I really wish there were some more details here, but here’s what we know:
- Pakistan International Airlines (also commonly referred to as PIA) flight from Lahore to Karachi, Pakistan.
- Plane is overbooked.
- Captain tells 2 passengers, who would’ve otherwise been bumped (do they have a bump policy in Pakistan?) that they can ride in bathroom.
- 2 passengers ride to Karachi in bathroom.
The end.
A Qantas flight from Darwin to Brisbane had to divert to Mt. Isa because passengers reported smelling smoke coming from the bathroom.
Flight crew took precautionary measures and landed the 767 at the small airport, which typically does not handle planes of that size. Passengers were reportedly forklifted (whee!) off the plane. On a positive note, the airline bought everyone pizzas.
Upon investigation, it was determined that the smell in the toiled was, in fact, a dirty diaper. In fairness, flushing a dirty diaper may have clogged up the toilet and caused overheating, which would have led to smoke. Or, a baby poop just smelled bad.
Qantas brought in a 737 to carry passengers the rest of the way to Brisbane.
(I apologize, as the original article was written in Australian — I’m just assuming that “nappy stuck in loo” means that a toilet was backed up from a diaper. It may also have something to do with a koala bear, a boomerang and Paul Hogan.)
Thanks to long-time OTR reader Brenda for the heads up.
It’s worth reading the whole story here, but the captain of a Chatauqua Airlines flight from Asheville, North Carolina, to LaGuardia got stuck in the lavatory of the small plane and, in a ridiculous series of events, ended up causing fighter jets to be put on alert.
After the captain was stuck for a bit in the bathroom, he banged on the door for a while until one of the passengers heard him and came over to the bathroom. The captain told the passenger (who, it turns out, spoke with an accent of some sort) to go knock on the cockpit door to alert the co-pilot what was happening.
The passenger banged on the door and asked the co-pilot to open the cockpit door. That freaked out the co-pilot, who called air traffic control to tell them that a man with a Middle Eastern accent was banging on the cockpit door, demanding to be let in. Hilarity ensues.
The captain eventually opens the door to the bathroom, the whole thing is straightened out, and Zack Morris learns his lesson about not being honest with Mr. Belding (sorry – that was Saved by the Bell).
A folk singer from Boston named Vance Gilbert says that after he boarded a United Airlines flight on August 14th he took out a book about World War I aircraft and started reading. Shortly thereafter, 3 crew members from Shuttle America, which operated the United Express flight, came on the plane and asked Mr. Gilbert to come with them. They then asked him about the book of planes, examined the book, then let him back on the plane. Gilbert then says that he “silently wept” during the rest of the flight.
Gilbert posted this on his blog, and the Boston Globe has picked up the story. This both seems incredibly bizarre yet also plausible. I’m not exactly sure why he was so upset by it – crazy security-related stuff happens all the time, but for its part United said they are looking into the incident.
This is ridiculous: A New Jersey passenger is suing Continental Airlines because of the carrier’s cashless cabin policy. Michael Rosen was on Continental’s Newark-Honolulu flight and discovered his headphones didn’t work. The airline charges $3 for new headphones, but only accepts credit cards. rosen had checked his credit cards in his luggage (seriously? are you kidding me?) and had to sit in silence during the 11 hour trip.
He’s suing the airline for discriminating against people without credit cards.
The case is ridiculous, but flight attendants probably could’ve thrown the guy a bone and given him the $3 headphones, no?
Passengers on a Ryanair flight from Fez, Morocco, to Beauvais, France, refused to depart the aircraft after a weather delay forced the plane to land in Liege, Belgium. After landing, passengers were asked to disembark and board buses for the 3-hour ride back to the Paris area. No dice.
Instead, they staged a sit-in, refusing to get off the plane for 4 hours demanding they be flown back to France. At one point, flight attendants locked the toilet doors, turned off the lights, and walked off the aircraft with the pilots in tow. (If you were wondering whether the French will strike over anything, this would answer that question in the affirmative.)
Airport officials went to the plane and managed to convince the passengers (with some help from local police) to sit in the airport lounge, enjoy some free food and drink, then take free buses back to France. At 3:30am.
(Thanks to Joey and Doug, and everybody else, for sending me this…)
You’re going to hear about this elsewhere, but in case you haven’t yet, this will be the oddest airline story of the year: A flight attendant working a JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh to JFK, got into a disagreement with a passenger, then, upon landing, cursed at the passenger over the PA system, grabbed a beer, activated the emergency chute, and slid down it. The whole thing apparently started when the passenger was getting a bag from the overhead bin, and it hit the flight attendant in the head. The passenger refused to apologize. The rest is (or will be) history. I especially like the grabbing a beer part.
A passenger on a Ryanair flight from Berlin to Rygge, Norway, purchased a sandwich that the airline advertised as “freshly made.” After tasting said sandwich, he determined it was not of recent provenance, and complained to flight attendants about the quality thereof. The flight attendant (and pilot) were not amused by the passenger’s complaint, and asked that the flight be met by police when they arrived in Norway. Police laughed when they were told what had happened and released the man without further incident.
I’m sure there is a lesson in here somewhere…
A Southwest Airlines baggage handler in Little Rock alerted police last week when he saw 60 human heads being loaded onto a plane without human bodies attached to them. The heads (which I assume were flying free, as they were in the baggage compartment) were allegedly headed to a medical research company in Fort Worth before authorities intervened.
There is some question as to whether the heads were obtained legally. Said a local coroner, “We just want to make sure these specimens here aren’t a part of (a) black market.” Indeed.
The supplier of the heads (well, the company supplying the heads, not the former person with the head) had its business license revoked last year.
1) Delta has one unaccompanied minor traveling from Spokane to Boston via Minneapolis and another unaccompanied minor traveling from Spokane to Cleveland via Minneapolis.
2) The two children are on the same Spokane to Minneapolis flight.
3) Upon arrival for their connection in Minneapolis, paperwork is accidentally switched (like when Mike Brady is supposed to present architectural drawings at a meeting in Cincinnati but for reasons that aren’t important here opens up his plans only to find it switched with a poster of Yogi Bear).
4) Girl bound for Cleveland is placed on flight to Boston and vice versa.
5) Oops
6) In one of the odder quotes of the year, Delta’s spokesperson said they, “re-accommodated the children to their final destination cities at no cost” (nice to know they waived the change fee).
7) Kids return to their correct cities.
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