'Pilot: "I'm not flying this"': Airline industry workers share the wildest things they've ever seen

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Dec 24, 2023 7:00 AM EST

The ordeal of air travel opens the doorway for some insane behaviors. You have groups of complete strangers who are collectively sleep-deprived, stressed, and overstimulated, crammed into far-too-small spaces for far too long. Air travelers usually have a lot riding on the success of their trip, too, and literally can't afford for things to go sideways, with holidaygoers having spent their literal life savings and cashed in all of their PTO in order to make this trip work—usually also facing undue pressure from their workplaces who aren't pleased that they're taking time off in the first place. Then you have your working travelers who are often traveling to make career-changing pitches for their business or otherwise have a lot riding on a successful journey. 

It really makes you realize how poorly most of us manage our stress and emotions, and it's really no surprise that we see some crazy behavior on airlines. Even if you fly once a year, chances are pretty good that you've seen some supremely antisocial behavior; so what, then, have people who make their living by working 40+ hours a week in the air witnessed?

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  • 01
    Pilot: "I'm not flying this...." -311
    via Rayyu Maldives
  • 02
    2! r/AskReddit. Posted by u/New-Low5765 20 hours ago People who work in the airline industry, what are some of the craziest things you have seen?
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  • 03
    Commercial-Chance561 17 hr. ago A fully naked woman just walked through the terminal and tried to walk through security like she wasn't fully naked. Reply Share 3.0k Jampine 16 hr. ago Taking the strip out of strip search Reply Share 1.2k snidemarque · 14 hr. ago Hey I appreciate the efficiency. If the TSA can't be, I guess it's up to us. ✩ 436 Reply Share
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 04
    Traditional_Pair4840 20 hr. ago There were two suitcases checked in that were full of nothing but wod. ✩ 4.2k ↓ Reply Share New-Low5765 OP 19 hr. ago yeah i take it that didnt end well for the passenger ✩ 1.4k ↓ Reply Share ●●● Traditional_Pair4840 19 hr. ago Definitely not! The police arrested him in the gating area & confiscated the bags. ↑ 1.3k Reply Share ●●●
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 05
    Jaded-Session8422 - 20 hr. ago Saw the pilot walk into the passenger area and say " I'm not flying this and get off the plane, and all the passengers followed him 6.5k ↓ Reply Share ●●● lukaron 15 hr. ago · edited 12 hr. ago Don't know why but I just had a great laugh at this. plane if some 2.2k yeah, I'm following the pilot off the like this happens. 11 Reply Share
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 06
    elenivog 15 hr. ago 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... Reply Share 2.4k muusandskwirrel. 14 hr. ago Of all the things to overload.... Who the picks a coffin?! 1.2k Reply Share ●●●
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 07
    If I remember - 13 hr. ago . flight diverted to my airport because a girl in hotpants got uncontrollable d from the laxatives she took before the flight to help with her weekend drug binge. She shin her seat and down the aisle and all over the bathroom. 5 other passengers had uncontrollable vomiting because of this and the panic on the plane from the crew and rest of passengers caused the plane to make an emergency landing. They ended up having to cancel the remaining leg of the flight to decont
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 08
    Gregwaaah 11 hr. ago As a baggage handler I once had a shipment of live Alaskan crabs escape their container on the ramp. Flights were delayed. Turns out those guys scatter when they panic and try to hide under anything and everything. Reply Share 258
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    Beeris Awesome01 20 hr. ago A plane I got on once almost left without half of its aircrew on it. 1.5k ↓ Reply Share New-Low5765 OP 19 hr. ago snooze u lose lol ↑ 660 ●●● Reply Share
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 10
    holyboobiesbatman · 17 hr. ago 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.
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 11
    Next he says what's the max weight of a cabin seat. Again, we think what the he on. But we go back to manauls and find out that it's 220kg. Ok thanks, says the pilot. "I'm asking because my next flight has an unusual passenger....... A SEVEN FOOT 7 INCH..... 185KG MAN!!! this guy was from Fiji, and they are built different. This guy walking out to the aircraft looked like he was away to pick it up and play with it... Never see a walking land mass of a human like him since. ↑ 3.1k ↓ Reply Share
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 12
    If I remember - 13 hr. ago 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." ↑ 1.1k ↓ Reply Share CHAPP dearsweetanon 10 hr. ago I must have read 30 comments by now, but this is the one that made me go "what the ... 451 ●●● "I Reply Share
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 13
    tweezer606060 · 16 hr. ago · edited 16 hr. ago I saw someone go around some safety cones and take a shortcut with his tug And he wound up axle deep in fresh cement Reply Share 534
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    maxwellmaxen 18 hr. ago I once loaded the cargo hold of a private A320 to the brim with bottled water ↑ 774 ↓ Reply Share Constable BlimeyChips 14 hr. ago . My guess is whoever booked the plane demanded a certain brand of bottled water for their entire stay at where ever they were going. 198 Reply Share
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 15
    rinosaurus 17 hr. ago A snowsweeper on fullblown fire with explosion on the runway. ↑ 337 ↓ Reply Share HalfaYooper 14 hr. ago It cleared the snoww away right? Sounds like it did its job. 122 Reply Share ●●●
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  • 16
    xampl9 13 hr. ago Not in the industry, but boarded a Northwest flight many years ago. A lady in the emergency exit row (a couple of rows behind me) called the FA back and said "I can stick my arm out of the plane”. I look out my window and sure enough, she's waving back at me. Takeoff was delayed while they called maintenance to re-seal the exit window. Reply Share 306
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 17
    PM-Ur-BObs-- 17 hr. ago The amount of san that small bathroom. Geez 1.1k Reply Share
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  • 18
    00 81 V XennaNa 12 hr. ago A grandma had an oversized pair of scissors, she wanted to take them with her. Instead of putting them in her checked in bag, she decided to put them in her shoe. So out of all options she decided that smuggling is the way to go and got the cops called. ↑ 145 ↓ Reply Share ●●●
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 19
    Doogiemon 9 hr. ago Coworker of mine worked as a baggage handler for 25 years. Early in his career, a family was trying to get their grandpa onto a flight that loaded on an outside ramp. He was in a wheelchair and was waiting on people to help him up when it started raining.
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 20
    My co-worker watched as his person in a wheelchair was just getting rained on and when people were finally ready to board him on the flight, he was dead. The thing was.. he was dead for 2 days already and the family was trying to get him home the cheapest way to bury him and not pay to transport the body.....
    via u/New-Low5765
  • 21
    Needless to say the family got into a lot of trouble and my coworker said he still remembers seeing a person in a wheelchair just out in the rain for 10 minutes. 141 Reply Share
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  • 22
    tweezer606060. 16 hr. ago 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 ↑ 741 ↓ Reply Share ●●●
    via u/New-Low5765

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