bad passenger

[ADDENDUM: When I made this post before going to sleep, it sounded like an “idiot prankster” story. Now it is being called AN ATTEMPT TO DESTROY THE PLANE.]

Beyond all eye-rolling:

“A passenger set off fireworks Friday on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, a Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said.”

The passenger may have been unaware of how harshly the legal system is likely to view this incident. How forgiving would you be if this were your flight? The interior of aircraft is not a preferred site for slapstick practical jokes.

But I do remember a worse and perhaps even funnier incident reported in the media during my undergraduate years. One of the flight attendants on a flight into New York, I believe, told her colleague: “I smell ether.” (Another of those sentences rarely uttered in English before.)

They eventually determined that the “smell of ether” was coming from one of the lavatories, and proceeded to break down the door. What they discovered was two passengers attempting to freebase cocaine with the use of a blowtorch.