Flight delays happen every day.
The reasons behind it are different: technical problems, bad weather, airline staff strikes. Usually it’s serious stuff that will make you frown and or even get you stressed. But sometimes flights get delayed because of bizarre incidents, like, critters on the plane, drunk crew members, or even a lack of toilet paper.
No, seriously! It’s not a joke.While it’s still stressful - yeah, your flight has been delayed but afterwards, when you safely have arrived at your destination you can have a laugh.
In July 2016 nearly 400 diamondback terrapin turtles, ahem, trespassed New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport’s property. The turtles got there from the nearby turf where they were nesting.
The slow creatures crawled onto the runways and taxiways. This reckless behaviour caused delays while airport workers caught all the troublemakers.
Source: US News.
Not only critters can roam around airport property but also can get on a plane.
Once at Gold Coast Airport a snake almost boarded a Virgin flight to Sydney as the human-passengers were boarding and taking their seats. Luckily, the airport staff acted quickly, and delay was short.
Source: Daily Mail.
Being drunk is not good. You can make fool of yourself and be a nuisance to people around you. Especially if you are a member of an aircrew.
Yes, aircraft cabin crew members can turn up to work drunk. It happens rarely, but it happens.
Four Air Namibia crew members that were a part of SW722 flight which was scheduled to depart for Windhoek on December 19, 2018, got drunk and delayed not one but multiple flights by up to 7 hours! Three of the four were cabin crew members, and one was a first officer.
Source: Namibian.
Cats are curious animals.
They love to explore and roam around. Even on planes.
In January 2012 an adventurous cat broke free of its pet carrier and headed to the cockpit where it hid in a small compartment. This led to a four-hour delay of Air Canada flight from Halifax to Toronto as technicians worked to extract the cat.
Source: ABC News.
Have you ever heard of durian, the King of fruit?
It is said that this fruit smells like hell but tastes like heaven. Well, I am not so sure about its good taste, but it definitely smells bad. So bad it can cause flight delays.
On November 5, 2018, this smelly fruit delayed the flight from Jakarta to Bengkulu by an hour.
Two tonnes of durian fruit in the cargo had caused the bad smell on board of Sriwijaya Air plane even though the fruit was properly packaged.
Certainly, the passengers were not happy about the bad smell, so they complained to the crew.
As the passengers refused to fly, the airline had to unload the sacks of smelly fruit.
Source: Newsweek.
In January 2019 a toilet waste truck collided with a JetBlue plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The truck got wedged under the aircraft, and and the flight was switched to a different plane.
Luckily, no one was injured during the crash.
Source: Fox News.
Yes, flights can get delayed because of that, too.
And in this case you most probably would be entitled to flight compensation of up to 600 EUR. Have you been in a situation similar to this one? Submit your claim for airline compensation now.
In March 2017 a flight from Gatwick to Barbados got delayed for 5 hours due to lack of toilet paper.
Not only the aircraft for this flight (BA 2153) was short on toilet paper but also was stocked with the wrong headphones! Duh!
Source: Telegraph.
This has happened more than once. Several flights have been delayed for 40 or more minutes because of a broken coffee maker.
There had been more serious issues because of that as well.
In September the Lufthansa flight 415 from Washington to Munich was diverted to Boston because of a broken coffee maker. The coffee maker had overheated and could not be turned off.
Source: News.com.au.
Happy travels!
If something similar ever happens to you, don't forget to submit a claim for flight delay compensation.