The most unpleasant flight I've ever endured would have been fine if the captain hadn't made the misguided decision to keep a psychotic person on board. I found an obese elderly woman in my bulkhead seat at LAX. I told her she was in the wrong seat, but knew from her response that she was not in her right mind so sat in her assigned seat a couple of rows back. She was in a blind panic, explaining that she couldn't go to Cleveland because they were going to cut her up into little pieces and put them in a garbage bag.

I alerted an FA, who talked with the lady for a few minutes before informing the captain. He came and talked with her for ten or fifteen minutes. I think his reassuring air of authority helped her reorganize her addled mind sufficiently to convince him she was fit to fly.

We taxied and took off. She yelled, swung her cane wildly till she was relieved of it, soiled herself, and cried throughout most of the flight. A flight attendant and a heroic fellow passenger sat with her for the entire flight. When we arrived at CLE, the purser asked pax to remain seated because of the "special situation." Now the lady, who had repeatedly asked to get off en route, refused to leave. I had urged the FA to arrange for paramedics to meet us, but that didn't happen. There was a tense standoff for a while, when the lady suddenly bolted off the plane faster than anyone could have imagined.

I would not want to be responsible for judging whether any given passenger was fit to fly.