Weirdest Things People Have Done to Get Kicked Off Flights

Size matters! That’s what a seven-foot-tall Russian athlete discovered when he was flying on a budget airline from Siberia to Moscow. Apparently struggling to cram his lanky frame into the cramped space, he reportedly got into a tussle with a flight attendant who alleged that the pro volleyball player’s long legs were blocking the aisle. The discussion quickly escalated and grew heated. When the plane landed, police were on hand to escort him off the plane.

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A passenger on a Chicago-to-Orlando flight was rocking the pants-pulled-down-low-on-the-hips look favoured by rappers and the people who wish they were rappers — and while no skin was exposed, his underwear-clad butt was. “It was to the point where his entire bottom was hanging out,” an airline spokesperson said. “And that’s not appropriate.” When confronted by a flight attendant about his “excessively low” jeans and asked to pull them up to “a more appropriate level,” the situation escalated. “He became aggressive with the flight crew,” said the spokesperson. “He threatened to smack the flight attendants.” The man was ultimately kicked off the plane.

A seasonal greeting led a passenger to declare “Bah, humbug!” when the gate attendant at New York’s LaGuardia airport wished him a “Merry Christmas.” When a flight attendant on the plane then said the same thing, the disgruntled passenger declared, “You shouldn’t say that because not everybody celebrates Christmas!” The passenger reportedly became verbally abusive to the flight crew until he was eventually kicked off the plane — resulting in applause from his fellow passengers.

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During an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, a passenger flipped out when he claimed to have seen a butterfly emerge from the seat pocket in front of him. Apparently not a fan of butterflies, he proceeded to chase it throughout the cabin, even into one of the restrooms, in his bizarre attempt to kill it. Becoming concerned about the man’s increasingly erratic behaviour as he ran up and down the aisle, the flight crew suspected he may have been carrying explosives, and the captain initiated bomb procedures, including two fighter jets being scrambled. When the plane landed, he was escorted off and placed under arresti. The passenger later claimed he was “ill” and had hallucinated the whole thing.

During a cross-country LA-to-New York flight, a female passenger began singing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You" at the top of her lungs — and kept right on singing when confronted by a flight attendant who asked her to please stop. As the “concert” continued, the performance of Houston’s greatest hit became too much for passengers and a federal air marshall aboard the flight handcuffed her. The pilot was forced to make an emergency stop in Kansas City, where the woman was escorted off the plane by police. While she ultimately wasn’t charged with a crime, the airline refused to fly her to her destination.

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A woman was travelling with her 19-month-old son on a flight from Atlanta to Oklahoma when the child began saying, “Bye bye plane.” And kept saying it. And wouldn’t stop. It reportedly got so annoying that a flight attendant was forced to intervene, suggesting the woman give the kid some Benadryl to knock him out and shut him up. When she refused, the flight attendant announced the plane was turning around and heading back to Atlanta so mom and child could be booted off the plane.

A fight leaving PEI en route to Montreal was getting ready to hit the runway when numerous passengers began to complain about an ungodly smell emitting from a fellow traveller (one passenger described the odor as “brutal”). The smell was reportedly so bad that the plane returned to the gate and the stinky offender was ordered off the plane — and presumably into a shower.

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A little "ill-judged humour" resulted in 18 British tourists booted from a Tel Aviv-bound airliner after allegedly joking that they would "blow up the plane." An airline spokesman said, “We take these matters extremely seriously, and the appropriate action will always be taken.”

The phrase “watch your mouth” springs to mind when recalling the experience of a Brooklyn passenger who expressed his displeasure over his flight’s 45-minute delay by complaining to the guy sitting next to him. “What's taking so f**king long to close the overhead compartments?” he said. “What the f**k is going on?” A flight attendant with an aversion to profanity overheard his comments, and had the pilot return the plane to the gate, where cops boarded the plane and escorted the potty-mouthed passenger off. The passenger later insisted he wasn’t drunk, just very, very hungover.

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A photographer was boarding a flight when she witnessed an airline staffer being rude to several passengers, and decided to document the whole thing by snapping a few photos of the employee with her phone. Once she had boarded the plane and taken her seat, that same employee confronted her and ordered her to delete the photos. When she refused, the employee then told the pilot that she considered the photographer to be a security risk, and had her escorted off the plane.

During a flight from Tunisia to Edinburgh, a woman had a mid-flight meltdown, demanding cigarettes and then a parachute so she could jump from the plane (perhaps to have a smoke on the way down). She followed that up by slapping a child, and then took off her prosthetic leg and began swinging it at a member of the flight crew. The pilot was forced to divert the flight to London, where she was escorted off the flight by police. Not surprisingly, alcohol was involved. A LOT of alcohol.

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A passenger travelling in a premium seating section got ticked off when another passenger (who had been sitting in a less-expensive seat) was moved next to her, given a free upgrade when the onscreen entertainment system in his seat didn’t work. Angered that she had to pay extra for her premium seat while the guy got his for free, she began arguing with the flight crew and became “abusive” to her new neighbour. A federal air marshal who happened to be seated nearby saw the whole thing unfold, and intervened. The flight was diverted so she could be kicked off.

We can blame the invention of a device called the Knee Defender — which prevents the person sitting in front of a passenger from reclining his or her seat — for sparking an altercation that led two people to be booted from a flight. When a male passenger used the gadget, the woman seated in front of him who couldn’t recline complained to a flight attendant, who asked him to remove the device. When he refused, the two passengers got into an argument that escalated to the point that she flung a glass of water in his face. The spat grew so heated that the pilot diverted the flight to Chicago, where both passengers were escorted off the plane.

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An entire family found themselves grounded when they complained that the in-flight movie was not appropriate for their children, aged four and eight, and insisted the flight attendants turn off the PG-13 flick. As flight attendants refused, the couple took the matter to the captain, asking if there was anything he could do to remedy the situation. There was — turning the plane around returning to Chicago, where police boarded the plane and escorted the whole family off the plane.

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