Worst Passenger of the Week: “Enjoy Your Holiday in Stansted!”

Every Friday, FlyerTalk looks back at the week’s most charming individuals. While there are always plenty of contenders for our Worst Passenger of the Week award, only one lucky flyer can take home the glory. Here are this week’s winners.

Third Place – First Class, Business Class or Roach Class

Some of the very worst passengers in the sky have more than two legs. As if to prove this point, a passenger captured images of a roach-infested cabin on a a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight this week. Before viewing the creepy-crawly footage, it might help to bear in mind that when humans and cargo meet, pests oftentimes follow and yes, this unfortunately sometimes even includes commercial passenger planes.

Just ask the passenger who claimed to have suffered hundreds of bed bug bites during a British Airways flight from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). Air India, Emirates and British Airways have all had to ground or delay flights after mice were discovered to have stowed away onboard. Of course, neither of those pesky infestations are quite as chilling as the handful of incidents in which passengers received surprise scorpion stings in-flight.

Although the airline may be mostly blameless in this most recent insect invasion, that doesn’t mean that the passenger’s in-cabin nature documentary shot on a cellphone won’t have many of us seriously thinking about canceling future air travel plans and taking the bus instead. The viral video is not for the faint-hearted. It is impossible to unsee the insect-infested seats once viewed and the images of roaches skittering between seat cushions and darting across an embroidered PIA pillow are anything but easy to forget.

The Runner-up – A Word, Gesture or Act Intended to Insult the Modesty of a Woman

Police arrested a truly awful passenger this week following an IndiGo flight in which somebody should have probably just kept his hands above the tray table. Officials say that Ramesh Chand was handed over to authorities after allegedly masturbating at his seat during the flight from Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) to Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL). A woman seated nearby raised concerns about the lewd behavior before finding a much less uncomfortable seating arrangement elsewhere on the plane.

“In her complaint, the woman said she saw the man unzipping his trousers,” Delhi police officials told reporters. “Then he started masturbating. When the woman brought the matter to a crew member’s knowledge, she was allotted another seat.”

According to prosecutors, Ramesh Chand is now facing charges for offenses including the act of making a “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman” and “sexual harassment.” One might reasonably wonder if a simple charge of “masturbating in public view on a passenger plane” might be a more appropriate charge, but the listed offenses seem to cover a wide variety of sins. In July of 2016, a former Worst Passenger of the Week winner, accused of manhandling a flight attendant (in order to get an urgent photograph posing with her) also faced similar vaguely worded charges, including “outraging modesty of women” and “endangering life or personal safety of others.”

The Winners – Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

In the past, Worst Passenger of the Week winners have earned scorn, ridicule and sometimes criminal charges for their actions. This week, a duo of EasyJet passengers earned all of the above, plus a standing ovation for their obnoxious behavior on an EasyJet flight from Manchester Airport (MAN) to Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey.

To be fair, the applause really had more to do with the pair’s allegedly drunken performance finally reaching its end, rather than the performance itself. Eventually the women’s in-flight antics forced the captain to make an unscheduled stop at London Stansted Airport (STN).

“We got into the air and she started shouting and swearing and being abusive towards passengers and staff,” Sam Tinsley, a passenger on the flight told the Daily Mail. “One member of staff alerted the captain and they decided to land the plane for the safety of passengers.”

Travelers on the flight, who were not exactly thrilled to have their trip interrupted before even making it out of the UK, were eager to show their gratitude to the two troublemakers as they were escorted from the aircraft at STN. Mobile phone footage of the grand exit captured fellow passengers applauding and jeering the two women as they are led down the aisle of the main cabin.

“’What a waster!” one passenger on the flight can be heard announcing as one of the women was led away. “Wasted on vodka!” Yet another passenger made light of the fact that the boorish flyers would no longer be enjoying the benefits of an exotic getaway trip. “Enjoy your holiday in Stansted,” he taunted as a parting shot.

The women who caused the whole unfortunate delay did not depart quietly. Instead, they left the plane in a blur of profanity and dancing (yes, dancing) as a sort of a final encore of bad behavior.

[Photo: Shutterstock]