At AMS right now, waiting to board a plane that had to leave 5 min ago.

Asked gate agent and she says ‘our pilot missed his train’

a month or so back, when I was filling up my rental car near IAD at ~T-2 hrs before an evening flight to SEA, I got a text message that the departure would be delayed an hour

GA said the delay was for “Customer Service”

it turned out that SEA baggage handling had mistakenly loaded a dog in cargo onto the IAD jet, so the ground crew at IAD were going to give it food and water and a nature break before loading it back on the return flight (where it would hopefully be sent onward to its proper destination)

We had a flight delayed by a missing flight attendant, and the struggle to find a replacement. Finally both attendants showed up and we then had another delay as they tried to figure out which one would be used.

In Kuala Lumpur... we couldn't take off as there was a mouse seen on the plane!

The problem, of course, was that if there are mice on a plane, soon there will also be snakes on the plane.

Mouse is nothing compared to snakes in overhead bin...

Had a flight from IAD to DTW delayed because a passenger on the inbound leg put her guitar in the first class closet (can't remember which kind of plane it was), and the guitar shifted during the flight and jammed the closet door shut. As we were waiting for them to start boarding my flight, we started out getting updates from the gate agent, and then the inbound pilot, and eventually the outbound pilot.

The timeline went something like "the passenger tried to get it out, then the flight attendants tried to get it out, then the pilot tried to get it out, then the gate agent went down and tried to get it out., and then the new pilot tried to get it out"

An hour and 40 minutes after our scheduled departure, they got a mechanic on board and he also couldn't get the door open to get the guitar out. Eventually, they said that the mechanic chopped the door open with a fire axe. That got the guitar out, but then we had to wait while he replaced the door because they couldn't have a door flopping around unsecured during flight.

We were about 2.5 hours late departing, which caused me to miss both my original connection and the last flight out from DTW to PDX. So Delta was kind enough to put me up overnight in a perfectly lovely Day's Inn in Romulus - which had my room number attached to the door with literal Scotch tape, a stain the size of a dinner plate in the carpet outside the door (which looked disturbingly like blood), and a couch in the 2nd floor elevator lobby that had no cushions on the sitting part, just a piece of 3/4" plywood where you would sit.

I suppose the takeaway from the whole experience is that I don't let airlines book my room when there's a delay anymore. If things start looking like I am going to spend the night somewhere unexpected, I'll book my own room and try to get reimbursed later.

I was delayed a couple of times in Alaska due to moose on the runway.

I had the same happen due to elk on the runway at a small airport in northern Canada.

Not a commercial flight, but stuck for about 30 minutes once at ORL (Orlando Executive Airport) waiting for an alligator to move off the taxiway.

I had a different, but also dog-related, delay many years back. In my case, a dog being loaded on our flight escaped from their carrier, and led ramp workers on a merry chase around the tarmac (forgot which hub, could have been CLT, DFW, or ATL I think). The dog (named Honeybee IIRC) was eventually nabbed, re-crated, and made it safely to our destination.

Rattlesnake in the cargo hold at PSP. How? Who knows, not like they can jump up into the hatch.

OR CAN THEY??

I was recently delayed due to to "inoperable" bathrooms at the rear of a 737-Max.... never got any more clarification.

Not take-off, but landing: elephants on the landing strip. Okavango Delta, Botswana. Luckily, we didn't have to circle for very long.

Now that is an interesting one!