G
GloBug
Guest
... not after reading stories like this!
Eight mice found - dead and alive - on United Airlines flight
If something runs over your foot on your next flight, beware: it might not be the beverage cart.
In a reversal of roles, the United States nearly imported its own tainted goods to China on a United Airlines flight recently. While en route to China, United employees discovered a total of eight mice -- some dead, some alive -- hidden in pillows throughout the cabin. On arrival, Chinese officials greeted the plane with rat poison and mouse traps.
The story was printed in newspapers yesterday, along with lists of viruses mice can carry. The articles also probably incited panic when they wrote of the potentially fatal damage mice could do by chewing through wires on aircraft.
Flying First Class With a Corpse
So you're an flight attendant, and one of your passengers dies while flying from Delhi to Heathrow. What do you do?
If you work for British airways, you escort the dead woman and her daughter to first class, strap in the corpse, and wait out the rest of the flight -- without telling anyone why the woman in front won't stop wailing in grief.
They propped up her body using pillows.
According to the man sitting next to the deceased, "I didn't have a clue what was going on. She kept slipping under the seatbelt and moving about with the motion of the plane."
After the woman was joined by her grieving daughter and son-in-law, the man adds: "It was terrifying. I put my earplugs in but couldn't get away from the fact that there was a woman wailing at the top of her voice just yards away."
It was only after asking for an explanation from BA staff that he was informed the woman was dead.
Apparently this happens about 10 times a year. While other airlines have "corpse cupboards" to use when there isn't an empty row of seats for the body, BA's response, is essentially: the plane was full, so deal with it.
A first class ticket from Delhi to Heathrow on British Airways costs about £3,000.
Scorpions on a Plane!!
A man flying on United between Chicago and Burlington, Vermont, was stung twice by a scorpion that made it onto his plane.
TSA agents were able to wrestle the interloper to the deck and rescue the hapless passengers. They frisked the scorpion, wanded him, paraded him through a metal detector, then released him and wished him a pleasant connecting flight.
Shockingly, it's not the first time. On Sunday, an American Airlines plane from Miami to Toronto was delayed at its destination because a scorpion got on board lacking a passport, and presumably riding without paying full fare.
Evacuation Slide Deploys In flight
I hate it when this happens. There you are enjoying the smooth takeoff of your plane, and what's that monstrous thing outside there flapping around? Why, it's the damn evacuation slide. Seems the thing deployed in flight. Those crazy maintenance guys. But seriously, you have to wonder what was going through the minds of the folks on board when this happened recently. The slide deployment took place on a United Airlines flight at Portland International Airport.
Pilot Locks Self Out
Here's one to make you feel more comfortable about air travel.
The pilot of an Air Canada Jazz flight left the cockpit to use the men's room (no doubt checked himself out in the mirror, as we all do...airplane mirrors are so flattering) and then found himself unable to get back into the cockpit. Thankfully, he'd not left the plane on auto-pilot, but in the hands of the First Officer. There was also a flight attendant in the cockpit. (one wonders what they were doing). Anyway, turns out that when the pilot returned, the door was locked and the pilot couldn't get back in. He knocked and the folks inside tried to help him open the door, but alas, nothing could be done.
Long story short, they had to take the hinges off the door to open it. But the rest of the crew and the passengers no doubt sat and watched with their jaws open. But, yes, the plane was landed and all was right with the world.
Snakes on a Plane -- Almost
The campy movie "Snakes on a Plane" played up a common phobia of many people -- that's right; snakes. But it was just a movie, right? Surely with modern airport security no one could get on a plane with a suitcase full of reptiles, right?
Right -- so far. But a 22-year-old Saudi passenger in Cairo, Egypt made it all the way to his departure gate before officials stopped him to check his suspect suitcase. Inside, they found baby crocodiles, chameleons, and several snakes, including "at least one cobra, squirming to escape." The man claimed not to know about any rules disallowing reptiles, and that he was transporting them to a Saudi university for research.
In May, another Saudi was caught at the airport with 700 live snakes in his carry-on luggage.
Samuel L. Jackson, this is not a dress rehearsal.
Eight mice found - dead and alive - on United Airlines flight
If something runs over your foot on your next flight, beware: it might not be the beverage cart.
In a reversal of roles, the United States nearly imported its own tainted goods to China on a United Airlines flight recently. While en route to China, United employees discovered a total of eight mice -- some dead, some alive -- hidden in pillows throughout the cabin. On arrival, Chinese officials greeted the plane with rat poison and mouse traps.
The story was printed in newspapers yesterday, along with lists of viruses mice can carry. The articles also probably incited panic when they wrote of the potentially fatal damage mice could do by chewing through wires on aircraft.
Flying First Class With a Corpse
So you're an flight attendant, and one of your passengers dies while flying from Delhi to Heathrow. What do you do?
If you work for British airways, you escort the dead woman and her daughter to first class, strap in the corpse, and wait out the rest of the flight -- without telling anyone why the woman in front won't stop wailing in grief.
They propped up her body using pillows.
According to the man sitting next to the deceased, "I didn't have a clue what was going on. She kept slipping under the seatbelt and moving about with the motion of the plane."
After the woman was joined by her grieving daughter and son-in-law, the man adds: "It was terrifying. I put my earplugs in but couldn't get away from the fact that there was a woman wailing at the top of her voice just yards away."
It was only after asking for an explanation from BA staff that he was informed the woman was dead.
Apparently this happens about 10 times a year. While other airlines have "corpse cupboards" to use when there isn't an empty row of seats for the body, BA's response, is essentially: the plane was full, so deal with it.
A first class ticket from Delhi to Heathrow on British Airways costs about £3,000.
Scorpions on a Plane!!
A man flying on United between Chicago and Burlington, Vermont, was stung twice by a scorpion that made it onto his plane.
TSA agents were able to wrestle the interloper to the deck and rescue the hapless passengers. They frisked the scorpion, wanded him, paraded him through a metal detector, then released him and wished him a pleasant connecting flight.
Shockingly, it's not the first time. On Sunday, an American Airlines plane from Miami to Toronto was delayed at its destination because a scorpion got on board lacking a passport, and presumably riding without paying full fare.
Evacuation Slide Deploys In flight
I hate it when this happens. There you are enjoying the smooth takeoff of your plane, and what's that monstrous thing outside there flapping around? Why, it's the damn evacuation slide. Seems the thing deployed in flight. Those crazy maintenance guys. But seriously, you have to wonder what was going through the minds of the folks on board when this happened recently. The slide deployment took place on a United Airlines flight at Portland International Airport.
Pilot Locks Self Out
Here's one to make you feel more comfortable about air travel.
The pilot of an Air Canada Jazz flight left the cockpit to use the men's room (no doubt checked himself out in the mirror, as we all do...airplane mirrors are so flattering) and then found himself unable to get back into the cockpit. Thankfully, he'd not left the plane on auto-pilot, but in the hands of the First Officer. There was also a flight attendant in the cockpit. (one wonders what they were doing). Anyway, turns out that when the pilot returned, the door was locked and the pilot couldn't get back in. He knocked and the folks inside tried to help him open the door, but alas, nothing could be done.
Long story short, they had to take the hinges off the door to open it. But the rest of the crew and the passengers no doubt sat and watched with their jaws open. But, yes, the plane was landed and all was right with the world.
Snakes on a Plane -- Almost
The campy movie "Snakes on a Plane" played up a common phobia of many people -- that's right; snakes. But it was just a movie, right? Surely with modern airport security no one could get on a plane with a suitcase full of reptiles, right?
Right -- so far. But a 22-year-old Saudi passenger in Cairo, Egypt made it all the way to his departure gate before officials stopped him to check his suspect suitcase. Inside, they found baby crocodiles, chameleons, and several snakes, including "at least one cobra, squirming to escape." The man claimed not to know about any rules disallowing reptiles, and that he was transporting them to a Saudi university for research.
In May, another Saudi was caught at the airport with 700 live snakes in his carry-on luggage.
Samuel L. Jackson, this is not a dress rehearsal.
