Most of us have, at some stage, been seated next to a less-than desirable character on a flight.
But some of these stories really take the biscuit. Travellers have taken to an online forum to share the most ‘disturbing’ things a seat neighbour has done on a plane, and it’s not pretty.
From leery men to the first-class passenger so inebriated on a flight to Los Angeles she poured her drink over a woman’s lap in a fit of rage – these tails of woe will have you wincing in empathy.
Behave: Travellers have taken to an online forum to share the most ‘disturbing’ things a seat neighbour has done on a plane (stock image)
Drunken rage
Writing on Quora, frequent flyer Julie Benson-Grant recanted a first class flight she took from Boston to LA.
‘The person seated next to me had already spent a considerable amount of time in the airport bar,’ she explains. ‘As she continued to drink and get drunker, she became more obnoxious.
‘I tried hard not to respond to her, and asked the flight attendants to not serve her any more alcohol. Big mistake.
‘I was just about to the end of my tether when she made one last insult and turned her glass of orange juice over into my lap.’ The woman was promptly moved to economy, according to Julie.
One man shared a flight to Los Angeles to Portland with a severely overweight neighbour with a profuse sweating problem (stock image)
Blanket thief
Rajesh Sundaram, a designer, was on an Air India flight from Delhi to San Francisco when his horror story unfolded.
‘My seat mates were an Afghan guy and his little brother,’ he writes. ‘After a peaceful five hours of sleep I woke up to find that my in-flight headphones were missing.
‘Turned left and saw the little brother was using them. Not a big issue. I was okay with that.’
Rajesh added: ‘After some minutes I dozed off again. Somewhere along the line, I felt my comforter was being pulled.
‘I opened my eyes and saw the guy was cleaning his teeth using my comforter, while his own comforter was on him. My eyes opened wide in shock. He seemed indifferent.’
Excess weight
Andy Enright, an American sales rep, shared his tale from a packed flight from Los Angeles to Portland.
‘A very large gentleman took the seat next to me,’ he writes. ‘He legitimately did not fit in the seat. Also, he was sweating profusely.
‘Within five minutes of his sitting down he asked me if I wouldn’t mind raising the arm rest as it was hurting his side. His body was literally molding around the arm rest and he was very much in my seat. I did mind and didn’t allow the arm rest to be raised. I needed some sort of barrier.
‘Fast forward 2.5 hours and my right side is soaked in his sweat. As we left he muttered that it was rude that I didn’t raise the arm rest.’
Wakey wakey: Another passenger flying from Delhi to San Francisco awoke to find his seat neighbour cleaning his teeth on his fellow flyer’s blanket (stock image)
Leery men
Several contributors described encounters with inappropriate men.
One, a teacher and mum, wrote: ‘I was breastfeeding my first child, and at only 21 was an inexperienced mother.
‘A couple on the flight had an argument so the husband stormed off up the plane and unfortunately decided to sit next to me. He then proceeded to take far too much interest in my breastfeeding. It was a gross and very uncomfortable conversation.
‘If it happened now I’d tell him to get lost.’
Another, businessman Mark Anderson, chimed in: ‘Late in the boarding process the guy across the aisle took his phone out and, very openly, began photographing the young female flight attendant.
‘He was very deliberate, taking photos as she reached up into the bins or bent over to check seatbelts. And then he spent a lot of time just looking at the photos, again quite openly. It was almost like he wanted her to know.’
But perhaps none of these stories can quite compare to this next one.
I was just about to the end of my tether when she made one last insult and turned her glass of orange juice over into my lap
Surprise corpse
Tyler Cooke, an engineering student, told the story of a business flyer called Dave who he once met in passing.
‘He was on a long flight to Asia on a fully loaded 747,’ Tyler relays. ‘About midway through the flight he noticed that the man sitting beside him in the middle seat seemed awfully pale and unwell.
‘He tried to wake the man from his apparent slumber, but was unable. Eventually he got the attention of the flight attendant, who managed to find a medical doctor. The doctor pronounced the passenger dead shortly thereafter.
‘Unfortunately, there were no empty seats on the flight, so Dave had to fly the remainder of the flight next a corpse (which was covered with a blanket).’
Sleep talking
And one frequent flyer even revealed himself to have been the dodgy seat neighbour.
Coby J Bolger, admits: ‘I am sorry to confess that I was the unacceptable seatmate. I was on a flight from Madrid to Miami.
‘I had a half a glass of wine and fell asleep exhausted. The plane was dark and quiet. I don’t know exactly what happened, but in my sleep I had a terrible dream, gripped the lapels of my seatmate and calmly said “there’s something wrong with the plane”.
‘The poor guy woke up with a start and luckily he didn’t slug me out of reflex. He kindly patted me and said “everything is just fine, don’t worry”. I answered “oh, thank you”, turned my back to him and fell deeply asleep again.
‘When I woke up again I was mortified.’