The Naughtiest Airline Passengers of 2020

The year 2020 will go down as a year unlike any other, and while the coronavirus pandemic meant fewer flights and air travelers compared to previous years, it also led to many passengers flouting strict face mask policies. Passengers misbehaved in all sorts of ways over the past year, but the last 12 months will undoubtedly be remembered for the countless anti-mask tantrums. Nonetheless, the year still saw its fair share of drunken outbursts, mid-flight assaults, smuggling attempts and other eyebrow-raising incidents. Here's a look back at some of the most notable naughty passengers of 2020.

The year began with a bang when an unidentified man was witnessed exposing his genitalia in an airport terminal before ultimately urinating from a seated position onto the floor as other travelers looked on in horror. In a similarly bizarre incident in January, a "visibly intoxicated" man locked himself inside of a bathroom stall at Illinois' General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport to drink and smoke before eventually requesting to be taken to jail.

A North Carolina woman made headlines this year when she caused a major disturbance aboard a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Washington, D.C. The woman, identified as Dana Ghazi Mustafa, allegedly threatened to stab the flight's air marshal and "everyone on the plane then kill myself." Last month, an American Airlines passenger was arrested following a flight from Orlando to Philadelphia who allegedly began climbing over seats and asking fellow passengers "where's my parachute?" Meanwhile, The year also saw a pair of naughty Russian pilots come under investigation after allegedly deviating from course to create an image of a man's genitalia that would appear on radar and flight tracking sites.

Airlines began requiring travelers to wear face-coverings on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring, leading some passengers to push back. This year saw hundreds of air travelers removed from their flights for non-compliance, including 44-year-old Joshua Colby Council who was arrested after refusing to wear a face mask on a Delta Air Lines flight ahead of Thanksgiving. In another incident, a woman's refusal to don a face mask forced an entire Southwest Airlines flight to deplane in Nashville. Other high-profile incidents included a passenger slapping a flight attendant over Delta's face mask policy and a mask-less easyJet passenger coughing on fellow travelers as she shouted "everybody dies."

A man was caught with 200 live venomous scorpions in his luggage at Sri Lanka's Bandaranaike International Airport in January, the same month that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer was busted smuggling close to 40 pounds of cocaine inside of his carry-on luggage at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. 2020 also saw officers at Miami International Airport seize almost $500,000 being smuggled out of the United States in furniture while a GoAir passenger traveling from Dubai was caught with more than two pounds of flattened gold hidden inside of his rectum.

North Carolina pastor Daniel Chalmers issued an apology after he was accused of urinating on a woman at the back of a red-eye flight from Las Vegas to Detroit in October. Chalmers was restrained by an off-duty police officer who happened to be on the flight and taken into custody upon landing in Detroit. Chalmers claimed that he had a terrible reaction after taking Ambien for the first time. However, documents obtained by FOX 2 revealed that Chalmers admitted to having had two drinks before the flight and later blew a .17 in a blood alcohol test.

In November, a United Express flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a woman who appeared to be intoxicated became belligerent toward passengers and crew members and stripped down to her underwear. Twenty-five-year-old Sierra Nicole McClinton was later charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication. In an earlier incident in New Orleans, 27-year-old Mariel Vergara was arrested after attempting to buy a Spirit Airlines ticket while completely naked at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Earlier this month, a man was somehow able to breach perimeter security at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas before climbing onto the wing of an Alaska Airlines plane as it was preparing for takeoff. The unidentified man eventually fell off of the aircraft and was taken into custody. In Ukraine this year, a female passenger was banned after opening the emergency exit door and walking out onto the wing during the deplaning process because "she was hot and wanted to cool down." As travel continues to gain momentum in 2021, we can only hope the world's flying public can improve along with it.

A couple was taken into custody at New York City's LaGuardia Airport after opening a plane door and exiting with their service dog via the inflatable emergency slide while the flight was taxiing to the runway. The bizarre incident required maintenance crews to evaluate the plane so impacted passengers had to be put on alternate flights to their destination.

And perhaps the worst of the worst for 2020, a couple boarded a plane to Hawaii even though they were positive with COVID-19. Yes, that's right, these people knowingly traveled while infected with the coronavirus, putting everyone else in danger. They were arrested upon arriving at their destination and United Airlines ended up banning them from flying.