A Brief History
On April 9, 2017, Dr. David Dao, age 69, found out how bad flying on commercial airlines can be when he was forcibly dragged off of a United Express jet to make room for United employees.
Digging Deeper
This incident shows our point, that flying commercial can be a horrible experience. Here are some more recent examples:
In January 2024, a door panel blew off of a Boeing 737 while in flight, terrifying passengers and sucking property out of the jet.
Christmas Eve of 2023 brought no joy to a Delta flight that had a passenger poop his pants and get feces smeared all over his seat, stinking up the entire cabin.
Another Delta flight suffered a horrific poop incident on September 1, 2023, when a passenger let loose while walking to the restroom, leaving a brown trail the entire way.
In July of 2023, Delta passengers passed out when a jet was waiting an excessive time on the tarmac in 111 degree heat.
Note: There are a distressingly large number of poop related commercial airline disasters. Excessive waiting on the runway with no A/C and no bathroom privileges, being bumped off flights, screaming babies, obnoxious passengers, delayed and cancelled flights, and shrinking seats and legroom all make flying an ordeal.
Question for students (and subscribers): How have your experiences been with commercial flights? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gero, David. Aviation Disasters: The World’s Major Civil Airliner Crashes Since 1950. The History Press, 2017.
Tang, Rachel. Airline Passenger Rights: The Federal Role in Aviation Consumer Protection. Congressional Research Service, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by redlegsfan21 from Vandalia, OH, United States of N632RW, the aircraft involved, pictured at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2012, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
