A year or so ago as my family was taking our annual Hawaii trip, we ran into a fellow who was very very unfriendly. As we boarded the plane in Phoenix Sky Harbor, I thought it would be a relatively tame flight. I was wrong…
Now my Dad is a good guy, but as far as personal space, he has absolutely no concept of what it means. So we were probably an hour or so into the flight, and my Dad grabs his briefcase from the compartments on top but accidentally hits an unsuspecting a-hole on the head.
My Dad said nothing, and was completely unaware that he had hit anyone, and this made the guy even more pissed off. He literally got out of his seat in the aisle and was shaking his fists at my Dad. He kept saying things like, “When this plane lands I’m gonna F you up etc.” My Dad was trying to apologize, although I think he still didn’t know what happened. Anyway, the guy even called a flight attendant and asked if she would reseat MY DAD! I couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy. He didn’t ask for a new seat for himself, but for my Dad. Eventually the flight attendant explained what happens when you fight on a plane and the guy shut up. The jerk sat there and watched “Over the Hedge” and ate his peanuts and stayed quiet.
Of course, there was no fight on the ground which was nice. The funny thing is, on the way home from Hawaii a week later, guess who I got to sit next to? Yeah, that guy. Surprisingly, the fellow had no idea who I was, or even that my Dad was 2 seats away from him. He started talking about college (I was in college) and blah blah blah. Normal stuff that any overly-conversational person would talk about. Then he said, “you wouldn’t believe this one guy I almost fought on the way over.” He started telling me about how my Dad was such a wuss and didn’t try to fight. I just sat there trying not to laugh and waiting for the right moment to put my iPod in my ears – which eventually happened.
I have met my fair share of a-holes, but that guy definitely takes the cake.
- River from Phoenix
Tagged as:
flight attendant,
injury,
overhead bin,
violence
On a flight a gentleman sat behind me. After being seated he took his sneakers off and wedged one of his feet in-between the seat in front of him (which was mine), and under my arm rest. The smell was enough to make me puke. I turned around and asked him to remove his foot, he said no, that he paid for his seat and needed to stretch out. I said please again, he said no, live with it. I told him the stink from his foot was making me sick, at which time he shoved his foot further between the seats causing the arm rest to raise. I told him if you don’t move your foot you would be sorry. He told me to pound sand. At that time I smashed the arm rest down on his foot. He screamed bloody murder, which caused the flight attendant to come back and ask what was wrong. He start spouting off it was my fault, then I gave my side of the story and the lady next to me said the same thing. The flight attendant told the man to remove his foot and put his shoes back on, or he would be escorted off the airplane. He was pissed. As he left the airplane the gave me and the lady a dirty stare.
Tagged as:
flight attendant,
odor,
seats,
violence
[Mature content]
My family was taking a flight from San Francisco to Bangkok. Flying in business class, we got nice treatment all the way from the attendants.
The flight was made terrible by a group of Asian men. The got as drunk as they could, belching and laughing while around them others tried to sleep. They were also passing around a series of porno magazines, holding them up so that the other members of the group could see the pictures. The attendant got them to stop. Then, after they finally quieted down, the one across the aisle from my daughters moved his hand under his blanket and proceeded to move it up and down by his middle area. I couldn’t believe it, but yes, he was whacking off. He did this two or three times during the flight; I pity the flight attendant who picked up that blanket.
We saw them in Bangkok being met by a group of very young looking ladies, their personal tour guides no doubt. No shame.
Tagged as:
alcohol,
flight attendant,
porno,
sexuality
What is it about flying that makes seemingly normal people go bonkers? There are countless news stories, including some on our site, about passengers who turn belligerent, become violent, or commit bizarre acts. Transgressions aren’t limited solely to passengers. Recently a Delta flight was canceled because two female flight attendants reportedly got into a fistfight, and even pilots have gotten into physical altercations.
One of the most notorious cases occurred on a United Airlines flight from Buenos Aires to New York in 1995. According to accounts, Gerald Finneran, who was a successful president of an investment banking company, a former Citicorp and Drexel Burnham Lambert executive, and a member of the Air Force Academy’s first graduating class, became intoxicated during a flight. When he was refused any more beverages, he decided to help himself. After being told to stop, he became abusive, threatening a FA, delaying a FA from helping a sick passenger, and pushing a FA. Finneran’s grand finale was to defecate on a food cart in the first class section in front of passengers and crew. He used linen napkins as toilet paper, wiped his hands on service counters and service implements, and tracked feces throughout the plane. One of the passengers on the flight was the president of Portugal.
Finneran was arrested when the plane landed in New York. His ignominious actions attracted widespread media attention, including being the subject of a David Letteman Top Ten List. Finneran plead guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. He was sentenced to probation and fined $5,000 dollars. He was also ordered to serve community service and 2 years probation, attend alcohol counseling, not drink alcohol on flights, and pay $50,000 for airplane clean-up costs plus reimbursement of passenger’s ticket costs. Mr. Finneran died at the age of 67 in 2005 from, according to his obituary, complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Click here for the actual complaint filed in federal court for the Finneran case, and here for a description of outrageous airplane incidents including Finneran’s.
What do you think causes normally respectable people to become berserk on planes? Is it the altitude, alcohol, stresses associated with air travel, fear of flying, confinement, latent mental instability, or something else?
Tagged as:
alcohol,
delta airlines,
flight attendant,
pilot,
police,
poop,
united airlines,
violence
