<p>Ah, maybe those people dealing with those “needs” are just covert. Or perhaps those people that are ridiculous enough to try something like that are few and far between. If I’m sitting in the back, I’m either sleeping or sipping wine. Something could go on practically right in front of me, and if it’s not terrorist behavior, then I’m not paying attention.</p>
<p>Hold on, bethievt, maybe you’ll get lucky one of these days!</p>
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<p>Maybe because on flights you are usually a psychologist <em>on vacation</em>? If you have to be paying attention to people all the time for a living, maybe its important to tune them out when taking a break?</p>
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<p>This made me laugh.</p>
<p>Well, let’s hope that’s the reason I miss everything. Except the tiger in first class.</p>
<p>I’ve always wondered about “doing it” on a airplane. When H & I were younger, we considered it, but when I have to use an airline bathroom, I do my best not to touch any surface if I can help it. That is certainly not conducive to any kind of “wild abandon” in the lavatory. Maybe 1st class is better? Then we had kids and it was out of the question.</p>
<p>H&I attended a wedding in Europe and had only carry-ons but we each had a piece of lead crystal in our carry-ons that constituted our gift. We were flying one of the European airlines. We had placed our bags in the overhead compartment and someone came along with a bag that was obviously too big for the overhead bin she was trying to place it in. The male flight attendant came along and turned my bag 90 degrees to try and fit hers in beside it. (Hers would not have gone in by itself). Of course, the bin would not shut and the flight attendant started banging the lid down on my suitcase trying to shut it. I shouted at him, and he got quite huffy at me for drawing attention to what he was doing. At least, I could tell him in his own language that there were breakables in that bag and to stop bashing the bin lid on it. It was just like the commercial.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I had to change planes in LA. My, that was a very “diverse” group of people. I was seated on the aisle with a young, 20-something man in the middle who was speaking a language other than English to some friends who were seated in front of him. Once we took off, I was reading my book and he was sitting quietly (I wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing, but he was still and quiet). About the time the beverage service began, he seemed to be crying. I mean, he kept dabbing his eyes with the little cocktail napkin. At first I thought it was allergies or something, but then I thought I heard him sobbing. That kept on and I wasn’t sure if he was sobbing or chuckling. I kept stealing sideways glances, but didn’t have the nerve to lean forward and turn my head back to get a good look at him. He kept dabbing his eyes. After about 15 minutes, I offered him a fresh tissue, but he declined. I still don’t know what was going on.</p>
<p>87’ or 88’, red-eye from SFO to EWR, deep coach, plane only 1/3 full, a young couple in the far last row decided they wanted in the mile-high-club with a different distinction. A nonplus stewardess broke it up but only over the loud objections of a 70’ish woman siting across from them. </p>
<p>“THE’RE NOT BOTHERING ANYBODY!!” She yelled.</p>
<p>The tale of what happened (or didn’t) quickly made its way up-cabin.</p>
<p>I flew shortly after 9/11, and flight attendants were still understandably nervous and on high alert. Passengers and crew alike were trying to sort out the new rules of flying, both official and informal, which seemed to change by the day. </p>
<p>One large gentleman, loitering near the forward lavatory, apparently hadn’t gotten the message that things were different now. When the flight attendant decided he’d loitered long enough, she asked him to take his seat. Perhaps a bit the worse for drink, he snorted dismissively. Very firmly, she repeated herself. He started to laugh; whereupon the attendant put her nose 3 inches away from his and yelled, loudly enough to be heard at least in Row 16, “I SAID SIT DOWN!!” He slunk back to his seat.</p>
<p>I fly a lot. I actually flew to Toronto on 9/10/2001 and no one checked my passport on the US side on the way to Canada.</p>
<p>I run a small high-end consulting firm and when working with clients, our other consultants and I always fly business class to Europe, Asia and South America regularly and often fly first class on longer flights within the US per our agreements with clients. As an owner, I am cognizant that our consultants can become very spoiled and think our firm should spend lots of money on creature comforts, so I choose symbolic ways to show that we are very careful with our own money. One way that I do that is to fly coach on marketing trips (we do very little marketing). </p>
<p>I was with a client in Houston and scheduled to meet a prospective client who was on the verge of starting work with us and just needed a little in-person help in Paris, so I booked a coach flight to Paris. I flew coach on Air France. Although I am elite flyer on OneWorld [Lifetime Platinum on AA, BA Gold] and Star Alliance [Star Gold], I’m not any kind of elite on SkyTeam [Air France/KLM/Delta]. Had I been on AA or BA, they probably would have upgraded me if there were available seats. But not on Air France. </p>
<p>But I had assigned myself a seat in a row near but not at the back with no other passengers. I checked at the ticket counter and the row was still empty except for me. It’s a long night flight and so I thought I could sleep. I did not expect them to block other passengers from being assigned seats in that row, but when I checked with the gate agent and saw her screen, I could see that they appeared to have blocked off those seats. </p>
<p>Prior to takeoff, a young woman (20 or so years old) tried to sit at the other end of the row but I think the flight attendant waved her off, so I put my sweater or something on that seat. She was clearly French, thin, quite pretty, wearing a cashmere sweaters with a shoulder missing. As soon as the plane took off, I took a mild sleeping pill and lay down on the row which was not that comfortable because some of the armrests were fixed in place. I was awakened somewhat by someone sitting on my feet. I kicked a bit in my sleeping addled state and the person moved. Later I woke up again with someone small and soft – the French girl – lying in the seats at the other end of the row and hugging my legs. I was tired and wanted to sleep and decided not to move, so I slept the night with the girl hugging my legs. At breakfast time, she got up, smiled, and went back to her seat. I think if the genders had been reversed, the intruder would have been arrested for sexual harassment. I was never sure what to make of this, but it has struck me as rather odd.</p>
<p>Shawbridge</p>
<p>Years ago I sat next to a drug dealer on a plane. I remember I was expensively dressed in an Armani suit, so I don’t know what possessed him to reveal his occupation to me. As we departed, he shook my hand as he said goodbye, and slipped me a packet!</p>
<p>My kids love this story.</p>
<p>When my mom was in her 80s, but still possessed of a sound mind and good eyesight, she swore to me that she’d seen a woman on a plane carrying what looked like an “alien baby.”</p>
<p>She said the baby had an unusually big head and large, slanted dark eyes with no whites. She didn’t think it could possibly have been a gag, or a doll.</p>
<p>My mom swore that this was true and that she wasn’t pulling my leg. I’ve never known what to make of that one!</p>
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I remember those days. I can’t remember the last flight I took that had more than a couple of seats open, red-eyes included.</p>
<p>Many weird things on planes -read about guy whose mom died in Florida and he tried to take her home as a carry-on ,but apparently she started leaking fluids,and he was arrested at the end of the flight . Also ,a man died on my H’s flight , but the plane was full ,and they put a blanket over him ! I once sat next to a special needs child who was unaccompanied and became hysterical at take-off . Who puts a child like this on a plane without a person to be with him ?</p>
<p>This was actually funny. I was flying on a non-stop to West Palm Beach from Boston with a friend (at least 30 years ago). The third person in our row was wearing knee high leather boots, slacks, a turtleneck and a fur coat. When she got on, I wondered what SHE knew about the weather that we did NOT know.</p>
<p>Well…you know how the pilot gets on and tells you about what you are flying OVER? Well the pilot started talking about us flying over the Newark area and heading south. The woman TOTALLY flipped out. She had gotten on the WRONG plane, and was supposed to be going to Newark (that was the plane at the NEXT gate over when we boarded). She started screaming that the plane had to land immediately because she was supposed to be IN Newark…ranted and raved for several minutes until the flight attendent moved her into the first class section.</p>
<p>Apparently she calmed down (free wine in first class?). When we got to West Palm, she found us an apologized…she was very embarrassed but mostly because she was standing in the West Palm airport with a fur coat on and everyone else had shorts.</p>
<p>The airline put her in their lounge and then she was flown to Newark.</p>
<p>I was on a plane once where a person just stretched out in the aisle of the plane. She said she needed to lie down flat. The flight attendants had to tell her to get up and move!</p>
<p>Flying sure is an experience.</p>
<p>I flew to Phoenix in January. The vast majority of the flight attendants looked to be my age or older…remember, I retired.</p>
<p>We visited my daughter a few years ago when she was living in China. We took a few flights while in-country and it was common for the passengers to stand up and start getting ready to de-plane while the airplane was landing. The flight attendants would tell them to sit down, but they would just ignore them.</p>
<p>On one of the longer flights a video came on mid flight encouraging the passengers to do some seat exercises. The flight attendants came into the aisles and did the exercises along with the video demo and many of the passengers joined in, including me. I thought it was pretty neat and took a few pictures. A flight attendant came by and told me to delete them. I deleted one but kept the rest, which sadly were blurry.</p>
<p>Question for busdriver: I’ve heard it’s not physically possible to open the cabin doors while the plane is at its cruising altitude because of the air pressure. Is that true? I sure hope so, because my nightmare has always been that a crazy would open the door, and we’d all be sucked out!</p>
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<p>The same thing happened to us on a flight when our kids were maybe 2 and 6. We had our seat assignments and boarding passes. When we got to the gate, they told us they had switched our seats. Each of the four of us was in a different section of the plane. </p>
<p>I politely told the gate person that this seat change was FINE with me…but I seriously doubted someone else wanted to tend to my two young kids in my absence. She heard the wisdom in that and somehow got our seats changed back to the original assignments.</p>
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<p>Yes.</p>
<p>[Can</a> You Open an Airplane Door During Flight?](<a href=“Can You Open an Airplane Door During Flight? (with pictures)”>Can You Open an Airplane Door During Flight? (with pictures))</p>
<p>There’s about an 8 lb/sq.in. pressure differential between the the cabin and the outside at 33000 feet or so. Assuming a cabin door size of 5 ft x 2 ft (just a guess), that puts the pressure on the door at somewhere between 5 and 6 tons. Pretty sure no one is going to be able to budge it.</p>
<p>Thank you, notrichenough! That’s a relief. I was always one of those people looking suspiciously at people lurking around the doors, so now I can relax in the knowledge they’re just stretching their legs. :)</p>
<p>musicmom1215, he was probably afraid of flying.</p>
<p>It sounds like some of experiences I went through. I have a fear of flying, and even though I have decided not to let it affect my life, when I first restarted flying (for a while, I just wouldn’t fly), it was horrible. I do get quiet and still during take-off, and I have cried. Now I don’t, but my behavior is still probably odd to those around me, and it’s still an extremely stressful experience.</p>