The best of traveling is getting to see the world, escape from the trappings of our everyday lives, and be exposed to different cultures.
No one talks about the worst part of traveling–which is the actual travel part.
Especially where flights are concerned, you could be sitting for hours, feeling claustrophobic, and discovering the nuissance that is having restless leg syndrome.
All of these can be exacerbated by the type of passenger you have sitting next to you. Because if you're not on a journey with a travel companion, the stranger beside you could completely ruin your long-anticipated trip.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Guava_ asked:
"Who is the worst kind of person to be sat next to on a long flight?"
These Redditors experienced tainted oxygen.
Olfactory Assault
"Smelly person. I mean I don't think there's anything you can do about it while on the plane."
– sweetgossip
"I’d take a big person over a smelly person, nothing is worse than someone who smells like @ss and you’re trapped…. Total violation of the senses."
– marblepudding
Foul Stench
"I once sat next to a man who smelled terrible - like a zoo animal. He was wearing a suit and tie and was visibly nervous and had sweat dripping down his face. The only item he was carrying was a Bible that he kept occasionally looking at during the 4-5 hour flight."
"Then there was one time I was on a very hot plane on the tarmac, and the German woman next to me smelled horrible and lifted her arm to wipe her armpit with a napkin, and I just wanted to be removed from the planet."
– sloppy_biography
Nose-Hair Curler
"An older woman wearing the most foul smelling perfume my nose has smelled. It was a 9 hour flight. I felt like throwing up from my headache a few hours in."
– purplehotcheeto
Poor hygiene is one thing.
Foul emissions are another.
Gas Leak
"I sat next to a dude who farted the entire 5-hour flight. I almost vomited and it was absolutely vile. I needed a huge shower once I got home. It was bad."
– quemaspuess
The Silent Ones Are Deadliest
"Ha - I sat behind and across the aisle from a guy on a 2 hour flight, who kept farting the rankest farts. After several of them, I finally said out loud, 'What the f'k - nasty' just loud enough for him to hear and looking right at him. He stopped farting after that."
"They were silent but deadly, so I think he thought no one could tell who it was. But I had been upgraded to first class on this little regional jet and it was just the two of us up there."
– sloppy_biography
Diaper Change
"I once had the people behind me change their toddler's poopy diaper right there at the seat and oh god it was awful. We all turned the vents on to blow it away but it was pretty futile. People were gagging."
– mattbnet
Noticing certain behavior made these Redditors uneasy.
Nerves
"Lowkey if I saw a guy in a suit sweating profusely casually checking his bible id get kinda nervous."
– No1shades
"I had someone sitting in front of us with a toddler that had to have it’s diaper changed twice during a 3 hour flight and that kid must have ate nothing but beans or something…seemed excessive for a short flight. I’ve had to change my daughter when we were in a flight when she was that old, but it was once…and took her to the restroom to do it. They did not."
– woundedbearhair
Poetry In Motion
"I was flying home from a college friends reunion. I was hungover and exhausted. All I wanted to do on that flight was sleep. I was seated next to a lady who was writing in a tablet. She kept looking over at me. I thought that she thought I was trying to read what she was writing. I settled back and closed my eyes. When I gave my drink request to the flight attendant, the woman next to me caught my eye. She said ‘would you like to read my poetry?’ I wasn’t hardened enough to say no, so spent the rest of the miserable flight reading and talking about her poetry."
– Walway
Time To Chat
"I'm the furthest thing from a plane chatter oh my god, my anxiety about all of it can only be controlled by sinking into my own mental space and staying there. But one time I was seated next to an old dude who clearly wanted to talk, and in spite of myself I can't help being nice to people, so I let him talk to me for awhile hoping it would just be a brief chat. Well, it wasn't. But to be fair it was because I realized that this guy really wanted someone to talk to, and the more he talked the more I realized he deserved that. He was a widowed veteran doing his best to care for his troubled adult children and he had stories to tell. The story about getting startled by a monkey while on tour in the military was hilarious. And he didn't just talk, he asked about me. I ended up telling this total stranger that I was flying for cancer treatment and showing him my surgical scars. I will never forget that guy. I wish him well. But no, this didn't make me into a plane chatter. I'm grateful that I met him but I'm just as grateful that I haven't been seated next to someone who wants to talk since."
– CharlesMansnShowTune
Pist-Off
"The guy I sat next to on a 14 hour flight that whipped out a bag of shelled pistachios right when we got on and proceeded to crack and eat them for the whole flight. Between the noise of the cracking, the soft shell pieces flying everywhere, and him sucking the shells and licking his fingers, I’m surprised I didn’t end up tackled by air Marshall and hauled off at the nearest stop."
– wayfaringlens
Armrest hoggers are the worst.
And I'm embarrassed to say I'm one of them.
Look, it's not my fault most armrests are poorly designed and aren't wide enough to accommodate the arms of both passengers on either side of them.
That being said, I try to be as respectful of the other person by giving them space to rest their arms as well. What I don't appreciate is when they casually shove my arm off entirely so they can have it all to themselves.
The twentieth century brought us the most technologically advanced way to travel en masse yet--airplanes.
Airplanes are nothing short of a miracle. By rising above the clouds, we get from point A to point B more quickly than we ever have in the past. But like most things, there are moments when this doesn't work as well as we want.
Sometimes it gets outright scary. Planes are very sensitive, and if even one thing goes wrong, it can really change a trip from quick and painless to frightening.
u/jm1ce asked:
Flight attendants, pilots, or other airline crew: Has there ever been a time on a flight where you were genuinely scared or nervous about the flight, and if so, what happened/what did you do?
Here were some of those answers.
Ice Ice Baby
My mom was a flight attendant for U.S. Air before I was born, and I know her scary story.
She was exhausted at the tail end of a shift that had run longer than it should have because they got paused in Philly for nasty winter weather conditions. They were finally finished getting de-iced and about to start taxiing when one of the passengers called her over and told her that he'd been watching carefully and he didn't think they'd de-iced both wings of the plane, just one side. She sort of reassured him that she would go check but he was probably mistaken, and then even though she was really tempted to wave it off as just a jumpy passenger, she went to the pilot just to check.
Welp! Passenger was correct and the plane was only half de-iced when they were getting ready to leave. If they'd taken off like that, it probably would have been disastrous. Mom told me that even though it didn't happen in mid-air, it was her all-time scariest moment during her tenure as a flight attendant because she knows how close they came to a very dangerous situation and she knows that she almost didn't stop it from happening even when warned.
No Air
One time we were stuck between a thunderstorm and the Iranian border ended up having to fly through the thunderstorm. Another time we had a fire on board and a lot of the crew left their oxygen regulators on full blast while we were dealing with it. After about 45 minutes I realized we are almost completely out of liquid oxygen and had another 2 hours left to get home.
Something Old
I was an aircraft electrician for the Army for a number of years. One of the first systems you learn about after getting to your unit is the APR-39. It's a radar/laser detection system that is integrated with other systems to tell crew if they are being tracked, when they have been "locked", and what direction incoming is actually coming from. All of this is related through a (archaic) display and the worst synthetic voice you have ever heard. Spent many days troubleshooting this system and never thought much of it, until I deployed for the first time. I volunteered to fly back-wall security for the MEDIVAC unit that I repaired birds for. MY FIRST FLIGHT we were on pick up from Kandahar to South of Pasab and passing through the mountains and I can hear that damn voice in my headset. Thought about nothing of it, even wondered why the crew chief was hanging out of his window looking aft of the bird. I didn't dawn on me till after we hit a very steep left dive, aaaaand the chaff and flares firing from our the right that we had just been locked and fired at.... Genuinely scared the crap out of me.
Sudden Twists And Turns
My dad is a captain at American Airlines. Won't tell me his worst flight because he doesn't want to freak me out. Fair.
As someone who has flown since before I can even remember, my worst was flying to Indianapolis from Orlando. It was July so basically that entire corridor was poppin with thunderstorms. We got put in a holding pattern over Indy for 2 hours then diverted to Louisville for fuel. Normal enough.
What's not normal is that in the half hour it takes to fly to Lville from Indy, a line of thunderstorms had popped up over Lville. We're coming in for approach and I can see the way the clouds look outside the plane. I'm a meteorology nerd and knew they meant wind shear in the area was starting to form.
As we came in to land, a gust of wind hit our plane almost knocking us sideways. Pilot pulled the throttle back so hard for a missed approach. So cool now we were back up in the thunderstorm filled sky. We are hitting severe turbulence at this point and people are praying, holding hands and crying.
The Captain brings us back around and absolutely plows it into the ground and basically said "eff your wind shear". I've never been so happy to get on the ground.
Going Down, Down
Not me - but I was on a flight at the same time. My collegues landed and said that mid flight a lightning bolt hit their plane making a massive noise and killing the power for a few moments. Everyone was screaming and crying in a total panic. Apparently it was THAT bad.
My colleague looks to the other and says "Well, we're both sales guys so I guess I'll see you in hell"
These Low Effort Jobs Have Surprisingly High Salaries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...Rough In The Sky, Smooth On The Ground
I was flying a 737 on final approach five miles behind a 787 when we got into their wake turbulence. Aircraft banked left sharply then immediately went into very steep nose down right bank. I immediately corrected this attitude but for a quick second I thought it might go over a 90° bank angle. I have never fought that hard in an airliner to recover, but I recovered, and had the smoothest landing of my career.
Sudden Issues
Flying home from FL to NY. Scheduled to land at LaGuardia. Right after takeoff we could all hear the motor that retracts the landing gear straining. And the landing gear would not retract. When it finally did, everyone seemed relieved but I was thinking 'I hope it comes back down when it's time to land.' Lo and behold, about 1/2 hr before landing, the pilot announces that we were being diverted to JFK because of landing gear trouble.
We needed a longer runway to stop the plane. So now people are praying and biting their nails. We could hear the motor trying to bring the landing gear down for several minutes before it finally came down at almost the last minute. We land and the plane isn't slowing down. We hear all kinds of horrible sounds, smell smoke...people are now really freaking out. Plane stops after using up almost the whole runway. There were emergency trucks all over the sides of the runway, foamers..etc. Was never so happy to get off a plane!!
These Low Effort Jobs Have Surprisingly High Salaries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...Struck
My scariest moment was after we got within 700 ft of landing. The pilots whipped the plane back up because of heavy winds and announced that we were diverting to a nearby city in another country.
It was a short flight to the other city, and it was bumpy so I was strapped in. A couple of other flight attendants were standing up though. All the sudden the entire cabin went bright white. Specifically I could tell that the light was entering the plane from the other side around the corner I couldn't really see behind. The flight attendants nearly jumped all the way to their seats and strapped in. There was one passenger that I locked eyes with at one point. Her and I both both made this nervous smile at each other like, "Lets not die here!"
We did end up landing alright. It took 4 hours for us to get off the plane because of all the other planes that diverted there. They also told us the next day that we got hit by lightning at least 3 times. They could tell because of little pin pricks that the lightning makes when it hits the plane.
By the way, I still feel so much safer in a plane than almost any other mode of transportation. The statistics don't lie. The regulations and redundancy on safety measures are unparalleled.
Rollin' Rollin'
Hit crazy turbulence in a prop plane flying into Saginaw from Detroit. Plane was all over the air like a roller-coaster.. Up down, side to side, I swear I thought it was gonna barrel roll at one point. Seemed to never end, but was probably only really a few minutes. Time kinda slowed down. My girlfriend and I were the only two people on the plane who weren't Marines going to some Marine thing. Those guys were cracking some pretty dark jokes while I contemplated my time on earth.
The Limit Does Not Exist
I recall being in a very small plane trying to land at John Wayne International during a storm. No door between cockpit and passengers or at least it wasn't closed. There was turbulence but nothing as dramatic as some of the other stories here. Listening to the cockpit crew arguing with ground control over the flight path was not comforting. I think we were approaching the end limit for flights and ground control wanted them to approach by going more over the ocean. Neither I nor the crew cared for that too much.
Extinct Flightless Bird Reemerges Thousands Of Years Later Thanks To Rare Evolutionary Process
Despite going completely extinct, a flightless bird known as a white-throated rail keeps evolving back into existence.
Through a process researchers call "iterative evolution" the sub-species keeps re-emerging.
No, this isn't a Jurassic Park joke.
Life, uh finds a way https://t.co/MVYclqpZ1m— Vinckei (@Vinckei) 1557654041.0
https://t.co/vxbv0a8v3e https://t.co/NoRYDm8Nal— Nick Stefan (@Nick Stefan) 1557662641.0
https://t.co/rPorg0hetY https://t.co/TPRQ8iE0j5— Shanna (@Shanna) 1557651380.0
Researchers from the University of Portsmouth and the Natural History Museum have been studying the white-throated rail. This chicken sized bird lives in Madagascar.
However, the species often colonizes other small islands. East of their native island is an atoll called Aldabra. It is here the species has evolved the same way multiple times to become flightless.
Lead researcher Dr. Julian Hume, avian paleontologist and Research Associate at the Natural History Museum, said,
"These unique fossils provide irrefutable evidence that a member of the rail family colonized the atoll, most likely from Madagascar, and became flightless independently on each occasion.
"Fossil evidence presented here is unique for rails, and epitomizes the ability of these birds to successfully colonize isolated islands and evolve flightlessness on multiple occasions."
That seems like a step back, doesn't it?
WTF?! This is amazing...I had no idea this was a thing, or even that it could theoretically be a possibility. So cr… https://t.co/HQwHwJXAB8— Jill Ronan (@Jill Ronan) 1557709577.0
Glitch in the simulation https://t.co/VJeoOGfCfR— DRITtheKID❌ (@DRITtheKID❌) 1557640941.0
I am in awe because zowie wow science is so cool but also in fear because wtf is this crazy shit. https://t.co/as6DXW484R— Andi-Roo (@Andi-Roo) 1557642019.0
Back from the dead 🙌 https://t.co/8vgDjMV0mt— ⭕️ Wolfgang Bremer (@⭕️ Wolfgang Bremer) 1557768903.0
Iterative evolution is when the same traits appear from a common ancestor at different times in history.
Think of it as a controlled experiment for evolution. Given the same environmental factors on a specific species, what new traits appear?
The birds lose their ability to fly since the atoll has no natural predators and an abundance of resources. However, fossil evidence shows this ending poorly for the flightless birds.
When the sub-species appeared previously 136,000 years ago, the island happened to flood, killing off the original flightless variant.
Co-author of the study, Professor David Martill said,
"Conditions were such on Aldabra, the most important being the absence of terrestrial predators and competing mammals, that a rail was able to evolve flightlessness independently on each occasion."
Despite the depictions in pop culture, evolution doesn't always add new abilities, nor is it moving in a specific direction to make a species more human-like.
What we're saying is nature is crazy.
i support you, island zombie chicken https://t.co/02MRhVYEmP— Yasss Bird (@Yasss Bird) 1557620471.0
@geekdotcom https://t.co/ZsLd6QJwbM— Manuel Barrera (@Manuel Barrera) 1557755516.0
“AND ANOTHER THING!” the white-throated rail yelled, looking to finally say the clapback they’ve been working on fo… https://t.co/8yThNI1RIK— Rob Rodems (@Rob Rodems) 1557641786.0
Rather, natural selection favors whatever helps the species survive, including instances of conserving energy. Without predators or competing mammals, the need to fly is wasted energy.
Professor Martill said,
"We know of no other example in rails, or of birds in general, that demonstrates this phenomenon so evidently.
"Only on Aldabra, which has the oldest paleontological record of any oceanic island within the Indian Ocean region, is fossil evidence available that demonstrates the effects of changing sea levels on extinction and recolonization events."
People Are Applauding The Pilot Who Ordered 23 Pizzas For His Passengers After Being Stranded On Runway For Hours
Pizza has the power to save the day.
We all know this, but the following sweet story only emphasizes this fact of life.
Passengers on an Air Canada flight were stranded for hours on snowy tarmac Air Canada Flight 608 left Toronto bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Monday evening.
Inclement weather forced the flight to divert to Fredericton, New Brunswick. The passengers were stuck for several hours and were growing progressively more cranky, as passengers in such a situation are apt to do.
Then the pilot decided to order pizza.
Jofee Larivée, the manager at Minglers Restaurant and Pub in Oromocto, told reporters he received the call for 23 pizzas topped with cheese and pepperoni.
"We told him we could have them made in an hour or hour and a half," Larivée said, adding that she and her staff were "laughing all night" because no one had ever delivered pizza to an airplane before.
The team made the pizzas and brought them over.
The passengers were pleased!
Passenger Philomena Hughes praised the pilot's action:
"It was something that could have been very stressful; he made it a lot easier. There was lots of help, there were a couple of Air Canada Jazz pilots that were traveling on the plane and they were helping to pick up the pizza and distribute it. Everybody chipped in, so he didn't want to take the whole credit for himself."
She wasn't the only one who loved this:
@bill_karsten @AirCanada Pizza is cheap but buys a lot of goodwill. Trust it was not even AC fault, can’t fight the weather. Well done AC!— George (@George) 1551830785
@bill_karsten @AirCanada @yfcairport when A/C gets it right, they get it right !!— 🇨🇦Chatty Cathy Cody🇨🇦 (@🇨🇦Chatty Cathy Cody🇨🇦) 1551747760
@bill_karsten The pilot was very kind to think of his passengers and kindness goes a long way. People decided to pi… https://t.co/DtsqZIy27B— Rose Shar (@Rose Shar) 1551843159
@bill_karsten It appears that the pizza was greatly appreciated. I wish travelling public had a true understanding… https://t.co/a7Cw6iSeXZ— Smisk (@Smisk) 1551965797
@bill_karsten Great customer service!— Craig's Car Care (@Craig's Car Care) 1551879463
Kudos to you, sir. That was lovely and thoughtful of you––and it gave all of the passengers a great memory for years to come.
Poor moms get a bad rap when flying with babies.
Babies cry.
It is just a thing babies do.
Sometimes you can fix it easily, sometimes you have no idea why they're crying and they just won't stop.
It's just the way life is.
However, being in a confined space with 200 other people while your baby wails is not only difficult, it's embarrassing to be the person taking all the blame for the unpleasant journey.
So this mom did some pre-planning.
The note reads:
"Hello, I'm Junwoo and I'm 4 months old."
"Today I am going to the U.S. with my mom and grandma to see my aunt I'm a little bit nervous and scary because it's my first of flight in my life, which means that I may cry or make too much noise."
"I will try to go quietly, though I can't make any promises...Please excuse me."
"So my mom prepared little goodie bag for you! it has some candies and earplugs."
"Please use it when it's too noisy because of me. Enjoy your trip. Thank you. :')"
Awwwwww.
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Apparently, the baby didn't make a single sound for the entire flight.
Go Junwoo!
Some people can be real warts about babies crying. Entire resources exist that basically tell people that the child crying is not a personal attack on them.
But we have all been on a flight where that one jerk just has to say something, perhaps even take it out on the flight attendant:
Woman kicked off plane for screaming about seat near baby www.youtube.com
Don't worry, this lady got suspended from her job for this mess.
But still, it was nice of Junwoo's mommy to plan in advance, considering the flight from South Korea to San Francisco is TEN hours.
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Dave Corona/Facebook
Despite the kid not making any noise, it was definitely still a sweet gesture.
Some people, however, are noting that people should not need to go through such pains because people don't get that babies cry.
Dave Corona/Facebook
@Fahad4014 A sweet gesture, but a condemnation of our societies that she felt the need.— Devin Ganger (boosting marginalized voices) (@Devin Ganger (boosting marginalized voices)) 1551053150
@Fahad4014 This is “Social responsibility” 👍🏻 Just imagine what we do to fulfil our social responsibilities.— Hina Ayra (@Hina Ayra) 1551077793
But most people are just floored by the thoughtfulness of the gesture.
@Fahad4014 Amazing😲 and respect 👍— نائلہ (@نائلہ) 1551040124
@Fahad4014 Thoughtful it is— Uzair (@Uzair) 1551039191
@Fahad4014 So sweet!— Lenworth (@Lenworth) 1551110206
Now imagine if everybody in the world were that courteous.