10 Bizarre Reasons Why Flights Have Been Delayed!

Every frequent flyer knows that flight delays are a way of life.

And most travellers can guess when a flight will be delayed depending on circumstances like ongoing bad weather.

But there have been instances when flights have been delayed due to strange and bizarre reasons which  have left travellers baffled.

Get ready to have your mind blown cause here are 10 strange and crazy reasons why flights have been delayed.

1. Scorpion Stings A Passenger

In August 2018, a passenger was stung on an Alaskan Airlines flight to Portland, Oregon.

The flight originated in Los Cabos, Mexico and was preparing to take off from LAX when the incident happened. The delay cost the airline about 50 total minutes, which doesn’t seem to be too bad.

But, the airline is yet to figure out how did a scorpion get on an airplane.

2.Snakes On An Airplane

Well, the incident is not exactly like how it happened in the movie, but the thought of a snake on an airplane can scare even the bravest of flyers.

In 2013, a small snake forced the grounding of a Japan-bound Qantas flight in the Australian city of Sydney. The snake, which was non-venomous, was about eight inches long.

The flight took off the next day ,however passengers were booked into hotels for their overnight layover. By the way, this was not the first or only snake incident for Qantas that year and a similar incident happened the year before.

3.Flight Attendants Fighting

In 2012, two flight attendants manning an American Eagle flight from JFK to Washington-Reagan (DCA) couldn’t see eye-to-eye on something.

The argument got so heated up that the cockpit crew determined it was necessary to turn the airplane around and head back to JFK ,where it remained for nearly four hours.

It’s hard to believe that  the issue was so big that the attendants couldn’t  work with each other for an hour, but supposedly they didn’t!

4.Mice Situation

Last year a Qatar Airways flight from Madrid to Doha was delayed for more than six hours after a mouse was found in the cabin.

Much to the mouse’s surprise, passengers were significantly alarmed by its presence on the airplane.

On landing at the Barajas Airport in Madrid, the plane had to be fumigated which resulted in a 6-hour delay of the return flight.

5.Slow-Moving Turtles

More than 400 diamondback terrapin turtles managed to find their way to New York City’s JFK Airport, with several of them actually making their way onto the airport’s runways and taxiways, leading to several flight delays.

The incident happened again after a few years which caused flights to get delayed by an hour.

According to experts, turtles had been using the same route to migrate prior to JFK’s existence, which is why such incidents have occurred in the past.

6.Asking Passengers To Pay For Jet Fuel

When an Air France flight was redirected from Beirut to Damascus because of civil unrest in the August of 2012, the crew asked passengers to scrape together whatever cash they could to pay for fuel.

The Syrian authorities declined to pay for the fuel, and alternate arrangements were made, however, the confusion caused a delay of more than 2 hours.

To be fair, it’s still better than landing in a country on brink of a war.

7.Improperly Served Nuts

In 2014 vice president of Korean Air & daughter of the airlines owner, Heather Cho, made headlines all over the world when she forced a flight leaving JFK, to head back to the airport.

She was offered macadamia nuts in a packet instead of a plate, which didn’t go down well with her.

She forced the flight attendants to kneel before her and wanted them thrown out of the airplane. She was later escorted off the premises by the police and was eventually arrested and sentenced to one year in jail.

8.Boy Band’s Shopping Spree

American sensations “One Direction” delayed an entire British Airways flight from Heathrow (LHR) to LAX for 15 minutes so that they could do some duty-free shopping.

According to a band spokesman, the band members had left the airport between flights and had been stuck in traffic on the way back to LHR, however they were spotted by fans shopping inside the terminal.

9.A Lawn Chair Got In The Way Of The Airplane

Presumably lacking space in his garden, Larry Walters, an American citizen,  decided to tie industrial balloons to his lawn chair to enjoy a cold beer mid-air.  

A Pan Am flight had to alter its course, at 16,000 feet incase he flew up that high, causing the flight o delay.

10.Passenger Opens Emergency Door By Mistake

In 2016, one of the 130 passengers aboard a China Southern Airlines flight leaving Chengdu Airport (CTU) opened the emergency door just before take-off, leading to a delay of more than an hour.

The passenger later explained that he thought the door was a window and just wanted to “get some fresh air.”