25 Flight Attendants And Pilots Share The Most Obnoxious And Infuriating Things Passengers Have Ever Done

Air travel can be stressful not only for the passengers but for the crew as well. There's a thread on Reddit where flight attendants and commercial pilots share all the obnoxious behaviors people have exhibited on board their plane. And they're not just talking about suitcases! From leaving little children unsupervised to maintaining personal hygiene, there are plenty of things that shouldn't happen at 35,000 feet but, unfortunately, still do. Luckily, these professionals are trained to handle even the most chaotic situations.

Discover more in 43 Flight Attendants And Pilots Share The Most Obnoxious And Infuriating Things Passengers Have Ever Done

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#1

There was a story a while back of how on British Airways a white woman was very dissatisfied sitting next to a black man in economy class. She [complaned] to the flight attendants about it and so after a while they came back to her saying "we can upgrade to first class". She gets up to go, but they stop her, telling her that no, the first class seat is for him.

© Photo: CrouxR

#2

Just a passenger here. I was flying Ryan air from Berlin to London. When the steward (he wasn't a good looking man at all, relevant) started giving the safety instructions a couple of guys who were part of a large group of friends in their early twenties started mocking him by making monkey and pig noises.

He tried more than once to very nicely tell them to listen to his instructions as they might save their lives, but they continued to mock him. He threatened to get them kick off the flight and they continued to mock. He went to the front of the plane and the pilot pulled back to the gate and they were still mocking. They opened the door and three German police officers come in and arrested the two guys for endangering other passengers by not allowing the safety instructions to go ahead, at which point the entire plane (excluding their friends) started clapping and cheering.

© Photo: dmo7

#3

I have a story about people and their rude, obnoxious behavior.

I was in X-ray school at the time and my teacher and I were flying back from an annual conference that our national professional society hosts annually.

I was flying home from Las Vegas (2nd time flying in a commercial plane) and a women two rows behind me started having a seizure. No one seemed to care and her husband was completely clueless as how to help. My teacher was quick to jump out of her seat and called me to help. We attempted to life all of about 300 pounds of her and get her to where she was laying on her side in the isle. No one helped. Everyone just stared. I understand why people don't want to help or can't help. Totally cool with that. Some people are afraid of the situation, afraid of being sued, or just afraid in general.

What really got me is when we landed, the pilot asked everyone to remained seated until the emts got her and her husband off first, no one listened. They tried getting off the plane before she had been strapped to the back board and didn't [care]. As my teacher and I were helping the emt's to tell people to remain seated a man gets up and yells at my teacher. We were floored. Call me naive, but I was shocked at the lack of empathy these people had.

© Photo: georgettesinclair

#4

I fly seaplanes for a living, and when we get tourists a regular question is, "When will you fly real airplanes?"

As opposed to the fake one you're trusting your life to now?

© Photo: stygarfield

#5

Had a woman freak out on a flight attendant because the cookies she was serving had cranberries in them. Apparently she was on blood thinners and couldn't eat them. We serve a number of other options. Some people just like to complain I guess. As a pilot I try and avoid dealing with the cargo.

© Photo: canadian_climber

#6

Girlfriend's a flight attendant and this is my favorite story of hers.

She had just started flying internationally and a woman in coach had decided to spread out in the middle three seats as no one was sitting in them. The last passenger was a man who was supposed to sit in one of those seats. The woman refused to get up, having sprawled out with blankets to sleep on the flight. My girlfriend tried to explain to the woman that the man had purchased one of the seats she was using. Woman didn't care, simply refused to get up and said the man could sit somewhere else.

The guy was very cool throughout this, kind of giving a shrug to my girlfriend like, "Well, now what do we do?"

My girlfriend got the ISM (International Service Manager or Purser, as they used to be called), basically the head flight attendant and the person responsible for everything aft of the cockpit. She walked back and asked the woman to please move. Again, the woman refused, saying the man could sit somewhere else.

The ISM turned to the man and said, "Actually, she right. We have a couple of seats in first class and we'd be happy to upgrade you free of charge. Are these your only bags?"

The woman's face was apparently priceless and she started to stutter out a protest, but by that time the three of them were already working their way to the front of the plane.

© Photo: monkeyleavings

#7

A friend of mine was a flight attendant who told me that a guy called the air hostess and very politely asked if the pilot could shut off one of the jet engines so his son could sleep peacefully.

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#8

Had a 20ish year old girl going to see her SO. She needed to shave so she did so in the bathroom, turbulence pursued and she cut herself really bad. Had to bring paramedics in and they carried her out. After unloaded, the FO noticed the trail of blood down the jetway.

Edit1: FO = first officer or co pilot. Unfortunately she did not cut her leg... It was her special lady area.

© Photo: NexusEvo

#9

I once witnessed a woman lay her toddler on the aisle and proceed to change his diaper. This was during boarding. I was gobsmacked.

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#10

Not a flight attendant, but was coming from Vegas to LA and some little twit in back of me started painting or nails or removing her nail polish. I didn't know who it was at first and was like, it smells like acid in here, then realized it was nail product. The air wasn't filtering and the whole plane could smell it. The flight attentant came over and told her to put it away because it was toxic. The girl then said, just let me finish my last two nails. The attendant was in disbelief and ordered her to put it away. Then announed on the microphone that the smell was from some passenger who insited on doing her nails in the plane and took a little poke at her.

I guess this was expected from a little LA princess...

© Photo: sir_drink_alot

#11

After completing my passenger brief, they would often ask me where my name/accent was from. On no less than a dozen occasions, upon hearing that I am of Turkish heritage, would ask "You're not going to fly us into any buildings, are you?"

Commenting on my youth: "Are you REALLY old enough to fly this thing?"

After telling a passenger to put away a phone or put on a seatbelt: "Who are YOU to tell me what to do?." or "Would you tell your father to do that?"

They would also bargain with me about the rules or tried to argue that so and so rule that I was required to enforce had no basis in reality.

Passengers, don't insult your pilot or flight crew immediately before they're about to take you someplace.

© Photo: Turkstache

#12

Not a flight attendant but my father worked for an airline for over 30 years and shared this story with me based on one of his colleagues' experiences. On a flight from JFK to Heathrow post 9/11, while the plane was about 4th or 5th in line for take-off an American lady demanded to be let off the plane. The attendant naturally refused since the doors were closed and they were almost at the runway. The lady went nuts and called 911 from her cellphone and said she was an American citizen being held against her will on a foreign airline and they were about to take off and she was going to be taken to another country. In about 3-4 minutes police and FBI vans surrounded the plane, pulled her out and grounded the flight pending further investigation. In the end she was just a nutjob who ruined everyone's flight.

TLDR: crazy american lady calls 911 before take off, says she is being kidnapped, feds surround plane, flight gets canceled.

© Photo: f-mttm

#13

A family friend is a commercial pilot with a major U.S. airline. He was flying a transatlantic flight from Chicago to London. Midway through the flight one of the flight attendants pages the cockpit and tells him that they need help restraining a passenger in first class. He gets up and walks back to first class to find a 60 year woman hammered drunk fighting with the flight attendants. Apparently the woman was seated next to a younger man and after getting extremely drunk kept grabbing [him]. He asked her to stop and after the 3rd or 4th time he paged the flight attendants asking to be moved.

The women then got belligerent so she had to be restrained. They wound up making an emergency landing in Iceland and arresting the woman because she was so belligerent. The best part is the arrest was the least of the woman's worries. She was permanently barred from the airline, had to incur the cost of the fuel the plane had to dump so it didn't land too heavy, as well as the cost to make the landing, and probably had to register as a offender. Also the entire plane full of people probably weren't too happy to have to be delayed several hours waiting for the plane to refuel and file a new flight plan.

TL, DR: Free drinks in first class can wind up costing you $30-40k in bad decisions.

© Photo: anon

#14

Not me, but a friend of mine once told me that on one flight, the attendant was trying to take a lady's drink order when her husband turns to the attendant and says, "Sorry, she doesn't speak to the help.".

© Photo: anon

#15

When I was flying night helicopter "strip tours" up and down the Vegas strip, despite the video briefing which mentioned several times that no flash photography was permitted and my own verbal briefing mentioning this again, people would regularly take flash photos during the flight. It just blows my mind that people would think it's ok to temporarily blind the pilot who's flying them.

© Photo: firesgood

#16

I used to work for an airline which meant I got to fly for free as a standby passenger. This is called "non-revving" (non-revenue passenger). So this one day I'm taking a flight to New York as a non-rev and there is a girl from our airline who worked as a gate agent on there with a bunch of her friends. non-revving is a delicate thing sometimes, there are a lot of rules that the airline makes you follow so you don't tarnish their image, I almost got denied entry once because I wasn't wearing dress shoes. These girls get boarded and immediately start acting like stupid [jerks]. it's warm in the plane so clearly the APU hasn't been connected to allow the plane power to run the AC. As soon as the APU is connected and activated the AC is turned on and something starts blowing out the vents. at this point the plane is fully boarded but people are still putting [things] in the overheads and stuff. what looks like steam or dust or mist or something starts coming out these vents and one of the stupid girls friends decides to shout (jokingly) "FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE ON THE PLANE!"

ON A FULLY... BOARDED... FLIGHT.

needless to say the flight attendants did not find this hilarious and they were all escorted off.

© Photo: PineconeShuff

#17

I was an F/A on private charter flights. You know that kissy-type noise you make to a cat to get their attention? When he wanted my attention, a certain NBA star (cough-Shaq-cough) would constantly call to me like that. I politely told him my name every time, but he refused to say my name, "ma'am", "miss" or any other form of polite conversation.

He also sulked in the corner of the plane with his headphones on the whole time, playing video games like a child, while his wife (now ex) watched their 5 kids, cut up all of their food, entertained them, and made preparations for after landing. He was totally useless the whole time. No wonder they divorced.

One of my least favorite pax ever.

© Photo: cressidacay

#18

My friend was on a flight that right after touching down had a lady from the back unbuckle and run to the front of the plane during taxiing to get off first, even though the buckled in flight attendants were telling her to remain in her seat. She kept saying how she had to get off fast to make her connecting flight. After arriving at the gate, the pilot announced over the intercom that they jetway had an issue and the plane would be de-boarding from the rear doors. He said the looks of satisfaction on all the other passengers was delightful.

© Photo: wheatie

#19

Not a flight attendant or a pilot, but my dad always tells the story of how his friend from work delayed a flight by three hours for jokingly asking the pilot "Didn't I see you at the bar?"

He didn't realize that because of that joke would end with clearing the plane of all passengers, bringing in a new pilot, and causing the original pilot to go through some serious [trouble].

© Photo: kewlkatcalvin

#20

A couple of WWF (now WWE) wrestlers were on a flight that was about to land but one of them needed to go to the lavatory. You obviously can't leave your seat when you are about to land so they told him no, so he decide to [go] in the aisle instead.

edit: The crew that told me the story didn't really remember what wrestler it was. It happened in the late 90s and it was on a regional plane in Ohio. Obviously the wrestler was arrested and banned from the airline. So maybe there's a police report somewhere.

© Photo: paradoxofchoice

#21

I don't fly for a major airline, but for a smaller company in northern Canada. The plane I fly only has 8 seats, so when I have a full load of people, one person has to sit up front with me in the right seat.

One time I was flying with a full load, and the guy beside me was just one of those cocky, annoying guys that thinks they're always right. About 5 minutes after take-off he asked me if I knew where we were. I told him exactly where we were, and then another couple minutes later he said we were going the wrong way. Being cautious, I checked my gps and my other nav aids which all indicated I was on track to my destination. I told him he's mistaken, and pointed straight ahead of us telling him that was where we needed to go. He then pointed over his right shoulder and said we should be heading back that way. By this time I knew the guy was an idiot.

For the rest of the flight he just kept shaking his head and I kept trying to ignore him.

After we landed at our destination I just gave him the "how about you just let the pilots do the navigating from now on" look.

TL;DR Passenger tried telling pilot they were going the wrong way when they actually weren't.

© Photo: szaeti

#22

I wasnt working that day but sure heard it the next. At Denver international a flight that just landed had an irate passenger. As soon as the plane hit the gate the passenger took off from his seat, opened the service door on the back of the plane. He then jumped off the plane to end up breaking both his legs.

© Photo: anon

#23

Dora the Explorer without earphones on a night flight.

© Photo: Mablun

#24

My worst experience came from one of Delta's "Diamond Medallion" member.. We were broken in Memphis and the Gate Agent had just made the announcement that we were delayed due to maintenance, the mechanic has been called and is on his way out. There is no known estimated time on the fix because the mechanic will have to do some troubleshooting and then we would know how long it would take to fix it. The guy calls me over and says "I'm a Delta Diamond Medallion member, so tell me exactly how long this delay is going to be" I was like WTH? I told everyone EXACTLY what I know, I [don't care] about your airline Status..

Another good one for me.. Being an African American Captain is I always get the "You're not Denzil Washington are you?".

#25

My godfather has been a flight attendant since the late 80s, and over the years he's had some great stories. One time, one of his passengers brought her cat on board in a pet carrier. At first glance, this woman seemed to be the stereotypical crazy cat lady. However, she took crazy cat ladyness to new frontier when it came to the cat's feeding time. Instead of cat food and a bowl of water, this woman proceeds to breastfeed the cat. I don't want to think about how much that must have hurt. Needless to say, my godfather was unamused and firmly asked her to stop.

Edit: Since y'all seem to be enjoying this story, here's another one for you. One of my godfather's former coworkers was straight up crazy, schizophrenic with a streak of fundamentalism. On one flight this crazy woman was flying with a new flight attendant, a nice young black man. In the course of their flight, it comes up that this man likes snakes and has a number of them as pets. They continue with their flight, and she notices that this guy has a prodigious bulge. As she told my godfather, "I had seen a lot of endowments before I became a born again Christian, but nothing like that! I just know that he is traveling with a snake!" She reported him to security. Turns out, [it was not a snake].

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