23 Flight Attendants Share On The Job Horror Stories

Buzz Feed

a day ago

IDK about you, but I am very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY much not a fan of the airport...or planes...or being in the sky in general. So, needless to say, I have a lot of respect for people who spend most of their days working on planes, tending to entitled customers, and all around living my actual nightmare.
Well, Reddit user TwistedHumorX recently asked cabin crew members to share the worst, weirdest, and "most WTF" things they've ever witnessed on the job. Y'all...I fear these stories have only validated my fears and confirmed that flight attendants are perhaps some of the strongest people in the world. So, without further ado, here are 23 shocking and occasionally disturbing stories they shared:
"We found poop in the toilet sink. Sometimes it's pee sloshing around because people don't know the sink has to be drained, aside from the fact that it is a sink and not a toilet bowl. Also, some men insisted they needed a sanitary napkin, just because they saw a woman receive it from me. They thought I was giving out amenities and felt they also had a right to receive whatever the lady got. So, fine, I gave them some. The next time I passed by, they had the pads stuck to their eyes. They thought they were eyeshades."
"My girlfriend is cabin crew. There are two main stories she tells. The first one is a passenger who mixed sleeping pills and alcohol, this caused the passenger to freak out and attack another passenger. The other involves a passenger who didn't have his belt over his blanket when the fasten seat belt sign was lit. He looked asleep and didn't respond to the crew when they tried to wake him, so they had to move the blanket to check. Turns out he was masturbating."
"My father was a pilot and my mother was a flight attendant. I've always said my mom should write a book. In the 1960s, my mom's route was LA–NY and back (first class cabin), so it always had a famous person or two. Actors were always the worst for her. Most notably, she said she was manhandled by Robert Goulet, who then proceeded to tell the whole plane that he had sex with her (which didn't happen). After my mom asked Lucille Ball what she would like to drink, Lucille Ball replied, 'I don't talk to servants.'"
"A passenger asked me for a Coke while I was actively performing CPR on someone."
"I fly for a low-cost carrier in Europe. I've got loads of stories of people leaving weird or random stuff behind, but the one that sticks out the most is a fake leg. We were aware of a passenger with a prosthetic leg as PRM agents brought him on board with an ambulift, but we never thought he could leave his leg behind."
"Before I became a flight attendant, I worked in customer service and as a ramp agent at my station. We were the regional for a larger carrier, so we did a lot of things ourselves, like catering, taking care of missed baggage, and even having our own lost and found. Well, one day, I was watching the lost and found desk and one of our gate agents came in with a laptop. She said she found it at an empty gate, so I had no flight information to go off of. The laptop had no stickers or other identifying information on it, so I thought to myself, 'Hmm, I bet if I open it, it will have a lock screen with the owner's name.' So I opened it. But the laptop didn't open to the lock screen, it opened to the tab the owner had been viewing, which was a porn site."
"My aunt said that on one flight on Thanksgiving, they were serving turkey to the first-class customers (back when they still served food). As they brought the turkey out and were about to start serving the people, they hit some turbulence and the turkey fell on the ground. It was the only turkey they had, so she simply picked it up and walked to the back 'to get a new one.' In reality, she just dusted it off and brought the same one back."
"A customer pooped in their drink cup and left it on the galley counter. Said she didn't want to wait for the bathroom, and that she 'took care of it' at her seat. I almost lost it."
"One time, I was picking up trash and recycling, and a man handed me a porno magazine. X-rated. Just unabashedly gave it to me. I was shocked when I looked down, not because he gave it to me, but because he must've thought it was appropriate reading material for a public place and had finished it during the flight!"
"A while back, I (pilot) was collecting an aircraft and asked the inbound crew how their flight down was. She responded that it was pretty normal except she had to reprimand a couple for licking each other's nipples. She didn't even seem that fazed by it."
"My friend is an airline attendant, and she said the worst thing she ever found on a plane was a bloody dildo. Don't want to know where or when it was used, but needless to say, they all walked on by and notified the cleaners they'd need a biohazard bag. And what's worse...they found the blood first."
"An older gentleman, probably in his late 60s to early 70s, boarded the plane and told me he had bathroom issues. I was working the aft galley and he sat in the very last row. I assumed he meant he had bladder issues and had to pee frequently, so I didn't really pay any attention. Just before we went into sterile flight on the descent, he got up as quickly as a man of his age could and rushed to the lavatory. He did his business and sat back down."
"We had a passenger come up to us mid-red eye flight from Reno to Dallas. Another passenger had peed in the aisle right next to her. Like, stood up, walked 15 feet, and peed. Police met the plane, and he had no idea what happened, nor did his wife."
"A friend of mine who used to work as a flight attendant walked in to clean the cabin and found a used condom on the floor near the last row. Apparently, someone thought the plane was a love hotel, and I guess they joined the mile-high club and just left the receipt."
"My father worked for an airline for over 30 years and shared this story with me based on one of his colleagues' experiences. On a flight from JFK to Heathrow post-9/11, while the plane was about fourth or fifth in line for takeoff, an American lady demanded to be let off the plane. The attendant naturally refused since the doors were closed, and they were almost at the runway. The lady went nuts and called 911 from her cellphone and said she was an American citizen being held against her will on a foreign airline, and — as they were about to take off — she was going to be taken to another country."
"I was a flight attendant for five years. I have enough wild stories to write a book, maybe two. I've been punched in the face, propositioned, witnessed multiple couples try to get it on in the seats, had one couple try to do it in the galley, had my butt pinched, watched arguments break out over seats being reclined, been told the quality of ginger ale I serve is not of a high enough caliber, seen bare feet on bulkhead walls at face level, had someone try to stow their luggage on my jump seat shortly before landing, and had trash dumped on my food tray while I was still eating from it."
"Former flight attendant. I found a sick bag full of piss in a seat back once."
"I found poop on a chair. Figured out it was an older gentleman. We tried to see if he had another flight so we could let him know, but unfortunately (fortunately?), he only had our flight. Poor guy had no idea."
"My mom was a flight attendant. One time, lightning struck the plane she was in and the engine just shit the bed for a few seconds (which, of course, felt like an eternity). The lights went out, cabin pressure dropped, and the little ceiling bags popped out. The plane dropped in altitude very rapidly, and then...it was over and everything went back to normal. Flight attendants deserve serious props! They have to think quickly, act accordingly, and stay calm in situations like that."
"Quoting my older sister's fiancé (he's a first officer pilot): 'There have been three butt plugs found thus far for my trip from NYC to Miami, and I don't know why.'"
"I used to work for an airline, which meant I got to fly for free as a standby passenger. This is called 'non-revving' (non-revenue passenger). So this one day, I was taking a flight to New York as a non-rev, and there was a girl from our airline who worked as a gate agent on there with a bunch of her friends. Non-revving is a delicate thing sometimes — there are a lot of rules that the airline makes you follow so you don't tarnish their image. I almost got denied entry once because I wasn't wearing dress shoes. These girls boarded and immediately started acting up."
"A passenger changed their baby's diaper on their tray table. 🤢"
And finally, "I got upgraded on a two-hour flight a while back. I was sitting across the aisle from a mom and her two young sons when I heard, 'Mom, I have to go poop.' Keep in mind we were, like, eight rows from the closest bathroom. But nah, instead of escorting her child to the bathroom, she had him stand up in between the seat and the seat back in front of him while she cupped her hands under his ass. That kid shit into her hands. Why."
Do you (or have you ever) work at the airport or on an airplane? Do you have any horrifying stories like these? If so, tell us about them in the comments or via the anonymous form below and your story might just be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post.