane while they figured out “our” problem. Hem haw, hem haw. They finally split up the family and let us on. </p>

<p>Grrr, if I’m going to die over water, it’s going to be beside my kids. They were young too, 5, 10, 12. They put youngest and me right next to toilet on last row of plane–flush flush flush all night. That, and all the people trying to hook up. I never realized how many people try to meet up in the back of an airplane. Then, they ran out of food and we didn’t get any.</p>

<p>Last leg of flight #3 home, we sit on the tarmac in Dallas for 4 hours waiting to take off. No air, no drinks, no anything. Then, #$&*#) the whole air traffic control system shuts down and we sit 3 more hours. Two more people, umm not married to each other, try to hook up.</p>

<p>The last 5 years we haven’t taken a vacation. Best years of my life :)</p>

33

<p>Years ago, flying on direct flight from Luxembourg to Chicago, we made an unscheduled stop in Reykjavik where we picked up a group of about 30 Icelandic men who were all on there way to some conference in Winnipeg. As soon as we took off they all stood up, pulled out bottles of vodka and started singing, drinking, talking, etc. When the stewards came through with the drinks cart, they simply stood on the seats nearest them, regardless if someone was sitting in the seat or not. They never sat down, even for the landing. The crew didn’t seem to mind at all, in fact they put music on the PA system. By the time we got to Chicago I had two beers and a ginger ale dumped down my back. The male student sitting next to me, they kept trying to get him to do shots of vodka – he took one or two, but he said it was pretty wild stuff. Boy, was I glad to get off that plane. I often wondered if they ever made it to Winnipeg.</p>

34

<p>Best thread ever. “Cheapo H”- ah ha ha! You all are making me feel better about not going anywhere for the years and years my kids are in school!</p>

35

<p>This thread is amazing, like reading a book. Thanks for posting.</p>

36

<p>Husband and wife traveling with toddler and nanny. Couple sits in first class. Nanny and toddler sit in coach. Toddler melts down when she realizes she is not sitting with her parents. She spends the entire three hour flight alternately crying and screaming “I want my mommy” at the top of her lungs. Mommy and Daddy never budged from their first class seats.</p>

37

<p>Love this thread to. I have another to share. On a flight not that long ago, going to Asia. A family of five- 2 parents, 2 grandparents and a 4 year old boy- had the bulkhead seats. Their little boy cried and cried from the moment he got on. They put his seatbelt on and he went truly hysterical. As we taxied, the boy wailed, and flailed, and screamed in a very high pitched tone. What you imagine someone dying a painful death might sound like. He kept undoing his seatbelt and climbing onto his mom’s lap. The flight attendants argued, forced parents to put boy back into his own seat and the wailing and screaming would resume. This went on over and over for quite awhile…10 minutes? 15 minutes… until they announced we were going back to the gate as the little boy has to be removed. The whole family was likely so embarassed, and I have no idea what they did after that. </p>

<p>An interesting side story is this woman next to me went on in a loud voice about “how her kids would never do that!” and I thought how mean spirited as clearly this was a case of a boy with serious emotional issues or possibly autism. I loked over at another passenger and we shared an eye roll. Well the minute the first family left, this woman grabbed her two kids and ran up to claim the bulkhead seats with her children (who previously were separated). As she put her about 4 year old girl into the same seat the boy had been in, guess what happened? The little girl started to wail and scream! The plane burst out laughing. We all wondered was their a pin sticking out of the seat or something!? We never found out. But after much commotion, and the flight attendants help, the child calmed down, the plane took off and we had an uneventual flight after that.</p>

38

<p>^^^My first reaction: How could they? And my second? Why didn’t I think of that all those years!</p>

39

<p>Nothing too odd as far as passengers, though I’ve witnessed so many annoying people. Thank God for earplugs!</p>

<p>Many of the more mundane situations over the years, like rejected takeoffs and go-arounds, terrible weather. But the interesting situations were times like flying Bill Bradley to Nicaragua, landing and having furious people pointing automatic weapons at us. They really hated us in the eighties there. Diverting into Goose Bay and afterwards, looking at the large hole that had burned through our engine pylon (right before an extended overwater flight), being handed a cup of what I thought was coffee by a general (you can only guess what it was, yes it was yellow), flying into Kuwait right after Desert Storm had cleared out the Iraqis, trying to fly around all the oil fires and find the airport.</p>

<p>But what is most entertaining is the stories I’ve heard from others. The co-pilot who (how can I say this without getting graphic) “did it” with a flight attendent in the first class lavatory, and when caught, his defense to the company was “physiological needs.” Grossly enough, the union stood by him. And the male/female crew that put the airplane on autopilot and went in the back to do an entire list of misdeeds (and taped it). Obviously, this was not a passenger flight. I think I’ll stop there!</p>

40

<p>I must be the most clueless, unobservent person ever. And I’m a psychologist. I have never noticed people dealing with those kinds of “physiological needs” on a flight. I believe it happens, but why don’t I see it? Not that I want to–maybe denial is the key.</p>