Many people have traveled far and wide in 2024. For many, memories began while traveling on one of the thousands of flights that circle the world every day.
As 2024 winds down, here’s a look back at some of the craziest airline stories of the past year.
Defective door
The incident that quickly went viral occurred on Jan. 5 when a door panel, which covers an additional emergency exit available only on maximum-capacity planes, flew off at 16,000 feet on an Alaska Airlines flight.
The plane took off from Portland, Ore., and the panel caused the cabin to depressurize. The pilots returned the plane safely to Portland with no serious injuries reported.
Video footage of the incident shows panicked passengers sitting as the wind blows aircraft because of the missing door. The incident resulted in a lawsuit against the airline and put it back under the scrutiny of 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, an event like this simply cannot happen on an aircraft leaving one of our factories. We simply have to do better. Our customers deserve better.”
Tragedy caught on video
The aircraft he is piloting Brazilian airline Voepass crashed in the state of Sao Paulo in August, killing all on board.
The fiery crash occurred in a residential area and killed more than 60 passengers and crew. The plane took off from Cascavel, Brazilin the state of Parana.
This video still shows fire from a plane that crashed next to a house in Vinhed, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Felipe Magalhaes Filho via AP)
Footage taken seconds before the crash shows the craft hovering vertically downwards and spiraling down to the ground.
Aviation experts at the time speculated that the ATR 72-500 twin-engine turboprop stalled in midair.
What is that smell?
In December, passengers on an American Airlines flight from Dallas, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota got an unexpected surprise after water from the toilet came up to the cabin aisle.
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The water could not be shut off and the leak was creeping down the cabin during the almost a three-hour flight.
Passengers are seen clutching their bags to avoid what passenger Hilary Stewart Blazevic called the “disgusting” liquid, while some try to cross water.
Wing damage
United Airlines passenger filmed a Boeing 757 wing “falling apart” shortly before a flight from San Francisco to Boston was diverted to Denver in February due to the incident.
Kevin Clarke recorded video showing damage to the plane’s wing that ultimately prompted the flight to make an emergency landing in Denver to assess the problem. Shortly after takeoff, he experienced “the most violent shaking and shaking” before falling back to sleep, he said at the time.
“The pilot was walking down the aisle and walking behind me,” Clarke told Lawrence Jones on “Fox & Friends.”
“I looked out the window, went back to the cockpit, turned on the loudspeaker and said, ‘We’re going to be diverted to Denver. There’s something minor damage on… the front of the wing.’ So I immediately opened the window to look at the wing and the trailing edge of the spring was completely…destroyed as you can see in the picture.”
“At that point I thought, well, that’s no small shame, but … the United pilot is competent enough to fly us to Denver,” he continued. – I guess we’re on our way.
A Boeing 757-200 with 165 passengers landed in Denver to “resolve a slat issue” on one of its wings. The passengers were put on another plane and arrived later that day in Boston.
Slats are movable plates on the leading or leading edge of the wing and are used during takeoff and landing.
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The unruly traveler
A few days in 2024, an angry passenger allegedly punched a flight attendant before being escorted 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-journey on January 3 due to an unruly passenger.
The plane was forced to divert to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport in Texas after Keith Edward Fagiana repeatedly punched the flight attendant. The incident began after another passenger complained that Fagiana was hitting his chair, according to authorities.
After the flight attendant intervened, Fagiana allegedly became enraged and began punching the American Air Lines employee in the stomach.
JP Gallagher, elected official from Montana, he told FOX 4 that his wife had warned him about the enraged passenger.
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“My wife started hitting me and saying, you know, to make me pay attention that something was going on,” Gallagher said. “There was a drink cart standing between us and the incident. So I couldn’t see a lot of what was going on, but I could hear some yelling and some, you know, cursing and, you know, the flight attendant saying stop it.”
Fox News Digital’s Madeline Coggins, Bailee Hill, Ashley J. DiMella and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
