Airline Workers Share Their Wildest Stories From the Skies

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Nov 21, 2023 6:00 PM EST

If I think about planes too hard while I'm on one, I start to get freaked out. They're made and operated by humans, after all, and humans are fallible. My rational mind knows that air travel is much safer than car travel, but the being-in-the-air of it all gets me out of whack sometimes. Especially if I'm going over the ocean, and all you can see out the window is the great blue nothing. But thank goodness for in-flight entertainment because a quick episode of The Office usually puts those anxieties to bed. 

I could never be an airline worker, or any sky-bound profession for this reason. It doesn't stop me from flying, but it does stop me from spending all my working hours high above the clouds. Thank goodness there are people that do, though. A slew of them came forward on Reddit recently to share their most unbelievable stories from 10,000 feet. 

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  • 01
    3 r/AskReddit u/New-Low5765 - 13h People who work in the airline industry, what are some of the craziest things you have seen?
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 02
    Traditional_Pair4840 - 12h . There were two suitcases checked in that were full of nothing but weed.
    via u/Traditional_Pair4840
  • 03
    O Jaded-Session8422. 12h Saw the pilot walk into the passenger area and say " I'm not flying this piece of " and get off the plane, and all the passengers followed him
    via u/Jaded-Session8422
  • 04
    elenivog • 7h Coffin with dead body inside being left out of the flight due to overload without notice neither to us nor the family and the family realising it by seeing it while the plane was leaving and screaming to us...
    via u/elenivog
  • 05
    Commercial-Chance561 10h A fully naked woman just walked through the terminal and tried to walk through security like she wasn't fully naked
    via u/Commercial-Chance561
  • 06
    Beeris Awesome01 - 13h A plane I got on once almost left without half of its aircrew on it. Reply 4783 ... New-Low5765 OP. 12h snooze u lose lol
    via u/BeerisAwesome01 & u/New-Low5765
  • 07
    nunswithknives • 6h I was a gate agent for 13 years. Had a flight leaving and just waiting with a coworker for it to push back. We had the jetbridge off and everything was buttoned up. Human remains (HR) had just come in on the aircraft and were still in the baggage cart attached to the tug; I don't think the funeral home had arrived yet. One of the ramp agents hops in the tug, CRANKS the steering wheel to the right, guns it and the human remains go FLYING out of the baggage cart in full view of
    via u/nunswithknives
  • 08
    holyboobiesbatman • 10h Not airline but Im a helicopter engineer. North sea Oil and gas We got asked by a pilot, "what's the max weight for the cabin step" Assuming the pilot is away wanting it for a joke we say no idea, couple hundred KG..... Pilot dead pan looks at us and says no he needs to know. Ok fine, we go checking the manuals and eventually find it's 200kg max load. Next he says what's the max weight of a cabin seat. he on. But we go Again, we think what the back to manauls and find out
    via u/holyboobiesbatman
  • 09
    Mundane-Penalty8615 8h For us Americans, that's 407.85lbs.
    via u/Mundane-Penalty8615
  • 10
    tweezer606060 - 9h I saw someone go around some safety cones and take a shortcut with his tug And he wound up axle deep in fresh cement
    via u/tweezer606060
  • 11
    If I remember - 6h Someone had the tip of their finger cut off when closing the door to the plane and didn't say anything until the flight landed at the arrival gate and when the door was opened the chunk of finger fell out. The staff then said, "oh yeah, that's my finger. you can throw it away."
    via u/If_I_remember
  • 12
    maxwellmaxen • 11h I once loaded the cargo hold of a private A320 to the brim with bottled water
    via u/maxwellmaxen
  • 13
    tweezer606060 - 9h We had a small commissary buggy to stock up planes when they'd land....tiny little car that went 30mph....bag of toilet paper fell off the passenger seat and landed on the gas pedal with nobody in it....it did circles for five minutes before it hit a wall....almost took out several planes....driver got supspended for only a week ...she was our union steward
    via u/tweezer606060
  • 14
    ProbablyChe. 8h Worked as ground crew. 2nd day on the job we were issued a notice to gather. So when you check in every morning you're supposed to always take a breathalyzer test to prove you can like you know, ride around the tarmack, use pushbacks etc. For whatever reason this dude hadn't taken it/got past without taking it. He was not sober. He was tasked with pulling a 370 into a hangar. He eyeballed it for whatever reason. So here we are watching a video of this absolute loon break the whol
    via u/ProbablyChe
  • 15
    monkeywithawrench13. 8h Was on base maintenance for my national airline carrier in 2013 or so. Aircraft was scheduled for take off, and the pilot followed procedure per the usual. The chocks come off the wheel, the engine spools up and taxis to the runway. Except the ground personnel didn't clear the chocks in time because he didn't follow procedure. They're often poorly trained or not at all as part of cost cutting. Pilot spooled up the engine and sucked the ground personnel straight into the t
    via u/monkeywithawrench13
  • 16
    PM-Ur-Boobs- . 10h The amount of sex in that small bathroom. Geez
    via u/PM-Ur-Boobs-
  • 17
    Episemated_Torculus. 7h My parents wanted to fly from Europe to the US. Our doctor recommended to inject themselves shots of this one medicine into the skin of their stomach during the flight to preempt thrombosis. My mom couldn't get herself to do it. So she asked my dad to do it for her and they both went into the bathroom. What they hadn't thought of is how that would look to everyone else on board. Imagine these two people, both in their 60's and quite a bit overweight, coming out of that li
    via u/Episemated_Torculus
  • 18
    Low ValueAviator • 7h ● Captain a bit of a rager. Agent is new or something and can't connect the jetbridge to the plane, pax super mad. No one answering on ops. Captain eventually jumps from the open boarding door into the JB and proceeds to scream at the jetbridge driver. He calmed down eventually.
    via u/LowValueAviator
  • 19
    NachoPichu . 8h Walked into the flight deck and the pilots were showing each other the various nicks, cuts and scratches they've gotten from banging into stuff while trying to get into their chairs, pilot turns to first officer and says "yeah this thing is a real death trap!" Didn't realize I was there to let them know we had commenced boarding and passengers were walking directly behind me down the aisle. Thankfully I don't think anyone overheard his comment.
    via u/NachoPichu

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reddit stories air travel flight attendant planes askreddit plane reddit story pilot airline reddit thread flights Reddit airplanes airplane flying
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