Archive for the 'Weird Airline Stories' Category
June 09 2008
A court in India has ruled that Air India has the right to fire flight attendants it considers to be overweight. The court agreed with the airline that overweight staff members posed a safety risk. To show how progressive they were, the court also added that a woman’s physical appearance plays an important part in her overall personality. Remember, ladies, it’s how you look on the outside that counts.
Air India has also told prospective applicants that they should not have acne or bad teeth.
(Thanks Tripmela blog)
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May 27 2008
A customs officer at Tokyo’s Narita airport trying to test whether drug-sniffing dogs could find marijuana in a suitcase, forgot which piece of luggage he placed the drugs in and now someone is walking around Tokyo with about 1/3 of a pound of pot in the luggage. Customs officials say that it is against regulations to test their dogs by picking a random piece of luggage (for this very reason - typically they used a marked suitcase). They ask that if you find 1/3 of a pound of marijuana in your suitcase to let customs know at Narita. Which, given my experience with people speaking English in Japan, should be an interesting conversation.
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May 21 2008
I’m not even sure this story makes any sense, but here goes: A pilot and flight attendant for Pinnacle Airlines (Northwest) were in Harrisburg, PA, the night before working a flight. They went to a bar, got drunk, headed back to the hotel, decided to hook up in the woods, somehow got separated, and the evening ended with the pilot being found naked (save for a pair of flip flops) hiding in a shed, while the flight attendant was caught breaking into a fire department vehicle looking for a flashlight to go find the pilot.
Whew.
The two were arrested, and their morning flight was delayed an hour and a half while another crew was brought in.
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May 19 2008
An airport worker in Portland, Maine, came up with a novel way to fight the high cost of heating his home: he stole fuel from a JetBlue A320 parked at the airport to use for home heating. An airport employee was seen filling up a 5-gallon jug with jet fuel from a JetBlue plane before it took off. Following an investigation, the airline determined that the man had stolen 25 gallons of fuel from the airline. While that is certainly a problem, the bigger problem is that some random dude was touching an airplane — which is not good. It is especially not good considering all of the terrorism-related security nonsense we go through. JetBlue says that the theft caused more than $3,000 in additional costs, including fixing a loose gas cap assembly.
The man has since been fired.
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May 13 2008
Something about this is extremely fishy:
A man is suing JetBlue because, he says, he was forced to spend most of a flight from San Diego to JFK sitting on a toilet. The passenger wanted to get on the flight but was told that there were no seats available. He says a flight attendant offered to allow him to sit in her jump seat (huh? you can’t do that), which he agreed to. After an hour and a half of flying, though, he was told the flight attendant wanted the jump seat back and that he would have to hang out in the bathroom. I know, something doesn’t sound right, does it? In any case, he’s suing for $2 million.
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May 09 2008
This should be a movie:
On February 1st a group of tourists from Ghana arrived in Barbados for a two week holiday. Their flight on Ghana International Airlines was to depart on February 15th. It did not show up. The 61 Ghanaians waiting for the flight were unable to simply take the next flight out, as there is no service between the two countries (not surprising). Though I have no idea what I would’ve done in this situation, I would likely not have done what some of the passengers did: they found jobs so they could make some money so they could stay in Barbados until a plane arrived to pick them up.
On May 8th, 2 1/2 months after their flight was supposed to depart, a chartered Miami Air plane picked them up and took them home. I’m not sure how much notice the passengers gave their new employers before departing.
Now THAT is a flight delay. Stop whining when your trip from Louisville is 45 minutes late.
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April 18 2008
A passenger was removed from a United Airlines from from JFK to San Francisco after he refused to sit down prior to takeoff because he was praying. The man (who, for the sake of full disclosure, though the religion doesn’t really matter here, was Jewish) was standing up and praying and would not sit down when the plane was about to take off. Friends of his explained to flight attendants that he would be done in 2 minutes. That was all well and good, but they had security escort him off the plane.
I’m guessing we’ll hear some indignation about this story, but the fact of the matter is this: You can’t stand up when the plane is trying to depart. And in a crowded airport like JFK (or just about anywhere, for that matter), 2 minutes makes a difference. And what if a different passenger wanted 4 minutes. Would that have been OK? Or what if I just wanted to stand up and think about things for a few minutes — is that alright? I’m curious to see the tone of the stories that come out from this, but while everyone has a right to pray, this guy should have davened a bit faster…
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April 09 2008
Two dead passenger stories to share:
Several Canadians are accusing Air Canada of bumping a family member’s coffin (which held the aforementioned family member at the time) from a Montreal flight to make room to get additional luggage onto the plane. Air Canada denies the charge (though doesn’t explain what happened). The coffin was not given a $10 meal voucher until the next flight.
Family members of a man who died on a British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London last week are angry with the airline because BA managed to lose his luggage (though, thankfully, not the man) . Even worse, the missing luggage contains the man’s cellphone and address book, which the family needs to contact friends about the funeral.
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March 19 2008
As my mother reads this website, I’ll just say this: A woman is suing American Airlines because the passenger in the seat next to her was doing something to himself that people typically don’t do in public and the resulting aftermath was reminiscent of a scene in There’s Something About Mary. American denies responsibility, though their old slogan “Something Special in the Hair” (or was it Air?) seems fitting…
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January 29 2008
For some reason a German travel agency is going to offer flights to a nudist resort where passengers do not have to wear clothing (in case you were wondering, crew have to wear clothing for safety reasons. I’m not sure what those reasons are.) Flights start July 5.
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Indian Court: Air India Can Fire Fat Flight Attendants