7 Airline Stories That Will Go Down in Infamy

Just this past summer, your friends from Winglet sat in a terminal for 4 long hours waiting for our delayed flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston. Coming home from a vacation is always bittersweet, but sitting hungover in the most uncomfortable seats known to man certainly tilts the scales more towards bitter. As we walked through the terminal in search of greasy fast food, we soon learned that every restaurant was closed. Discouraged, we settled down next to an A/C vent and tried to nap. After the second hour, the A/C stopped working. As the temperature began to rise exponentially, the young children near us started to get agitated. Every infant in the terminal began crying in harmony. We played on our phones to pass the time, but our batteries soon dwindled into the red. This was around the time we realized that every outlet nearby was either in use or didn’t work at all. With nothing else to do but keep our minds occupied, conversation started. The topic was obvious – what is the worst airport story we had to offer? In an ironic game of one-upmanship, we tried to amaze each other at the horrible airline fiascos we had personally experienced. Other unfortunate people waiting for the same flight joined in the fun. Time melted away as the terminal reached a boiling point in the hot Dominican sun. With only 15-minutes until boarding, the loudspeaker sounded, “Flight [redacted] to Boston is now delayed another hour”. 

 

Does any of the above sound familiar? Of course it does. Everyone has their own difficult airport story. For some, their experience is as annoying as a flight delay. For others, their stories can only be described as a flight from hell. Then there are others which are horrible in the moment, but get funnier with the passing of time. Collected here for our customers are eight recent news stories that will make you think at least my flight wasn’t this bad!

 

    1. CABIN FILLS WITH SMOKE WHILE LANDING

 

Minutes before landing in Valencia, Spain, passengers on a British Airways flight were in for a terrifying sight. One of the engines caught fire minutes before touching down leaking heavy smoke into the cabin. Luckily, there were no serious injuries and three people were successfully treated for smoke inhalation. Can you imagine what was going through the passenger’s minds when the smoke started to creep in?

 

    1. ARRESTED AFTER COMPLAINING ABOUT VOMIT ON SEAT

 

Do you expect your airplane seat to be clean? Well, if you do, it’s apparently an arrestable offense. A woman complained that her daughter’s seat was soaked with another passengers vomit. While the airline publicly stated that they offered the woman and her daughter to move so they could clean the seat, witnesses stated that the flight attendant didn’t try to help them at all. The airline said that the woman and her daughter would need to deplane, and when the woman refused, she was subsequently arrested. Talk about being unfairly compensated! If you follow the link, you can find other stories of gross airplane seats. Happy reading.

 

    1. BOOTED FROM FLIGHT FOR TAKING SLEEPING PILL

 

We found out after reading this story that sleeping can be labeled a “medical emergency” by airline staff. A Canadian man took a sleeping pill prescribed by his doctor prior to take off. He fell asleep and airline staff tried to wake him. Because he was slow to wake, airline staff believed he was medically unfit to fly despite airport paramedics deeming him healthy. Humiliated, the man was removed from the flight in a wheelchair for no reason.

 

 

    1. PILOT: “WELCOME TO SCOTLAND” — PASSENGERS: “BUT WE WERE HEADED TO GERMANY…”

 

There is a certain amount of trust we place in an airline when we board an airplane. But, primarily we trust that we are going to arrive in the correct place. Well, after reading this story we aren’t so sure anymore. Passengers travelling to Düsseldorf, Germany were surprised to find out upon arrival that they were not only not in Düsseldorf, they weren’t even in Germany! The airline blamed it on a paperwork error, but that sounds flimsy to us. *Facepalm*

 

    1. CANCELLED: PILOTS TOO DRUNK

 

Back in the day people used to say drunk driving was a sport. As messed up as that is, it doesn’t hold a candle to these airline pilots. Two intoxicated pilots were about to board their flight but were thankfully caught by police. The pilots were immediately removed from service with the airline saying that they hold their pilots to the highest standard. Unfortunately for the airline, two other pilots were caught drinking on the job just a couple years earlier. 

 

    1. TOILET EXPLOSION AT 30,000 FEET

 

We won’t go into too much detail here because this story is admittedly pretty gross. Let’s just say that the situation was so bad that the plane had to turn around just a couple hours into the flight. If these airline passengers had a Winglet package, they would have been paid for their trouble. 

 

    1. INCOMPARABLE IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

 

Budget airlines shouldn’t get as bad a rap as they do. For the price-conscious traveller, it really makes sense to go with the least expensive option. So what if you’ll be woken up by a flying rodent at 6am? That’s just the risk you take by saving $12. 

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