Weird/Disturbing things you've seen other passengers do on Flights

Quin_Dub

I was recently reminded of something I experienced on an internal flight in the US a few years ago.

Sitting on a plane , waiting for everyone to board - fairly empty flight , maybe 30 people or so on a 100 seater plane - 4 hour internal flight.

Guy gets on and sits a few rows in front of me (I was in aisle seat, as was he) . He looked like a fairly typical business traveller - mid 30's , laptop bag over his shoulder etc. so far so normal..

Shortly after the flight took off I heard this odd scratching sound over the usual flight sounds... Couldn't place the sound until I looked at the guy.....

He had a Teddy bear in his lap and was combing it with one of those big horse brushes that have the strap on the back for you to put your hand in!! :eek:

Methodically combing the thing repeatedly.... Air Hostess came down the plane and spotted him and then saw that I saw him too and she really struggled to keep a straight face..

Guy kept this up for the entire 4hr flight. When we landed , he got up , put Teddy back in his bag and off he went...

To this day , I have no idea what was going on - Was he afraid of flying and some weird new age therapist told him to do it?? , Was he just soft in the head??

So - 2 Questions

Theories on what the hell was going on?

Anyone else have people do really weird things on flights?

Monty Burnz

A bad flyer doing something comforting on the instructions of therapist/hypnotherapist.

hairyprincess

I guess he couldn't bare to be parted from his Ted

FatherLen

i am usually the one doing weird things on flights.....

fryup

maybe he was austistic or something similar

Best username ever

Taking asprin a few shots then having a ****

mikemac1

Ah leave him alone OP, he was bothering nobody

That's just how he dealt with stress.

Mint Sauce

No, but there was once some fella from cork who....

Mint Sauce

Best username ever wrote: »

Taking asprin a few shots then having a ****

Beat me to it.

:mad:

FatherLen

mikemac1 wrote: »

Ah leave him alone OP, he was bothering nobody

That's just how he dealt with stress.

yeah, that and murdering people.

xzanti

Can't say I've ever seen anything really disturbing first hand.. but I recall a story that was in the news some years back of passengers getting a burning smell on a flight and couldn't figure out where it was coming from until half way into the flight someone spotted a woman lighting matches and shaking them out onto the floor to extinguish them.

When she was confronted by staff it turned out that she suffered from chronic flatulence and was lighting the matches to get rid of the smell..

:eek:

Edit: Story here

http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=woman%20matches%20airplane%20flatulence&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CF8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2F6213644.stm&ei=eJzbT_j3O5CIhQfC07mWCg&usg=AFQjCNG3J-s4XA6fSqQVkxEQ8QZcocHExw

frag420

Flying to/from Milan a few yrs ago there were a bunch af crazy Italians(are there any other type). One had a stuffed rat in his carry on bag. They proceeded to place it on or near sleeping passengers and then poke em gently to wake them. Then when the person woke up and screamed there was 5-6 Italians with cameras filimng the shock on the poor passengers face. Made the flight rather fun!

KTRIC

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I was recently reminded of something I experienced on an internal flight in the US a few years ago.

Sitting on a plane , waiting for everyone to board - fairly empty flight , maybe 30 people or so on a 100 seater plane - 4 hour internal flight.

Guy gets on and sits a few rows in front of me (I was in aisle seat, as was he) . He looked like a fairly typical business traveller - mid 30's , laptop bag over his shoulder etc. so far so normal..

Shortly after the flight took off I heard this odd scratching sound over the usual flight sounds... Couldn't place the sound until I looked at the guy.....

He had a Teddy bear in his lap and was combing it with one of those big horse brushes that have the strap on the back for you to put your hand in!! :eek:

Methodically combing the thing repeatedly.... Air Hostess came down the plane and spotted him and then saw that I saw him too and she really struggled to keep a straight face..

Guy kept this up for the entire 4hr flight. When we landed , he got up , put Teddy back in his bag and off he went...

To this day , I have no idea what was going on - Was he afraid of flying and some weird new age therapist told him to do it?? , Was he just soft in the head??

So - 2 Questions

Theories on what the hell was going on?

Anyone else have people do really weird things on flights?

Was this him ??

http://www.screenslam.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Mark-Wahlberg-Ted-movie-image-seth.jpg

Crooked Jack

One fella from Mayo leaned over his seat and tapped me on the shoulder on a flight to Chicago, pointed way up the plane and asked "is that such and such (cant remember the actual name) from my village."
Never seen the lad before in my life, at this stage didnt even know he was from Mayo. I was totally baffled. Still, nice lad and we got wrecked in a bar when the plane landed.
Another weird thing plane passengers keep doing is refusing to help me join the mile high club. Films would have me believe this is common practice on almost every flight but i have yet to experience it.

mauzo

Flying to the US once. I was sitting a few rows ahead of my parents. My mum was asleep with her head back and her mouth wide open....

A fairly pissed bloke decides to try get m&ms into her mouth!! instead of doing anything about it, My dad gets the travel blanket and puts it over her head?!

I have a bad fear of the plane just dropping out of the sky, so I rock back and forth for the whole 8 hours. Don't get up, don't eat, don't drink. I think I'm the freak on the plane..

Bad Panda

Quin_Dub wrote: »

big horse brushes

A Verticoli?

Bad Panda

syndeyfife wrote: »

I have a bad fear of the plane just dropping out of the sky, so I rock back and forth for the whole 8 hours. Don't get up, don't eat, don't drink. I think I'm the freak on the plane..

I'm not quite that bad, but did you ever notice when you do start doing something you think will pass the time is usually followed by turbulence. So you stop doing it so the turbulence will stop!?!

Mental!

mauzo

Bad Panda wrote: »

syndeyfife wrote: »

I have a bad fear of the plane just dropping out of the sky, so I rock back and forth for the whole 8 hours. Don't get up, don't eat, don't drink. I think I'm the freak on the plane..

I'm not quite that bad, but did you ever notice when you do start doing something you think will pass the time is usually followed by turbulence. So you stop doing it so the turbulence will stop!?!

Mental!

Haha yeah!! If I just sit here and do nothing I'll be fine...but if I get up to go to the toilet we'll all die..
I think that about loads of things. Like I'd turn on a football match, we'd be winning...then we'd be losing and I convince myself its because I'm watching it so I turn it off again!!

Quin_Dub

mikemac1 wrote: »

Ah leave him alone OP, he was bothering nobody

That's just how he dealt with stress.

I never spoke to the guy or anything - Not liked I mocked him to his face... It was just very weird and unexpected to say the least...

Sleepy

An uncle of mine got caught trying to smoke his pipe underneath a coat while on a flight to Australia once...

Paco Rodriguez

Seen it all before but....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65fHnVcCNRs

Africa

Remember on a looong flight from London to Chicago, which I had to get up at 5am to get connecting flight, was a chap who insisted on playing his feckin banjo on the plane. This was at about 8am. As soon as take off was over, he whipped it out, and started strumming. Now whatever about playing, but he spent most of the time tuning and detuning the thing and just tapping away, he was pretty crap at it too, if he'd been decent though I doubt it would have changed much. After about an hour and a half of this, I asked stewardess to ask him to stop cause it was so annoying. She did, and he did. Finally managed to get some sleep after that.

Another was some chap that looked homeless as they get, big filthy beard and mucky clothes, sitting there pulling on his ears and going "maomaomaomaomaomaomao" over and over and over. That was headwrecking. Thankfully that was only from here to Manchester.

CardBordWindow

A friend of mine was coming back from the states. Turns out he had a sinus infection that he hadn't really noticed. As the plane was descending, the difference in pressure caused extrusating pain. So as the plane is landing, he's crying with the pain and whimpering. He said he freaked a lot of people out.

Bad Panda

syndeyfife wrote: »

Haha yeah!! If I just sit here and do nothing I'll be fine...but if I get up to go to the toilet we'll all die..
I think that about loads of things. Like I'd turn on a football match, we'd be winning...then we'd be losing and I convince myself its because I'm watching it so I turn it off again!!

Hahaha I'm like that too! Or 'I knew I should've worn a different jersey for the game!'

Also, I think sometimes if I change my ringtone even, it's (in the scheme of things) somehow a potential change in fortune! :pac:

Aaaah feels good to get that out in the open!

Africa

Paco Rodriguez wrote: »

Seen it all before but....

*clipped out youtube vid

And finish with... Jazz Hands! Great vid

Reminded me of another. My mate and me were going to Germany a few years ago, and we ended up sitting next to a woman with Tourettes. Id never seen anyone with Tourettes before, and we'd been drinking all the night before and drinking in the pub in the airport too so we were hammered. She mad a pop noise and rolled her eyes up to 10 oclock every so often. But, she was quite cool, she acknowledged it and let us laugh, cause you know, we were bombed at that stage (dont say bomb on a plane...). We had bought a bottle of wine in the duty free to drink on the plane too (as you do at that drunken stage!) and the stewardess said were werent allowed drink it, only RyanAir approved alcohol. PFFFT to that. We opened it and drank it, and shared it with the tourettes woman, having a laugh between the 3 of ourselves over her being such a cnut, as she really just wasnt nice. Was actually one of the most entertaining flights Ive ever been on!

IvyTheTerrible

People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.

Africa

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.

I hate that SO much.

SafeSurfer

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.

When I was in Africa flying with some sh1tty domestic airline people clapped when the plane took off.

Monty Burnz

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.

If you are that pleasantly surprised to land safely, what the hell were you doing on a plane in the first place?

Boom_Bap

So many stories to tell.

There was a flight from Boston to Dublin, the ex took a sleeping tablet and streched out accross me with her legs dangling in the ailse. No problem until someone came prancing along and tripped over her legs. Lay down opn the ground motionless for a good minute. Someone was up looking for a medic on the plane. Then the fallen guy gets up and starts prancing along again like a bawse. Turns out he was sleepwalkingprancing.

Or on a flight from Botswana to Jo'Burg, a nervous guy gets on the plane beside me....and this is a rickkety old propeller plane. He firstly hands me his jacket and passport as he doesnt know what to do with them. And he is looking around all excitbaly the whole journey. When we land the plane is surrounded by cops and I immediately thought they must be after nervous guy. Turns out it was the stonecold killer looking Russian guy that was carrying 2 rucksacks which I can only imagine where filled with ammo and body parts they were after. He was arrested getting into the terminal.
And to make that flight even more interesting, the captain sounded like the african 'banker' from fonejacker.

Then there was a flight in the Middle East somewhere that was full of refugees being booted out of the country. Getting boarding cards and through security was a nightmare as the refugees had thier stuff packed in scarfs and plastic shopping bags. Most wouldnt check thier bags as they wanted to be near it at all times. Just utter confusion everywhere.

On another flight from London to Nairobi, a guy got on the plane and sat beside me.....well more like on top of me as he was one of those dudes that spilled into the seats on either side. He ordered me and the air stewards not to wake him for anything, not even for the meals in the most obnoxious and rude manner. Because of all this combined, I made his journey as awkard as possible by constantly shuffling in my seat which disturbed him and his attempt at sleep. When it was meal time, I woke the guy up as well and said that he asked to be woken when it was food time....followed by my apologies for mis-understanding.

From Nairobi - London this time and I had 2 French ladies sitting either side of me. They chatted the whole journey accross me. The then said they would like to move seats, I was deleighted, we all stood up into the aisle for them to do the swapsie. It turns out they wanted to swap seats and still have me in the middle. Marvellous, they continued thier conversation for the duration of the flight. Well, it was distrurbed by thier weak old lady bladders which meant i had to get up alot. There were nice ladies though, so when getting of the plane I said bonjour to them.

If anyone has flown in or around Africa, you've probably noticed how there is always about 10 Africans that sit whereever they want and the person assigned to the seat comes along, they need to explain how the seating works.

dilallio

My colleague had to take a flight from Shannon to Miami around 1989.
It was an Aeroflot flight and there were only about 50 people on the flight. Everyone was in the front of the plane and there was a curtain segregating the front from the rest of the plane.

About an hour into the flight, he wanted to go to the loo, but all the toilets in the front were occupied and had queues so he asked the hostess if he could use the one at the back as her was desperate. She told him to use the one at the back but to be careful on the way.

He went by the curtain which was dividing the front from the back and halfway down he could see some movement in the dark cabin. When he got closer he could see that the floorboards were lifted and there were 2 mechanics working on the plane! They were speaking russian, but one was passing a large spanner to the guy who was working below.

He told me he spent 20 mins in the toilet trying to remember the rosary.

Jen Pigs Fly

People disgust me on so many levels!

Riamfada

My usual flight routine consists of me panicing and telling my travelling partner "we are going to die ... we are going to die ... why are all these people so okay knowing that they are going to die ... can you hear that flaps retracting, they shouldnt be retracting we are going to die .... the engine sounds like its struggling we are going to die .... "


Im a joy to travel with.

Funglegunk

I was on a flight taking off from Rome when we hit an air pocket or whatever it was, feels like plane is dropping steeply. Most flyers are used to it. One of the flight attendants started screaming her head off. My ex at the time was a terrible flyer, and she started the crying/we're all going to die thing. Fun times.

splashthecash

I once saw someone order an inflight meal on a flight - they were obviously a seriously disturbed individual and the whole experience made me disgusted

_feedback_

Person in front puts seat in recline position.

Jen Pigs Fly

Passenger ate an entire pack of pistachio nuts on the plane and put the empty shells everywhere.

When he was finished he picked up the shells and sucked them

admiralofthefleet

tuesday night just gone i had an indian gurrka curry, its hotter than a vindaloo and played havoc with my insides and my camillas
i flew back home wednesday but while on the flight i was dropping some seriously evil farts.
me and the wife were sitting right at the front and could barely contain our childish laughter at the putrid stench. it made the flight go faster as i hate flying

bamboozle

flying once from London to Accra, i'd prebooked a nice isle seat with extra leg space, when i got onto plane it was like i had walked onto a game of musical chairs on a plane, no-one seemed to be interested in the seats they were allocated, a mother and 2 kids were sitting in my seat. in the end it must have taken 90 minutes for the air hostesses to get everyone sitting in designated seats.

as for internal flights in africa, on an 8 seater plane had this old man in traditional local clothes sit beside me, he spent his time talking on his mobile, praying with these beads and looking around panicked, i'd be lying if i didnt think he was a bomber.

Be||e

On a flight to Abu Dhabi last year the man beside me set up his laptop and proceeded to watch... a cricket DVD.

I wouldn't mind, but there was decent entertainment on the flight too!

Not weird or disturbing, but is there a more annoying feeling than having a child sitting behind you kicking your seat? :mad:

Africa

Absolutely nothing wrong with watching a cricket DVD, in fact, cricket is a great sport. Neither weird nor disturbing. In fact, its worse that you think that you closed minded individual.

admiralofthefleet

Be||e wrote: »

On a flight to Abu Dhabi last year the man beside me set up his laptop and proceeded to watch... a cricket DVD.

I wouldn't mind, but there was decent entertainment on the flight too!

Not weird or disturbing, but is there a more annoying feeling than having a child sitting behind you kicking your seat? :mad:

better than the gobshites you dont know that keep talking to you like they are your new best friend

crazygeryy

not so much weird but dumb more like it.

on a flight from north carolina to new york, taxing down the runway, the lights in the cabin went off(as they do) and then the plane took off into the air and we were at a steep incline as you would be taking off.if you stood up youd fall backwards it was that steep,anyway all of a sudden this woman across from me starts waving her hands in the air and shouting for a stewardess.

i thought oh jesus shes having a heart attack or something.the stewardess who had been buckled in her own chair ran down the isle and the stupid bitch says "i cant find my reading light".

Be||e

Africa wrote: »

Absolutely nothing wrong with watching a cricket DVD, in fact, cricket is a great sport. Neither weird nor disturbing. In fact, its worse that you think that you closed minded individual.

Lighten up, it was a joke.

mattjack

dilallio wrote: »

My colleague had to take a flight from Shannon to Miami around 1989.
It was an Aeroflot flight and there were only about 50 people on the flight. Everyone was in the front of the plane and there was a curtain segregating the front from the rest of the plane.

About an hour into the flight, he wanted to go to the loo, but all the toilets in the front were occupied and had queues so he asked the hostess if he could use the one at the back as her was desperate. She told him to use the one at the back but to be careful on the way.

He went by the curtain which was dividing the front from the back and halfway down he could see some movement in the dark cabin. When he got closer he could see that the floorboards were lifted and there were 2 mechanics working on the plane! They were speaking russian, but one was passing a large spanner to the guy who was working below.

He told me he spent 20 mins in the toilet trying to remember the rosary.

Sir, that's one funny post.

I was on a flight years ago to Turkey when a nutjob asked the hostess, could he smoke.Needless to say she said no and shortly afterwards he decided to burn the split ends off his hair.

When the plane landed three police officers, that looked like some of the characters out of Midnight Express dragged him off the plane.

All I wanted to say to him as he was marched off was ' Ever been in a Turkish prison ?'

Quin_Dub

Be||e wrote: »

Not weird or disturbing, but is there a more annoying feeling than having a child sitting behind you kicking your seat? :mad:

I HATE that - Got my own back on some kids doing that a few years ago

On a flight from Amsterdam to Houston a few years back and it was a wide body aircraft - the ones with the 4 seats across the middle , a family got on and sat in the row in front of me and my work buddy - Parents in outside seats, 2 kids around 9 or 10 in the middle seats

As soon as we were airborne both parents reclined the seats and went to sleep - Kids went feral!!! standing on the seats roaring, swinging out of the seatbacks pushing and shoving each other etc - Everybody in the surrounding seats were bring driven mental

Next thing I realise that my feet were getting wet!! , Little feckers were pouring water down the back of the seat :mad:

Was just about to get up to give them grief when one of them lobbed their shoe over the chair and into my lap , so presented with an opportunity I took it!! - I threw the shoe at the unconscious father in the seat in front and bounced it off his head..

He wakes up with a roar, sees that he's been hit with one of his kids shoes and put 2+2 together , slaps the kids , wakes up the wife and both were on full guard duty for the rest of the flight - Not another peep out of the kids!!!

I of course was sitting saying nothing in the row behind - But as I looked around all of the other passengers that had been disrupted by the 2 little feckers were grinning like crazy and 2 american guys in the seats across the aisle gave me a silent round of applause!!

Was quite pleased with myself really :P

Paddycrumlinman

I’ve been the weird one at times on planes. I’m 6ft 2”, long legs and I’ve got little or no space between my knees and the space in front of me. On the plane, hung-over to bits, drinking Guinness straight for two weeks me o'll bowels were not the best at all.

I settle down and I look up, a guy about 6ft 10” walking towards my seat, I’m like please keep on walking, of course, he launched himself into the seat in front of me and his weight made the seat flop back and whack my knee out of it, a bit painful but not too bad. The chap then puts his seat all the way back. With his weight and the recline he was in my face. I’m freaking out at this point, 9 hours of this fooker I could not handle, I will be done for air rage in about an hour.

Plane was 3/4 full, decided to call the attendant. I said, the gentleman in front of me, when he first sat down, the chair hit my left knee and I’m in incredible pain right now. She said do you need a Doctor or medical treatment? I said, don’t think so, however with the pain in my knee I don’t think I can sit here in this space for 9 hours, it hurts to much and just very uncomfortable, she says, wait a moment. Now my plan at this stage was to get 3 seats to myself, worked like a charm, she moved folk around and I had 3 seats to myself, result, happy camper so I was.

Flight takes off, 2 very hot American girls to my right and I lay down with my head to the left and go to sleep. A couple of hours later, I wake up as the food it being handed out, the two hot chicks are giving me the most disgusting looks, I’m like wtf is their problem? Air hostess comes by with the trolley and says, wow what is that smell down here? I can’t smell anything, the two chicks look towards me and say, yes we’ve been smelling it for 2 hours now. What was happening was, I was farting Guinness farts while I was asleep, my arse pointed in the direction of the two hot chicks and I burst out laughing when I realized they had to put up with my Guinness farting while I was sleeping. Now if anyone drinks the black stuff for one night, it will tear the arse out of you, but two weeks straight on the Guinness, well you could only imaging what the farts were like. Not my proudest moment but I could not stop laughing to myself about it.

W0bble5

Strangest thing ever flying from Dublin to Chicago. An oddball American bloke sitting next to me gave me his entire life story and was telling me how him & his girlfriend broke up, he’s moving home from Ireland & he kidnapped the dog & has him in the cargo hold on the plane.

Then he tried to diagnose me as having ADHD (probably not too far off cos I was pissed - I hate flying) and gave me tablets to take for ADHD.....eh, no thanks total stranger......

One of the most stupid things I’ve seen on a flight was one of my mates who is a complete liability when he’s drinking decided to go for a smoke on the plane. Got a serious warning off the air stewards and sat back down very sheepishly. After another load of duty free vodka he decided to set napkins on fire at his seat. Total tool. The smell of smoke in the plane was really strong & loads of people panicked thinking the plane was on fire & going to crash. Kids crying, air stewards looking for a fire, the lot.

One of the lads leaned behind him, cracked him with a dig on the jaw & knocked him out. We had to wake him when the plane landed! He was on his best behaviour on the flight home!!

Nothingbetter2d

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I was recently reminded of something I experienced on an internal flight in the US a few years ago.

Sitting on a plane , waiting for everyone to board - fairly empty flight , maybe 30 people or so on a 100 seater plane - 4 hour internal flight.

Guy gets on and sits a few rows in front of me (I was in aisle seat, as was he) . He looked like a fairly typical business traveller - mid 30's , laptop bag over his shoulder etc. so far so normal..

Shortly after the flight took off I heard this odd scratching sound over the usual flight sounds... Couldn't place the sound until I looked at the guy.....

He had a Teddy bear in his lap and was combing it with one of those big horse brushes that have the strap on the back for you to put your hand in!! :eek:

Methodically combing the thing repeatedly.... Air Hostess came down the plane and spotted him and then saw that I saw him too and she really struggled to keep a straight face..

Guy kept this up for the entire 4hr flight. When we landed , he got up , put Teddy back in his bag and off he went...

To this day , I have no idea what was going on - Was he afraid of flying and some weird new age therapist told him to do it?? , Was he just soft in the head??

So - 2 Questions

Theories on what the hell was going on?

Anyone else have people do really weird things on flights?

malfunctioning teddy bomb? terrorists will try anything

2rkehij30qtza5

Returning from the USA a few years ago...mid way through a flight..this guy gets up from his seat and moves to the empty row behind me and my husband. He kept banging my seat so I turned around to see what he was doing. Turned out he had a laptop with wires coming out of it everywhere! Next thing his mobile phone started ringing....bear in mind we were about 5 hours into the flight at this stage. Two hostesses came running and had to practically wrestle him down on the seat while a third confiscated his laptop and mobile phone.
Someone was put on centry duty beside him all the way back to London Heathrow. We were having heart failure. Probably didn't alleviate fears very much as he was of Muslim background as terrorism etc. was featuring very highly in the news at the time. Not sure what he was up to, it could have been totally harmless but it didn't appear that way. Cops were waiting outside plane when we got off.

Be||e

I remembered an incident I read about a few years ago where two women tried to open a cabin door during a flight. :eek:

So I turned to Google to find the article and apparently it is quite a common occurrence - drunk passengers who want to have a smoke think it is perfectly reasonable to open the door to let some fresh air in!

This is the article I was thinking of: Women Try to Open Door Mid-Flight