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Weird/Disturbing things you've seen other passengers do on Flights

  • 15-06-2012 10:48AM
    #1
    Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 17,597 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    I was recently reminded of something I experienced on an internal flight in the US a few years ago.

    Sitting on a plane , waiting for everyone to board - fairly empty flight , maybe 30 people or so on a 100 seater plane - 4 hour internal flight.

    Guy gets on and sits a few rows in front of me (I was in aisle seat, as was he) . He looked like a fairly typical business traveller - mid 30's , laptop bag over his shoulder etc. so far so normal..

    Shortly after the flight took off I heard this odd scratching sound over the usual flight sounds... Couldn't place the sound until I looked at the guy.....

    He had a Teddy bear in his lap and was combing it with one of those big horse brushes that have the strap on the back for you to put your hand in!! :eek:

    Methodically combing the thing repeatedly.... Air Hostess came down the plane and spotted him and then saw that I saw him too and she really struggled to keep a straight face..

    Guy kept this up for the entire 4hr flight. When we landed , he got up , put Teddy back in his bag and off he went...

    To this day , I have no idea what was going on - Was he afraid of flying and some weird new age therapist told him to do it?? , Was he just soft in the head??

    So - 2 Questions

    Theories on what the hell was going on?

    Anyone else have people do really weird things on flights?


«1345678

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,455 ✭✭✭✭Monty Burnz


    A bad flyer doing something comforting on the instructions of therapist/hypnotherapist.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,300 ✭✭✭hairyprincess


    I guess he couldn't bare to be parted from his Ted


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,808 ✭✭✭FatherLen


    i am usually the one doing weird things on flights.....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    maybe he was austistic or something similar


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 352 ✭✭Best username ever


    Taking asprin a few shots then having a ****


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    Ah leave him alone OP, he was bothering nobody

    That's just how he dealt with stress.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,293 ✭✭✭✭Mint Sauce


    No, but there was once some fella from cork who....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,293 ✭✭✭✭Mint Sauce


    Taking asprin a few shots then having a ****

    Beat me to it.

    :mad:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,808 ✭✭✭FatherLen


    mikemac1 wrote: »
    Ah leave him alone OP, he was bothering nobody

    That's just how he dealt with stress.


    yeah, that and murdering people.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 10,464 Mod ✭✭✭✭xzanti


    Can't say I've ever seen anything really disturbing first hand.. but I recall a story that was in the news some years back of passengers getting a burning smell on a flight and couldn't figure out where it was coming from until half way into the flight someone spotted a woman lighting matches and shaking them out onto the floor to extinguish them.

    When she was confronted by staff it turned out that she suffered from chronic flatulence and was lighting the matches to get rid of the smell..

    :eek:

    Edit: Story here

    http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=woman%20matches%20airplane%20flatulence&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CF8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2F6213644.stm&ei=eJzbT_j3O5CIhQfC07mWCg&usg=AFQjCNG3J-s4XA6fSqQVkxEQ8QZcocHExw


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,161 ✭✭✭frag420


    Flying to/from Milan a few yrs ago there were a bunch af crazy Italians(are there any other type). One had a stuffed rat in his carry on bag. They proceeded to place it on or near sleeping passengers and then poke em gently to wake them. Then when the person woke up and screamed there was 5-6 Italians with cameras filimng the shock on the poor passengers face. Made the flight rather fun!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,346 ✭✭✭KTRIC


    Quin_Dub wrote: »
    I was recently reminded of something I experienced on an internal flight in the US a few years ago.

    Sitting on a plane , waiting for everyone to board - fairly empty flight , maybe 30 people or so on a 100 seater plane - 4 hour internal flight.

    Guy gets on and sits a few rows in front of me (I was in aisle seat, as was he) . He looked like a fairly typical business traveller - mid 30's , laptop bag over his shoulder etc. so far so normal..

    Shortly after the flight took off I heard this odd scratching sound over the usual flight sounds... Couldn't place the sound until I looked at the guy.....

    He had a Teddy bear in his lap and was combing it with one of those big horse brushes that have the strap on the back for you to put your hand in!! :eek:

    Methodically combing the thing repeatedly.... Air Hostess came down the plane and spotted him and then saw that I saw him too and she really struggled to keep a straight face..

    Guy kept this up for the entire 4hr flight. When we landed , he got up , put Teddy back in his bag and off he went...

    To this day , I have no idea what was going on - Was he afraid of flying and some weird new age therapist told him to do it?? , Was he just soft in the head??

    So - 2 Questions

    Theories on what the hell was going on?

    Anyone else have people do really weird things on flights?

    Was this him ??

    http://www.screenslam.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Mark-Wahlberg-Ted-movie-image-seth.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,679 ✭✭✭Crooked Jack


    One fella from Mayo leaned over his seat and tapped me on the shoulder on a flight to Chicago, pointed way up the plane and asked "is that such and such (cant remember the actual name) from my village."
    Never seen the lad before in my life, at this stage didnt even know he was from Mayo. I was totally baffled. Still, nice lad and we got wrecked in a bar when the plane landed.
    Another weird thing plane passengers keep doing is refusing to help me join the mile high club. Films would have me believe this is common practice on almost every flight but i have yet to experience it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,033 ✭✭✭mauzo


    Flying to the US once. I was sitting a few rows ahead of my parents. My mum was asleep with her head back and her mouth wide open....

    A fairly pissed bloke decides to try get m&ms into her mouth!! instead of doing anything about it, My dad gets the travel blanket and puts it over her head?!

    I have a bad fear of the plane just dropping out of the sky, so I rock back and forth for the whole 8 hours. Don't get up, don't eat, don't drink. I think I'm the freak on the plane..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,205 ✭✭✭Bad Panda


    Quin_Dub wrote: »
    big horse brushes

    A Verticoli?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,205 ✭✭✭Bad Panda


    syndeyfife wrote: »
    I have a bad fear of the plane just dropping out of the sky, so I rock back and forth for the whole 8 hours. Don't get up, don't eat, don't drink. I think I'm the freak on the plane..

    I'm not quite that bad, but did you ever notice when you do start doing something you think will pass the time is usually followed by turbulence. So you stop doing it so the turbulence will stop!?!

    Mental!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,033 ✭✭✭mauzo


    Bad Panda wrote: »
    syndeyfife wrote: »
    I have a bad fear of the plane just dropping out of the sky, so I rock back and forth for the whole 8 hours. Don't get up, don't eat, don't drink. I think I'm the freak on the plane..

    I'm not quite that bad, but did you ever notice when you do start doing something you think will pass the time is usually followed by turbulence. So you stop doing it so the turbulence will stop!?!

    Mental!

    Haha yeah!! If I just sit here and do nothing I'll be fine...but if I get up to go to the toilet we'll all die..
    I think that about loads of things. Like I'd turn on a football match, we'd be winning...then we'd be losing and I convince myself its because I'm watching it so I turn it off again!!


  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 17,597 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    mikemac1 wrote: »
    Ah leave him alone OP, he was bothering nobody

    That's just how he dealt with stress.

    I never spoke to the guy or anything - Not liked I mocked him to his face... It was just very weird and unexpected to say the least...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 25,000 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    An uncle of mine got caught trying to smoke his pipe underneath a coat while on a flight to Australia once...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 698 ✭✭✭Paco Rodriguez


    Seen it all before but....



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,252 ✭✭✭Africa


    Remember on a looong flight from London to Chicago, which I had to get up at 5am to get connecting flight, was a chap who insisted on playing his feckin banjo on the plane. This was at about 8am. As soon as take off was over, he whipped it out, and started strumming. Now whatever about playing, but he spent most of the time tuning and detuning the thing and just tapping away, he was pretty crap at it too, if he'd been decent though I doubt it would have changed much. After about an hour and a half of this, I asked stewardess to ask him to stop cause it was so annoying. She did, and he did. Finally managed to get some sleep after that.

    Another was some chap that looked homeless as they get, big filthy beard and mucky clothes, sitting there pulling on his ears and going "maomaomaomaomaomaomao" over and over and over. That was headwrecking. Thankfully that was only from here to Manchester.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,209 ✭✭✭CardBordWindow


    A friend of mine was coming back from the states. Turns out he had a sinus infection that he hadn't really noticed. As the plane was descending, the difference in pressure caused extrusating pain. So as the plane is landing, he's crying with the pain and whimpering. He said he freaked a lot of people out.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,205 ✭✭✭Bad Panda


    syndeyfife wrote: »
    Haha yeah!! If I just sit here and do nothing I'll be fine...but if I get up to go to the toilet we'll all die..
    I think that about loads of things. Like I'd turn on a football match, we'd be winning...then we'd be losing and I convince myself its because I'm watching it so I turn it off again!!


    Hahaha I'm like that too! Or 'I knew I should've worn a different jersey for the game!'

    Also, I think sometimes if I change my ringtone even, it's (in the scheme of things) somehow a potential change in fortune! :pac:

    Aaaah feels good to get that out in the open!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,252 ✭✭✭Africa


    Seen it all before but....

    *clipped out youtube vid

    And finish with... Jazz Hands! Great vid :D

    Reminded me of another. My mate and me were going to Germany a few years ago, and we ended up sitting next to a woman with Tourettes. Id never seen anyone with Tourettes before, and we'd been drinking all the night before and drinking in the pub in the airport too so we were hammered. She mad a pop noise and rolled her eyes up to 10 oclock every so often. But, she was quite cool, she acknowledged it and let us laugh, cause you know, we were bombed at that stage (dont say bomb on a plane...). We had bought a bottle of wine in the duty free to drink on the plane too (as you do at that drunken stage!) and the stewardess said were werent allowed drink it, only RyanAir approved alcohol. PFFFT to that. We opened it and drank it, and shared it with the tourettes woman, having a laugh between the 3 of ourselves over her being such a cnut, as she really just wasnt nice. Was actually one of the most entertaining flights Ive ever been on!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,252 ✭✭✭Africa


    People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.

    I hate that SO much.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,182 ✭✭✭SafeSurfer


    People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.

    When I was in Africa flying with some sh1tty domestic airline people clapped when the plane took off.

    Multo autem ad rem magis pertinet quallis tibi vide aris quam allis



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,455 ✭✭✭✭Monty Burnz


    People clapping when a flight lands is pretty weird, IMO.
    If you are that pleasantly surprised to land safely, what the hell were you doing on a plane in the first place? :confused:


  • Moderators, Music Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,740 Mod ✭✭✭✭Boom_Bap


    So many stories to tell.

    There was a flight from Boston to Dublin, the ex took a sleeping tablet and streched out accross me with her legs dangling in the ailse. No problem until someone came prancing along and tripped over her legs. Lay down opn the ground motionless for a good minute. Someone was up looking for a medic on the plane. Then the fallen guy gets up and starts prancing along again like a bawse. Turns out he was sleepwalkingprancing.

    Or on a flight from Botswana to Jo'Burg, a nervous guy gets on the plane beside me....and this is a rickkety old propeller plane. He firstly hands me his jacket and passport as he doesnt know what to do with them. And he is looking around all excitbaly the whole journey. When we land the plane is surrounded by cops and I immediately thought they must be after nervous guy. Turns out it was the stonecold killer looking Russian guy that was carrying 2 rucksacks which I can only imagine where filled with ammo and body parts they were after. He was arrested getting into the terminal.
    And to make that flight even more interesting, the captain sounded like the african 'banker' from fonejacker.

    Then there was a flight in the Middle East somewhere that was full of refugees being booted out of the country. Getting boarding cards and through security was a nightmare as the refugees had thier stuff packed in scarfs and plastic shopping bags. Most wouldnt check thier bags as they wanted to be near it at all times. Just utter confusion everywhere.

    On another flight from London to Nairobi, a guy got on the plane and sat beside me.....well more like on top of me as he was one of those dudes that spilled into the seats on either side. He ordered me and the air stewards not to wake him for anything, not even for the meals in the most obnoxious and rude manner. Because of all this combined, I made his journey as awkard as possible by constantly shuffling in my seat which disturbed him and his attempt at sleep. When it was meal time, I woke the guy up as well and said that he asked to be woken when it was food time....followed by my apologies for mis-understanding.

    From Nairobi - London this time and I had 2 French ladies sitting either side of me. They chatted the whole journey accross me. The then said they would like to move seats, I was deleighted, we all stood up into the aisle for them to do the swapsie. It turns out they wanted to swap seats and still have me in the middle. Marvellous, they continued thier conversation for the duration of the flight. Well, it was distrurbed by thier weak old lady bladders which meant i had to get up alot. There were nice ladies though, so when getting of the plane I said bonjour to them.

    If anyone has flown in or around Africa, you've probably noticed how there is always about 10 Africans that sit whereever they want and the person assigned to the seat comes along, they need to explain how the seating works.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,728 ✭✭✭dilallio


    My colleague had to take a flight from Shannon to Miami around 1989.
    It was an Aeroflot flight and there were only about 50 people on the flight. Everyone was in the front of the plane and there was a curtain segregating the front from the rest of the plane.

    About an hour into the flight, he wanted to go to the loo, but all the toilets in the front were occupied and had queues so he asked the hostess if he could use the one at the back as her was desperate. She told him to use the one at the back but to be careful on the way.

    He went by the curtain which was dividing the front from the back and halfway down he could see some movement in the dark cabin. When he got closer he could see that the floorboards were lifted and there were 2 mechanics working on the plane! They were speaking russian, but one was passing a large spanner to the guy who was working below.

    He told me he spent 20 mins in the toilet trying to remember the rosary.


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