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If you travel often, you’re probably well aware of the fact that airplanes are a breeding ground for pretty weird behaviour among passengers, pilots and staff.
While many of the crazy happenings remain under wraps, a few make headline news – here are some of the strangest airplane moments to make it to find its way to our travel news desk over the past months:
10. Rapper has Twitter rant over airline mistreatment, fans call him out
(Via Will.I.Am on Twitter)
When an airline has the audacity to give a famous rapper's seat away to another passenger (who happens to be on time), they should probably know that they've got it coming.
Like that one time United Airlines decided to give Will.I.Am's (or as some started calling him - Will.don't.you.know.who.i.am) first class seat away to another passenger, as the rapper only arrived 45 minutes before his international flight was scheduled to leave. See how the rest of the story unfolded.
9. Suspected drunk pilot arrested minutes before take-off
A pilot who was scheduled to fly from Newquay Airport in Cornwall to London Gatwick was arrested in October after one of the crew members on board the Flybe aircraft summoned police to investigate the pilot's soberness. The pilot was removed from the aircraft and asked to do a breathalyzer test.
The passengers on board the flight were already in their seats on the aircraft when it was announced that the flight had been cancelled because pilot was unwell. The flight was delayed more than 4 hours
8. All the reclining seat rage!
Sometime in August this year it seems like the entire flying world hit a bit of a wobbly as no less than three in-flight brawls to break out in the space of two weeks. Interestingly two of them were sparked by disagreements over the ever-contentious reclining seat, as well as a nifty little gadget called the knee defender.
We did a round-up of the incidents and found out what the SACAA's policies are regarding reclining seats and gadgets. Check it out!
7. Passengers get out and push frozen Siberian plane
Even though nobody did anything crazy, we still think this deserves a mention, as passengers all worked together to get their flight off the ground! Go team, go!
6. Malaysia Airlines steward detained for sexually assaulting passenger
A Malaysia Airlines cabin crew member was detained in France in August over allegations that he sexually assaulted a passenger who was scared of flying with the disaster-prone airline. The passenger told authorities that the steward had sat beside her and sexually assaulted her under the pretext of comfort. Umm... can you say creeeepy?
5. NSFW: Is this the worst passenger in the world?
A video has gone viral showing a woman being forcibly removed from a plane. You kind of feel sorry for her at first until you find out why.
Stupidity is it's own reward the saying goes. And this was exactly the case with a woman who became irate when she realized she was on a flight headed to Portugal instead of Brazil.
4. Cockpit fight causes lengthy flight delay
A physical skirmish between two Jet Airways pilots caused an hour-and-a-half delay from Mumbai to Dubai when the co-pilot Rohit Ramchandran left the cockpit after allegedly being manhandled by his colleague, pilot Raj Kalra. The flight could only take off when they found a replacement for Ramchandran.
3. Passenger makes Ebola joke, gets escorted off flight
If there's one thing we learned in the latter part of this year, it's that one does not simply make Ebola jokes while on a flight, en route to a flight or even if you're thinking about flying. It's just a no no! In fact 'Ebola' is the new 'bomb'
2. Hilarious live tweets of drunken plane passenger’s crazy meltdown
Ryan Case, an award-winning editor for the popular comedy show, Modern Family, found herself on board an aircraft with 'the worst person in the world' earlier on Monday and proceeded to live tweet the nightmarish happenings that took place during the four-hour flight.
Obviously a master of comedy, Case managed to captivate her audience with a series of seriously side-splitting tweets
1. Passenger held for urinating in Mango plane’s galley
A passenger on board low-cost airline Mango was forced to clean up the mess he made after pulling down his pants and urinating in full view of other passengers in the plane’s galley during a flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg. He was, of course, intoxicated.
And the one to rule them all:
But perhaps the tendency of plane passengers to misbehave was best summed up in a social media group called PassengerShaming.com that shares pics of inconsiderate flyers.
