The craziest air travel stories of 2024

In 2024, many people traveled far and wide. For many, the memories began while traveling aboard one of the thousands of flights that cross the globe every day.

As 2024 comes to a close, we bring you a roundup of some of the craziest airline stories of the past year.

Defective door

The incident, which quickly went viral, occurred on Jan. 5 when a door panel covering an auxiliary emergency exit, which only works on maximum-capacity planes, flew off at 16,000 feet on an Alaska Airlines flight.

The plane was departing from Portland, Oregon, and the panel caused the cabin to depressurize. The pilots returned the plane safely to Portland without serious damage.

ANOTHER DELTA AIR LINES CUSTOMER CRASHED NEAR DEPARTURE, RESULTING IN POLICE ACTION AND FLIGHT DELAY

Video footage of the incident shows panicked passengers sitting against the wind the plane due to the lack of a door. The incident led to a lawsuit against the airline and brought new scrutiny to Boeing, the plane’s manufacturer.

“Boeing is responsible for what happened,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said at the time. “Whatever the specific cause of the accident, such an event simply should not happen on an aircraft leaving one of our factories. We just have to be better. Our customers deserve better.”

The tragedy was caught on video

The plane, which was controlled by Brazilian airline The Voepass crashed in the state of Sao Paulo in August, killing all on board.

The fiery disaster occurred in a residential area, killing more than 60 passengers and crew members. The plane took off from Cascavel, Brazilin the state of Paraná.

This video still shows fire from a plane that crashed near a house in Viñedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Felipe Magalhaes Filho via AP)

Footage taken seconds before the crash shows the plane drifting vertically downwards and spiraling as it descends to the ground.

Aviation experts at the time believed that the twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-500 had stalled in mid-air.

What is that smell?

In December, passengers on an American Airlines flight from Dallas, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota were in for an unexpected surprise after a toilet leak reached the cabin aisle.

“GATE LICE” AND “SIT-UPS” AMONG THE MOST VIRAL TRAVEL TRENDS FOR 2024

The water could not be shut off and the leak crept up the cabin during the almost a three-hour flight.

Passengers can be seen holding onto their bags to avoid what passenger Hillary Stewart Blazewicz called the “disgusting” liquid, with some trying to step over water

Wing damage

United Airlines passenger filmed a Boeing 757 wing “falling apart” shortly before a February flight from San Francisco to Boston was diverted to Denver due to the incident.

Kevin Clark shot video showing damage to the plane’s wing, which eventually forced the flight to make an emergency landing in Denver to assess the problem. Shortly after takeoff, he experienced “the most violent shaking and shivering” before falling back to sleep, he said at the time.

“The pilot was walking down the aisle and following me,” Clarke told Lawrence Jones on “Fox & Friends.”

“I looked out the window, got back in the cockpit, turned on the public address system and said, ‘We’re being diverted to Denver. minor damage to… the front of the wing.’ So I immediately opened the window to look at the wing, and the rear edge of the strut was completely…destroyed, as you can see in the picture.”

“At that point, I’m thinking, OK, it’s not a small loss, but … the United pilot is competent enough to get us to Denver,” he continued. “I guess we’re on our way.”

The Boeing 757-200, with 165 passengers on board, landed in Denver to “resolve a slat issue” on one of the wings. The passengers were put on another plane and arrived later that day in Boston.

Slats are movable panels on the leading or leading edge of the wing used during takeoffs and landings.

TRAVELERS MAY FACE MORE ‘TOURIST TAX’ WHEN VISITING CERTAIN CITIES

An uncontrolled passenger

A few days later in 2024, an enraged passenger allegedly punched a flight attendant before being kicked off the plane.

American Airlines Flight 1497 from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas to Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Montana was diverted mid-flight on January 3 due to an unruly passenger.

The plane was forced to divert to Amarillo Rick Husband International Airport in Texas after Keith Edward Faggiano punched a flight attendant several times. According to authorities, the incident began after another passenger complained that Faggiano was hitting his chair.

After a flight attendant intervened, Faggiano allegedly became enraged and began punching an American Air Lines employee in the stomach.

JP Gallagher, elected official from Montana, told FOX 4 that his wife had warned him about the irate traveler.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM

“My wife started hitting me and saying, you know, to make me pay attention that something was going on,” Gallagher said. “There was a drinks cart between us and the incident. So I couldn’t see a lot of what was going on, but I heard some yelling and some, you know, swearing, and, you know, the flight attendant said, “Stop.” this.”

Madeline Coggins, Bailey Hill, Ashley J. Fox News Digital’s DiMello and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.