The Weirdest Reasons for Flight Groundings

Recently our plane was close to not flying because we almost didn’t make Sydney’s Flight Curfew, which a plausable enough reason, although I would not have been too happy to lose out on a day of my vacation.
And then I read this article on News.Com.Au and thought those poor B$#%ards!!

“a plane’s grounding can take place for any number of random reasons, from passengers not turning up on the plane, flight crew getting lost or a fox being spotted chewing on one of the aircraft’s tyres.

these incidents take place far more often that you’d think; just last week, several airlines around the world were forced to keep planes on the ground due to “technical issues”. Air New Zealand’s Eagle Air regional services were suspended after hairline cracks were found in the tail of one of their fleet, while in the US, a Delta Airlines flight was left on the ground when a swarm of bees decided to make a nest on the plane’s wing.
However packs of bees and cracks in the rear end are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to strange reasons flights have been grounded.

Flatulent passenger
A US flight between Washington and Dallas was forced to land in Nashville after a woman was found to be lighting matches to conceal a noxious ‘body odour’. When passengers complained of smelling smoke, the plane was grounded and after sniffer dogs found several spent matches under a particular seat, the FBI discovered a woman had been striking matches to disperse the smell of her trouser coughs. While the culprit claimed to have a medical condition, she has been placed of the no-fart fly list “for a very long time”.

Cat lost in the cabin
An aircraft was grounded for more than 24 hours after a stowaway cat befriended by the crew became lost in the cabin. The Pakistani Airlines crew found the moggy on a flight to Manchester (let’s pretend finding cats on planes is a regular occurrence) but a few minutes before landing the inquisitive feline escaped from the cockpit. Travellers for the next flight boarded as the search continued, but when the cat couldn’t be located, the passengers had to disembark and were placed in a hotel while the search continued. After technicians worked through the night pulling the plane apart, the cat was finally coaxed out of it’s hiding place by a vet, with the delay said to cost the airline a cool £20,000.

Melting runway
This one gives a whole new meaning to being grounded, as this year’s hot summer weather on the US’s east coast caused a plane to literally get stuck on the runway of Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington. The plane was reported to have sunk four inches into the melted tarmac, with a crew working for an hour and a half to pull the plane out of the pavement. But us Aussies shouldn’t get too concerned with our fleet not being able to take off due to high temps – the plane was stuck on traditional tarmac and not the harder-to-melt concrete surface we see at our airports.
Finding yourself in the President’s airspace
What’s worse than flying into the airspace of the President of the United States and being told to land immediately by some trigger-happy F16 pilots? The authorities finding the 10kg of marijuana you stashed onboard when you land, that’s what. After flying his single-seater Cessna too close to the Prez’s helicopter, Marine One, earlier this year, a pilot was forced down by two fighters after failing to respond by radio. After being interviewed, he was assessed to not have been a threat to President Obama, although the copious amounts of weed found on board might be another issue.

Soiled Nappy
Qantas have to deal with a fair amount of crap being hurled their way, so having one of their planes grounded due to a dirty nappy should be par for the course. The ‘do-do downing’ took place in February this year, when a Darwin to Brisbane flight had to land after several passengers complained about a heinous odour coming from the front of the plane. “Unfortunately the fumes turned out to be a very smelly nappy in the fwd toilets,” said a Qantas statement. “Procedures dictate to land as soon as possible. It’s very embarrassing for us… but better safe than sorry.” (As with lost cats on planes, let’s pretend Qantas have dedicated emergency landing procedures for when stinky nappies are found stuffed in the toilets.)”

I had a flight delayed because the pilot had not shown up

pilot parked the plane and he cant remember where he left it

My recent flight to NZ was delayed “due to system malfunction”!!! which turned out to be the computers were down that were used to check pax onto the plane rather than a ‘system’ actually on the plance!!!