7 shocking reasons why people have been kicked off airplanes

Holiday season is airport season. You’re probably more concerned with putting too many liquids in your carry-on than getting booted from your flight. But now is a great time to read up on shocking reasons why people have been kicked off airplanes.

Sure, people get removed from flights for mundane reasons all the time. Every once in a while, though, we hear a bizarre story that makes us shake our heads and wonder how things could go so wrong. Screaming babies and turbulence sickness are pretty much the most eventful things we’ve ever witnessed in the air.

Now behold: the weirdest and most shocking reasons people have been removed from planes.

1. Not wrapping up an iPhone game.

Alec Baldwin is a way bigger Words with Friends fan than you are. How big? According to The Daily Mail, he was so wrapped up in a competitive round that he was “booted off an American Airlines plane in 2011 after he allegedly refused to stop playing.” Guess they really mean business when they tell you to put your phone on airplane mode!

2. Wearing the wrong shirt.

Attire gets people removed from flights more often than you’d think. According to NBC News, a woman was allegedly kicked off a flight for wearing a shirt “featuring images of then President Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice along with the [movie title] ‘Meet the Fockers.’ Only the spelling of Fockers was a little different.” Gotcha.

3. Bringing cake on board.

One family was reportedly asked to exit a JetBlue plane due to a disagreement over… birthday cake, The Telegraph reports. The Burke family allegedly got into it with some flight attendants about where to place a cake they’d packed. They lost the battle, but The Telegraph reports that they did get a refund. Birthdays are supposed to be happy occasions!

4. Getting your karaoke on.

As HelloGiggles previously reported, a one-woman Whitney Huston cover band was once kicked off a flight for serenading her fellow passengers. Honestly, we’ll take that over a sobbing toddler any day of the week.

5. Wearing super low-rise jeans.

Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong was allegedly asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight when he refused to pull up his pants. According to The Daily Mail, he “reportedly asked if the staff didn’t have better things to do.”

6. Speaking Arabic.

Unfortunately, this one highlights the Islamaphobia and racial profiling that all too often occurs on planes and in airports. According to Time, a man was asked to leave his flight “after another passenger reported he was making comments in Arabic ‘perceived to be threatening,’ as the airline put it.” He maintained that he was having a conversation with a family member about “a speech he had attended.”

7. Not smelling your freshest.

According to Lifehacker, lack of cleanliness is “listed by most airlines, like Delta, American Airlines, and United, as an offense worthy of removal.” It’d probably have to be pretty severe to result in getting kicked off a plane, but it has happened before. So, uh, shower before flying.

Safe travels, everyone!