If they work long enough, almost every flight attendant will amass a trove of strange stories and incidents — while some make for funny stories, others break all rules of decorum and leave flight attendants wondering how they got into this job.
Over the last few months, there have been reports of flight attendants catching a traveler who was trying to boil shrimp using plug-in batteries in the lavatory on a Delta (DAL) flight, breaking up fights and restraining drunk passengers as well as catching otters and marmosets that a traveler snuck aboard and then let loose.
Related: JetBlue flight attendant shares passenger horror stories
In an interview with UK-based outlet SkyParkSecure, longtime flight attendant Suzanne Bucknam said that jokes and myths about the “mile high club” also create endless problems for flight attendants who have to deal with misbehaving passengers on commercial planes.
Alcohol can contribute to all kinds of inappropriate in-flight behavior.
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‘Gets very uncomfortable for everyone in the vicinity…’
“A kiss on the lips or handholding doesn’t warrant ick status but making out and putting a blanket over each other’s laps gets very uncomfortable for everyone in the vicinity,” Bucknam explained. “I’ve seen several couples attempt to join the mile-high club either in the bathroom or, worse, at their seats with said blanket over them.”
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Depending on what passengers attempted to do or at what stage they were caught, such behavior can cause embarrassment and a warning at best and a public indecency charge and plane diversion in which one is led off by security at worst.
“In fact, I’ve caught a couple with their pants down in the back of our plane once,” Bucknam said. “We did an emergency landing and had them escorted off the plane, then got back in the air without them.”
This is what happens if you get caught trying to join the ‘Mile High Club’ on a commercial flight
The exact actions taken depend both upon the laws of the country in which the airline is based and the air crew’s discretion on whether to warn the offending passengers or take action.
Bucknam said that she also gets the ick when passengers do not attempt to go all the way but still treat the cabin of the plane as their private date space with very intense public displays of affection or constant reminders that they’re on a honeymoon in a not-so-subtle effort to score a free drink (that, particularly on shorter flights, the flight attendant often does not have the authority to give.)
“What I wish all honeymooners knew before traveling somewhere is that just because they’re celebrating, it doesn’t mean others have to celebrate or contribute to that celebration,” she said. “If you do get a free upgrade or a free drink, fantastic! But please don’t demand one from an unsuspecting flight attendant.”
At the start of January, TheStreet spoke to a JetBlue Airways (JBLU) flight attendant who also described incidents of having to insist on the rules only to be completely ignored by travelers.
“The flights are fuller but the attitudes are also fuller,” Tyesha Best said. “[…] At one point, almost all the airlines removed the ability to purchase alcohol on flights because they saw that as a major contributing factor to the aggressive behavior of customers.”
