Like any other year, 2018 featured plenty of head-scratching moments involving air travelers, some of whom made headlines for their naughty airport behavior and mid-flight antics.
Most recently, a passenger was caught smuggling 70 live birds in a carry-on bag at New York's JFK Airport.
Earlier this month, an intoxicated man had to be restrained on a British Airways flight from London to Singapore after becoming violent and attempting to punch fellow passengers. Not long before that, three men received a one-year flight ban for assaulting a flight attendant in an incident at a Vietnam airport that was caught on camera.
Former WWE superstar Enzo Amore was even among the year's most notable offenders, getting thrown off of a Delta Air Lines flight last month for allegedly smoking a vape pen. Country singer Gretchen Wilson was also one of the more prominent travelers to cause a mid-flight disturbance this year.
Meanwhile, one man told police that President Donald Trump said it was OK to grab women by their private parts after he was arrested for groping a female passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight from Houston to Albuquerque in October.
Another man was arrested in Atlanta on Thanksgiving Eve after he allegedly went on an anti-Semitic rant on a Delta flight, going so far as to ask "all Jews to raise their hands."
In May, a man was accused of punching a service dog and a pregnant woman during a fight between two families on a Frontier Airlines flight in Orlando.
But wait, it gets stranger.
One passenger even blamed his mother for packing a collapsible rifle in his carry-on bag. The gun was detected by a TSA officer as it went through the X-ray machine and the man was subsequently arrested.
Unruly air travelers prompted multiple emergency landings in 2018 as well with a 29-year-old American man even causing his flight to be escorted by two F-16 fighter jets. Another man smelled so bad that his fellow passengers became physically ill and pilots had to initiate an emergency landing.
Some travelers even gave chase to aircraft on the tarmac after missing their flights.
The outrageous behavior wasn't limited to passengers in 2018. A drunk American Airlines baggage handler took a nap in the cargo hold of a Boeing 737 in Kansas City and woke up in Chicago while a Delta employee was caught on video cursing at a traveler. The video prompted a suspension and formal apology from the airline.
The serial stowaway struck again in 2018, successfully boarding a transatlantic flight without a ticket. Sixty-six-year-old Marilyn Hartman had previously been caught trying to sneak past TSA a whopping 10 times.
Some of the year's most bizarre stories involving out-of-control air travelers also include a Florida couple who packed a live cat in their suitcase, a passenger who attempted to exit a plane via the wing and a drunken man who urinated all over the lavatory of a Spirit Airlines flight.
At this rate, there's no telling what's in store for 2019.
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