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Aviation is a huge job provider. Just the United States sector alone has 605,950 employees making sure everything runs, or, should I say, flies smoothly.

But with an estimated 22.2 million flights worldwide, someone is bound to experience the unexpected.

So after Reddit user New-Low5765 posted a question on the platform last week, asking "People who work in the airline industry, what are some of the craziest things you have seen?", it received plenty of memorable replies.

#1

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Saw the pilot walk into the passenger area and say " I'm not flying this piece of s**t " and get off the plane , and all the passengers followed him

Jaded-Session8422 , Blake Guidry Report

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KJ
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can't blame the passengers for following, he might just know what he is talking about.

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#2

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen When I was a ramp rat in the 90’s we were servicing the airplane as people embarked. The pilot came over the speakers and spoke about the flight details and said we will land in Dallas in approx 1-1/2 hours. He then said if you’re on the wrong flight please get off. Dead silence and 3 minutes later the pilot and co pilot exited the airplane as they were the ones on the wrong flight.

VinneBabarino , Matheus Bertelli Report

#3

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen As a baggage handler I once had a shipment of live Alaskan crabs escape their container on the ramp. Flights were delayed. Turns out those guys scatter when they panic and try to hide under anything and everything.

Gregwaaah , Mae Mu Report

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#4

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen We had a guy drinking out of hotel Shampoo and lotion bottles. He got upset when we questioned him saying it wasn’t alcohol. I said “Sir, if it’s not booze, I have many more questions for you”.

Frankiethesnit , Fadi Alagi Report

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CaptainSlapNTickle
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You cracked the case and busted that criminal. He needed to be taught a stern lesson.

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#5

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen A fully naked woman just walked through the terminal and tried to walk through security like she wasn’t fully naked

Commercial-Chance561 , Prostock-studio Report

#6

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Not in the industry, but boarded a Northwest flight many years ago. A lady in the emergency exit row (a couple of rows behind me) called the FA back and said “I can stick my arm out of the plane”.

I look out my window and sure enough, she’s waving back at me.

Takeoff was delayed while they called maintenance to re-seal the exit window.

xampl9 , Shamia Casiano Report

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This happened again LAST WEEK btw. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-bound-plane-took-london-missing-window-panes-rcna124509 This time the plane made it in the air.

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#7

I always get stuck in the last seat, directly in front of the latrine, because I book flights last minute for work. Flight attendants usually sit nearby. I asked one that question one time. She just smiled and said it would be unprofessional to share those stories.

I kid you not, 30 minutes into the flight, some large dude came waddling down the aisle while blasting out gurgly squelchers. He was all grimaced, sweating, squinting, and exclaiming "oh no oh no oh no oh no." He paused right as he was fumbling for the stall door when I heard his a**s violently jettison 5lbs of forbidden honey mustard directly into his pants. We made eye contact. Purest dread and regret. He squashed himself into the stall and didn't come out for most of the flight. He left a puddle in the aisle which quickly fumegated everyone from row 24 back. The flight attendant took out a can of lysol and sprayed it.

As we were leaving the plane, the flight attendant said "that was in the top 3."

anon Report

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#8

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Coffin with dead body inside being left out of the flight due to overload without notice neither to us nor the family and the family realising it by seeing it while the plane was leaving and screaming to us…

elenivog , Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa Report

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#9

Legacy captain here.

After starting the engines and beginning the taxi, we immediately get a call from the back saying “There is a man back here punching his wife in the face and a very large military looking guy got in the middle and said if he touched her one more time he would ‘break his f*****g face.’”

Welp, back into the gate we go…

jacksjj Report

#10

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Little girl had an emotional support rooster in a tutu. This was shortly before the airlines started cracking down on what kind of animals could be in the cabin during flight.

Yee_naw15 , Sahand Babali Report

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#11

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Someone had the tip of their finger cut off when closing the door to the plane and didn't say anything until the flight landed at the arrival gate and when the door was opened the chunk of finger fell out. The staff then said, "oh yeah, that's my finger. you can throw it away."

If_I_remember , Iakobchuk Report

#12

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Not airline but Im a helicopter engineer. North sea Oil and gas

We got asked by a pilot, "what's the max weight for the cabin step"

Assuming the pilot is away wanting it for a joke we say no idea, couple hundred KG..... Pilot dead pan looks at us and says no he needs to know. Ok fine, we go checking the manuals and eventually find it's 200kg max load.


Next he says what's the max weight of a cabin seat.

Again, we think what the f***s he on. But we go back to manauls and find out that it's 220kg.

Ok thanks, says the pilot. "I'm asking because my next flight has an unusual passenger....... A SEVEN FOOT 7 INCH..... 185KG MAN!!! this guy was from Fiji, and they are built different. This guy walking out to the aircraft looked like he was away to pick it up and play with it... Never see a walking land mass of a human like him since.

holyboobiesbatman , Matheus Bertelli Report

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Megan Curl
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Interesting. Interesting, the way I’m covering up a rant here. Scroll on people.

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#13

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen I don’t work in the airline industry, but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night. Anyway, my idiot aunt smuggled a monkey into the US from Mexico. Her plan was to keep it under her shirt until she got through customs. She is a big woman and it was a small monkey. Anyway, the monkey started running around the cabin, and crew and some passengers were trying to catch it. The monkey was a bit of a biter, so it was a huge stupid s**t show.

jaco0557 , Catherine Harding Wiltshire Report

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Trillian
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It should have bitten her while it was under the shirt. WTF is wrong with people???

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#14

Coworker of mine worked as a baggage handler for 25 years.

Early in his career, a family was trying to get their grandpa onto a flight that loaded on an outside ramp. He was in a wheelchair and was waiting on people to help him up when it started raining.

My co-worker watched as his person in a wheelchair was just getting rained on and when people were finally ready to board him on the flight, he was dead.

The thing was.. he was dead for 2 days already and the family was trying to get him home the cheapest way to bury him and not pay to transport the body.....

Needless to say the family got into a lot of trouble and my coworker said he still remembers seeing a person in a wheelchair just out in the rain for 10 minutes.

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#15

One of our pilots wanted to do a funny April fools joke.

He filled his flight bag with empty alcoholic drink bottles and on his way out of the flight deck pretended to be drunk and spilled all the bottles down the aisle. It was so funny HR wanted to hear about it and he was shorty fired.

TheJoseBoss Report

#16

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen In no particular order: A 400 lb woman who sh*t herself in her seat and proceeded to leave a little turd trail down the aisle as she got off the plane. (She wasn't being inconsiderate. She literally had no control over her bowels, could barely walk yet couldn't fit on the aisle wheelchair so was forced to hobble off the plane with the help of two other people, all with s**t falling out of her clothes. Terrible experience for all involved.) Various injuries sustained by coworkers. A bad slip on ice resulted in a nasty concussion. Another guy got his hand lightly mangled by the baggage loader. A drunk guy tried to force his way onto a jet bridge after he was denied boarding. I was at the bottom of the bridge and started preparing for a physical confrontation to prevent him from illegally boarding the aircraft. It didn't come to that, but I still got to watch the cops drag him off in the ~~patty~~ *paddy* wagon (apologies to my Irish friends). Cool weather/natural phenomena. Lighting, thundersnow, meteors, even a tornado. Windblown luggage going on an adventure... and almost rolling onto an active taxiway. Eight large duffle bags, all checked by the same passenger, full of nothing but oranges. (Edit): That cargo bin smelled fresh as f**k. An over-packed bag that split open. Not a super rare occurrence, but this one being full of bdsm gear and other such items was a bit of an outlier. A baby goat, horse semen, dead people, and dead people parts regularly shipped as cargo. A flight from another airline diverted to my station after all that airline's ground workers had left for the night. There must have been a serious miscommunication because that really should not have happened. The plane sat at the gate waiting for help that wasn't there. At some point, an over wing emergency exit was opened, and the escape slide deployed. Big, expensive problem that I'm glad I wasn't a part of. And finally, just the sheer amount of both valuable items AND disgusting s**t people leave in seat back pockets. Phones, tablets, wallets, watches, purses, keys, headphones, flash drives. But also spilled drinks, half-eaten food, chewed gum, dirty diapers... Guys, if you're flying, how about just don't put anything in there, okay? In fact, don't touch the seat back pocket at all. Don't even look at it. It's not for you. Leave it alone.

TheManWithNoSchtick , Nathan Dumlao Report

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Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A flight was recently abandoned and turned back due to a similar bowel related incident.

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#17

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen There were two suitcases checked in that were full of nothing but weed.

Traditional_Pair4840 , CDC Report

#18

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen I saw a person get eradicated by the blade of a helicopter.

I saw someone almost lose their leg to an exploding tire.

I saw a guy lose his finger to a jet rolling over it.

I saw a guy have his leg squeezed like a tube of toothpaste because he fell in front of a tire. Then they had to roll it the opposite way back over him. They saved his leg, and he still walks.

Potentially_a_goose , MESSALA CIULLA Report

#19

Several years ago I was flying from Knoxville to DFW. It just so happened a full eclipse was happening that afternoon directly over our flight path. Just about the time we leveled off at our cruise altitude the eclipse began. By the time the eclipse was full on 100%, it got so dark in the cockpit. I’ve never seen it that dark in the cockpit during the daytime on a clear day in my entire life. We put our sunglasses away and enjoyed the show. It didn’t last long and the speed we were flying. Another. Flying from Houston to DFW in 2003 we were at our cruise altitude when we looked up out the cockpit windows and saw quite a few fire balls above us leaving massive contrails. Many other pilots were chatting about this on the radio and none of us or even ATC knew what it could be. It wasn’t until we landed about 35 minutes later that we learned it was the Space Shuttle Columbia re-entering Earths atmosphere and had burst into many many parts and killing all on board 😢. I will never forget that day. Another. As the second gulf war was heating up we were flying near For Hood Texas one night. We were able to look down from our cockpit windows and see a massive amount of tracer fire as the US Army was practicing on the range. These are just a few of many over 20,000 flight hours.

FunTimesAheadYall Report

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David Paterson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"quite a few fire balls above us leaving massive contrails. ... none of us knew what it could be. It wasn’t until we landed about 35 minutes later that we learned it was the Space Shuttle Columbia" OMG.

Sherri Harvey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I live close to Ft. Hood and hear them shooting artillery almost daily. It freaked me out the fist few days I'd moved here. Sounds like thunder but well timed and the weather is clear.

MR
Community Member
12 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Damn. I didn't know that happened with the Columbia. I had to look it up. WoW. All of it.

MR
Community Member
12 months ago

This comment has been deleted.

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#20

Worked in the Cargo handling shed. We had two HUMS (Human Remains) arrive at the same time. Some bright spark took the documents off and forgot which was which. Flipped a coin on it and one went to Tel Aviv (Jewish Burial), the other to Dalaman (Muslim Burial).

He chose... wisely. But could have been a lot worse.

Plenty_Wash8190 Report

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Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Considering that a mummified Egyption Pharoah required a passport with a photo, I'm thinking that there must have been some other form of ID.

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#21

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen A grandma had an oversized pair of scissors, she wanted to take them with her. Instead of putting them in her checked in bag, she decided to put them in her shoe. So out of all options she decided that smuggling is the way to go and got the cops called.

XennaNa , Divazus Fabric Store Report

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Hugh Cookson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ex Professional Chef here ; when my work involved air travel, I would have to get permits to allow me to bring my pro knives on board in a locked box. Mostly this was OK to go in the overhead lockers but occasionally I'd be asked to give them to the cabin crew for safekeeping, which was fine. What wasn't fine was when the airline refused to let me take my knives aboard and then they'd lose them - this happened twice over 10 years ; the first time I was reimbursed but it took me bloody ages to build up a decent set of knives and the 6 Teak handled Sabatiers were impossible to replace. The second time, they flat refused to reimburse me ; my lawyers had some fun and eventually for my £2500 set of knives it ended up costing British Airways over £20k !! The moral of this story is, never, ever, fly BA, they are expensive, c**p and still costing their flights on the idea that flying is glamorous.

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#22

Worked as ground crew. 2nd day on the job we were issued a notice to gather. So when you check in every morning you’re supposed to always take a breathalyzer test to prove you can like you know, ride around the tarmack, use pushbacks etc.

For whatever reason this dude hadn’t taken it/got past without taking it.

He was not sober.

He was tasked with pulling a 370 into a hangar.

He eyeballed it for whatever reason.

So here we are watching a video of this absolute loon break the whole wing off while damaging the hangar in the process.

Because he was drunk, insurance doesn’t kick in.

We were promptly told that christmas bonuses might be a bit smaller

ProbablyChe Report

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#23

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Worked at the airport, flight had just got off the ground. Pilot calls in “uhhhh hey we are coming in for an emergency landing…..the exit door just got sucked into the plane” so door was sucked in. I had someone in that seat be really wishy washy about whether or not they wanted to be in the exit row so I moved them. Probably would have killed them if they had stayed, door completely destroyed the seat.

Boo_baby1031 , Mengliu Di Report

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David Paterson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dear pilots. Do not depressurise the plane earlier than necessary. It gives the passengers major sinus pain and ear ache.

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#24

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Worked in operations at IAH for a while, one of our pilots landed with passengers at the wrong airport.

caz_uno , Marina Hinic Report

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Megan Curl
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

IAH is the airport code for Houston, TX. Houston has two airports IAH and HOB (Hobby). Both airports have major carriers that offer service. I’m betting this was a United flight because IAH is a UA hub, but they also service HOB.

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#25

Was on base maintenance for my national airline carrier in 2013 or so. Aircraft was scheduled for take off, and the pilot followed procedure per the usual. The chocks come off the wheel, the engine spools up and taxis to the runway. Except the ground personnel didn't clear the chocks in time because he didn't follow procedure. They're often poorly trained or not at all as part of cost cutting. Pilot spooled up the engine and sucked the ground personnel straight into the turbofan. His torso was pinned against the fan cone, shredded his limbs and head right off. We spent the next 2 weeks decommissioning the engines. Damn near 5 Mill USD bill. He got a pension of about 400 USD per month. Now I know what it's like to powerwash someone's bones out of complex machinery.

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#26

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Emotional support scorpion is probably up there on the list of crazy. Dude was unable to state the emotional support he derived from the scorpion. It got even more fishy when we told him he would not be allowed to board with it and he said he would just throw his buddy in the trash.

brixxxxxxxxxx , Sippakorn Yamkasikorn Report

#27

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen A plane I got on once almost left without half of its aircrew on it.

BeerisAwesome01 , Matt Hardy Report

#28

I’m an aircraft mechanic. I got called out once because a passenger had accidentally dropped their cell phone into a lavatory toilet. That took me a little while to fish out because it had slid into a tiny corner of the toilet tank. The passenger wanted the phone back, so I had to put it in a giant red biohazard bag.

My craziest call though had to be the time a refueling hose had popped. I drive out to the gate and it looks like a geyser of fuel is spraying up out of the hose. Someone hits the e-stop as I get out of my van, and I start inspecting the plane. The entire right engine (CRJ-900) and a good portion of the right rear of the fuselage is soaked with fuel. I’m standing there wondering what they expect a mechanic to do about all this, when I get a call from my office because the pilots were wondering if they were good to go (they were not). We ended up towing the plane back to our hangar to wash the whole thing.

xarumitzu Report

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Epsilon
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Imagine what would've happened if that plane tried to take off... the whole engine would've burst into flames *shudder*

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#29

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen Family friend who was flight attendant on South America to USA international flights. She said someone tried to get boarded with their service animal….a Kangaroo. Service Kangaroo and their human were denied boarding. Still can’t work out how they got through the airport.

Accurate_Fill4831 , Max Nüstedt Report

#30

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen The amount of sex in that small bathroom. Geez

PM-Ur-Boobs- , Kārlis Dambrāns Janitors Report

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Mark
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How do two people even manage to get there without people noticing and actually fitting into that room?

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#31

I work for a company that manufacturers airliners.

We have one specific model (you've probably flown on one), where the fuselage is built and shipped via train car across the country to the plant that fully assembles the aircraft (i.e. attaches the wings, empennage, engines, etc).

These fuselages regularly arrive with bullet damage from people taking shots at the passing trains (usually just dents and scratches). This is so common that we have a whole process dedicated to inspecting and repairing this damage.

IlluminationRock Report

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Donkeywheel
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not Airbus. All of them are assembled in France and someone shooting at a train would be considered a terrorist attack.

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#32

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen My dad was a reservation agent for Piedmont, then US Airways. A man called in one day because he had sneezed while in the lavatory, and lost his dentures down the toilet. He wanted them back.

egglayingzebra , Diana Polekhina Report

#33

Former FA here. I was working a flight from Europe to JFK. Boarding was delayed without any explanation. When inflight crew was allowed on board to do preflight checks, extra ground crew personnel were on board checking everything including leafing through every page of the in flight magazines. I guess they decided that that was taking too long so they ended up grabbing all of the magazines and removing them from the aircraft. Things felt super tense, but it was my first time flying through that airport and thought maybe that station was just super diligent about security checks.

After we were in the air, CNN (which many passengers were watching) broke the news that MH17 had been shot down. The head flight attendant absolutely lost it when she saw the breaking news on the seat back TVs and started screaming at me about where the federal air marshals were seated. I hustled her into the galley and then spent the rest of the flight trying to deflect passenger questions about the two super jacked guys wearing black hoodies who kept checking the lavatories and denying that they were in fact air marshals.

There was also the time that our crew arrived at an airport in France and all pandemonium was breaking loose at checkin and security, but once we got through security the terminal was empty. We were super confused until a gate agent finally showed up to tell us that the terminal was just reopening after an active bomb threat.

On one of my last flights as a flight attendant, one of the other FAs was hanging out in the back galley doing drugs. She was completely out of it slurring her speech, stumbling, yelling at people, and refusing to do any work. Other crew members witnessed her popping pills while sitting in the jump seat. We reported it, but upon landing she managed to slip away before the airline could get someone to the plane to drug test her. A manager told me they knew about her and had been trying to catch her for months. I am baffled as to why they didn’t just preschedule someone to meet her at all her flights for drug testing.

I do not miss flying.

MaximusGrande Report

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Donkeywheel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The first story doesn’t make any sense. Removing the magazines? Wtf. And by the way, there is no us marshal on international flights departing from or going to Europe.

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#34

I was boarding a woman and her 6 kids along with a 3 month old infant. She was asked to pay handling charges on a television she had. Upon asking she said she is not carrying a television and only has 3 suitcases. Turns out someone booked 4 extra suitcases under her name and everything was under investigation by the police. She was kicked off the flight along with her children and all 7 bags. Flight was delayed for over an hour.

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Delta Dawn
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wonder what was in those 4 extra bags and who was trying to smuggle them on that flight

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#35

I was a gate agent for 13 years. Had a flight leaving and just waiting with a coworker for it to push back. We had the jetbridge off and everything was buttoned up. Human remains (HR) had just come in on the aircraft and were still in the baggage cart attached to the tug; I don't think the funeral home had arrived yet.

One of the ramp agents hops in the tug, CRANKS the steering wheel to the right, guns it and the human remains go FLYING out of the baggage cart in full view of the boarded flight. The HR always came in a big white box with "HUMAN REMAINS, HANDLE CAREFULLY" written in huge letters on the side so I have no doubt half of the plane saw it.

Thank God the box didn't break open or that would have been traumatic for everyone involved. I probably have a million stories but that was one of the biggest "oh f**k, this is bad" moments.

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#36

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen We had a small commissary buggy to stock up planes when they’d land….tiny little car that went 30mph….bag of toilet paper fell off the passenger seat and landed on the gas pedal with nobody in it….it did circles for five minutes before it hit a wall….almost took out several planes….driver got supspended for only a week …she was our union steward

tweezer606060 , Darwis Alwan Report

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CaptainSlapNTickle
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How long should she have been suspended for an accident that obviously caused little to no damage? A year? It was a security breach. No drugs, or children were smuggled. Gravity occurred and a golf cart hit a wall BUT avoided planes and serious damage. Crisis averted.

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#37

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen I saw someone go around some safety cones and take a shortcut with his tug And he wound up axle deep in fresh cement

tweezer606060 , Kürşat Kuzu Report

#38

Not crazy in the least, but every aircraft you fly on will have several things on it that are not working or outright broken, and that includes several systems that the average person might think would be vital to the safety of the aircraft. There's a thing called the MEL (Minimum Equipment List) and it details what can be non-operational and in what manner without the aircraft being grounded. Certain systems are of course vital and lead to instant grounding, but other systems or components can be broken for several months without it needing to be sent to maintenance. And sometimes you get a situation where System A can be non-op, as long as System B is still working, or vice versa.

General procedure if something breaks is to consult the MEL, see how long it can be broken for, and if the next round of maintenance occurs before the deadline, you just mark it as non-op, and keep flying.

ConstableBlimeyChips Report

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David Paterson
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This should be ranked higher. Quick look. Air conditioning may be inoperative (including cabin air pressure control). Black boxes may both be inoperative.

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#39

I travel a lot, and although I don't work for an airline I feel like I do sometimes. Anyway, I was sitting on the plane as boarding was continuing, and we get a sudden, urgent sounding page over the intercom to "calmly but quickly evacuate the aircraft back through the jetbridge." The plane deboards faster than I have ever seen (although actually calmly, surprisingly), and on getting to the top of jetbridge I look out the window.

Only to see about 3-4 fire trucks, and what can only be described as a LAKE of jet fuel under the centre of the aircraft. Like, it was closing in on being the size of the wingspan. There was also a guy in a suit red-faced screaming at the ramp crew, who I assume had not hooked things up correctly, leading to our new lake.

That could have ended a lot worse than it did, but fortunately after about 90 mins of cleanup we reboarded and got back on our way. I presume the day was a lot longer for those idiotic rampies and their likely newfound unemployment.

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ColdSteelRonin
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not always the ground crews fault. I've seen QD (quick disconnect) couplings fail and stick in the open position

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#40

Back in the 80’s I was working the New York JFK to San Juan, Puerto Rico flights. Lot’s of crazy stuff on those flights.Had someone try to bring a live chicken on board, had someone try to cook with stereo and last but not least, someone tried to bring their dead grandmother on board in a garment bag.

NmyDreams Report

#41

Not air crew myself but my sister has been for just under a year. She's seen some odd things but nothing to really write home about, apart from the story she told me about a guy that wouldn't stop doing yoga in the galley area on a flight between Heathrow and NYC. She's already dealt with a few drunk people requiring removal from the plane by cops. A friend of her colleagues was, however, involved in an incident where a passenger decided it would be a good idea to open the plane's door while the plane was coming into land. Turns out that model of aircraft has a flaw where passengers in the first row can easily reach and open the doors. Everyone got a new windswept hair do that day.

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This happened recently, it made the news. https://nypost.com/2023/09/22/plane-passenger-arrested-for-trying-to-open-jet-door-mid-air/

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#42

Walked into the flight deck and the pilots were showing each other the various nicks, cuts and scratches they’ve gotten from banging into stuff while trying to get into their chairs, pilot turns to first officer and says “yeah this thing is a real death trap!” Didn’t realize I was there to let them know we had commenced boarding and passengers were walking directly behind me down the aisle. Thankfully I don’t think anyone overheard his comment.

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#43

Loading a bag on the plane and it was humming and there was a small vibration to it…you can only guess what we thought it was but it ended up being an electric toothbrush…. Body parts scattered on the runway (some homeless guy snuck through the security fence on the runway and that was the end of him…  2,000lbs of fish eggs being shipped in from Alaska… While pushing the plane back out of the gate, pilot accidentally stepped on the brakes, plane lunges to a stop, flight attendant broke her hand and wrist & passenger ends up with concussion from bag that fell out of the overhead… Having to help clean up the waste, blood and fluids from a flight that landed which a lady gave birth inflight….  One of my employees getting electricuted when lightning came out of nowhere and struck the tail of the aircraft he was loading… Airport evacuation after a laptop battery exploded in the security line and everyone thought someone had a gun. People started running down jetways and onto the ramp area. We got under our desks and locked doors thinking someone was shooting at people…

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David Paterson
Community Member
1 year ago

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"laptop battery exploded and everyone thought someone had a gun". Isn't there a procedure for not making stupid mistakes like this?

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#44

1. A luggage train driver ran over another ground staff, resulting in serious injury. (surveillance cam)

2. Safety pin of a luggage train was either poorly "secured" or sheared off mid transit. The loose luggage train made a bee-line towards a 777 engine. (Security Cam)

3. The other pilot who was acting as pilot flying suddenly took his hand off the throttle mid landing to yank the yoke with both of his hands.

4. Dumb pilot who got fired because he decided the way to punish the local ground marshaller for showing up couple minutes late was to deploy the thrust reversers at the poor marshaller. (The person who holds 2 sticks hailing the aircraft into the parking bay).

5. Idiotic governments that decided to combat covid, by putting pilots in lock downs after international flights.

List goes on, but these are quite fresh memories.

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CaptainSlapNTickle
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1 year ago

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Why did you insist on typing "(Security cam)"? The "copilot"? You're quite there storyteller.

#45

The suitcase with a carving knife, a ouija board, and a copy of "Helter Skelter" in it.

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#46

I worked part time loading bags when I felt one vibrating. I followed protocol and notified my supervisor. He pulled the bag and had it x-rayed while the plane was held in place. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. A bunch of people missed their connecting flights because a d***o was accidentally turned on. Next few times it happened, I loaded it right along side the others. I figured that if it was a bomb that was vibrating, we were all dead already.

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Tabitha
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I was with TSA, we called those PPD (Personal Pleasure Devices) when we saw them on the X-ray and/or during bag checks.

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#47

Pulled flight control computers and smacked them on the ground to reset cards then reinstalled and told the pilot he was good to fly.

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Mark
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don’t think the pilot was confident in your engineering abilities that moment

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#48

Worked for a freight company at CVG years ago.


More than once I saw various tugs cut across the tarmac while a plane was headed out of or into a gate. Almost hitting planes by 10 feet or less.


A few people getting run over.


Out of control tugs hitting stationary planes.


A passengers dog got loose and it was caught but the airport police will kill it if they can't catch it.


A bunch of us rode around on conveyor belts a few times. Through tunnels. Definitely very dangerous since there is no emergency stop if someone gets caught in a belt or something.


Underneath the terminal I popped a wheely in a 12000 pound tug. Reversed and then slam it into it's only forward gear. The front wheels were about 7 feet off the ground. It came down so hard that the plate steel front bumper actually took a chunk out of the concrete floor.


If we saw an unattended food vehicle we would sometimes raid it(with a few of us as lookouts)and steal the snacks, drinks and such.

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Snorkeldorf
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Returning from a trip and waiting at baggage. Distinguished gentleman, probably late thirties, impeccably dressed and groomed from head to toe. Tried to grab his bag, which was apparently heavy, and lost his balance. He was on the conveyor belt flailing around like a fly on its back. Others helped him off the belt. Then he had to stand there, uninjured but completely embarrassed, waiting for his bag to come around again.

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#49

A snowsweeper on fullblown fire with explosion on the runway.

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#50

OK I don’t work in the airline industry, but I flew in Alaska flight last month and after half an hour on the tarmac, the captain gets on the intercom and says hey between me and the first officer next to me we don’t have enough hours to fly this model of plane. We’re gonna have to wait and call another pilot.

What the actual f__k?!?  How do you schedule people that can’t fly the plane I mean that is their one and only job?

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#51

30 People Who Work In The Aviation Industry Share The Craziest Things They Have Seen I once loaded the cargo hold of a private A320 to the brim with bottled water

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#52

Captain a bit of a rager. Agent is new or something and can’t connect the jetbridge to the plane, pax super mad. No one answering on ops. Captain eventually jumps from the open boarding door into the JB and proceeds to scream at the jetbridge driver. He calmed down eventually.

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Harah Suckerbee-Wankers
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pilots with this kind of attitude end up killing themselves with their rage and arrogance, and usually kill others in the process. (Korean Air 8509, Northwest Airlink 5719, Thai Airways 311, KLM 4805 - to name just a few.)

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#53

Don’t work in the airline industry but the flight was delayed since the pilots didn’t get there in time. When the pilots arrived they were all laughing and bragging how much they drank last night and how they barely remember it. Was a bit scary but at least planes almost fly themselves nowadays

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Amy
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Planes do not "almost fly themselves," everything requires human input and monitoring of automation. Takeoff and landing, the most dangerous parts of the flight, are 100% on the actual human pilots.

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#54

An A380 pulling into a closed bay while we had the air bridge in pieces

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David Paterson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What's a "closed bay"? Pulling up to a terminal gate that is closed for maintenance.

#55

Not me but my friend is a commercial pilot and he was flying from Dublin to NYC, said half way through the flight the engine fire light came on and they were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, panic stations ensued but turned out it was a guy smoking a cigarette in the toilet and it triggered the engine fire light. Mentioned the guy got in pretty serious trouble over it.

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ThatG
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Rubbish! That would never trigger an engine fire warning. It’s two different systems. It would have just set off the smoke detectors in the toilet.

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