Can’t Passengers Just Sit in a Seat and Enjoy the Flight? This Week’s Worst Flyers

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: Suspicious and Mysterious Behavior

Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) took the notion of “see something, say something” seriously and alerted the crew to fellow passengers’ “suspicious behavior.” Police and airline officials have, however, so far, taken a serious “say nothing” approach to the incident.

The pilot took the passenger report seriously enough to make an unscheduled landing at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) where two passengers were removed from the flight by police. The plane was then emptied and inspected before the flight was allowed to continue on to ABQ where passengers arrived just under one hour and thirty minutes behind schedule.

“The captain in command of our flight 1271 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Albuquerque safely diverted to Phoenix Sky Harbor after Flight Attendants relayed customer observations of behavior by two passengers on the aircraft,” the airline confirmed in a statement. “After an uneventful landing, the aircraft was met at the terminal by local law enforcement officers who questioned two customers. Out of an abundance of caution and in accordance with established procedures, the plane was inspected by both security and maintenance personnel.”

Phoenix Police would only say that they were called to meet the plane because of “suspicious behavior” which “interfered with the flight crew.” For now, the exact nature of the suspicious behavior remains a mystery.

The Runner-up: The Teenage Stowaway 

A teenage runaway made headlines after setting off from China to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in search of a better life on Friday. Media reports in the 16-year-old’s native China speculated that rumors circulating among teenagers of panhandlers earning as much as $15,000 annually in the Gulf nation may have enticed the teen to climb a fence at Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) to stow away onboard an Emirates flight bound for Dubai International Airport (DXB).

The teenager was fortunate to land safely and unharmed at his destination but didn’t seem to have a very strong endgame planned for his arrival. The daring adolescent was immediately discovered by ramp workers when they opened the hatch at DXB. Unfortunately, the publicity surrounding his wild ride will all but ensure that the time that the young man is allowed to remain in his would-be new home will be very brief indeed.

The Winner: The Pervert with a Camera

There is an astoundingly wide variety of distracting conduct that passengers are often guilty of during those oh-so-boring pre-flight announcements. The boorish behavior can range from simply ignoring the safety briefing to talking over the announcements and in some extreme cases even pressing the call button to order a drink while the potentially life-saving information mandated by government regulations is conveyed to the few passengers who are actually interested.

A passenger on a Flybe Airlines flight this week from Dublin Airport (DUB) to Cardiff Airport (CWL) found a new high water mark when it comes to insulting pre-flight behavior. The man allegedly started to take inappropriate photographs of the flight attendant’s behind as she demonstrated how to properly secure a seatbelt.

When confronted about his outrageous actions, the flyer remained defiant. The flight attendant naturally asked the shutterbug to delete the rear end shots that he had taken without permission, but as if to prove that he was incapable of paying attention to the simplest instructions, he told the crew that he didn’t know how to remove the inappropriate photographs saved on his camera. Deleting the compromising images from the camera’s memory card turned out to be a very simple procedure that cabin crew was happy to demonstrate for him while the plane returned to the gate where the paparazzi passenger was removed from the flight.

[Photo: Getty Images]