Weird stuff messes up flights

OMG—the Airlines’ next supplemental charge will be levied if you can’t show the flight attendants your cell phone when they check to see if your seatbelt is fastened.
$1,000 fee if you can’t show your phone!

I’m actually OK with that if all passengers get $2000 when the pilot forgets his passport.

One time I was on a plane that had fully boarded and pulled away from the gate, only to learn we had to go back to the gate because of a bunch of birds. The pilot explained that there were a load of live birds on the plane, and they could not figure out the code to enter that into the computer system. So they had to take us back to the gate, take the birds off, refuel, and then start over again.

First trip post- Covid, connecting in Chicago. We were waiting to board the flight to Zurich. The plane was at the gate. The plane was hit by a piece of equipment used by the ground crew. It took hours attempting to determine if the "skin" of the plane was damaged. The pilot was great, came out every so often to update the passengers personally. It was decided it was a go. Passengers were all loaded. Then-
The flight was canceled. Officials couldn't make the final determination the plane was safe. (Crew actually fed us on the sitting plane, as restaurants were all closed, and they had the food- but no alcohol allowed.) We then all had to get off the plane, after a 4+ hour delay, then about 11pm, and spent the night in Chicago. British Airways did pay for the hotel, provide hotel shuttles, and meals. It was a 24 hour delay. Crazy!

We were about to get on the runway to take off and the second engine would not start. Returned to the gate and waited 45 minutes for it to be fixed. About an hour into the flight one of the engines start making and odd noise. First time I ever had a drink at 9:30 in the morning.

Another takeoff was delayed because the co-pilot was stuck in a massive traffic jam on I-285 in Atlanta. Upon arrival he was given a round of applause.

My husband and I were the "weird stuff". Decades ago my mother-in-law, who never cared to be on time or that anyone else was, made us late for our flight. They brought the plane back from getting ready to taxi, hooked up the outside stairs and up we went. The glares from the other passengers were well-deserved, but not by me! I stopped mid-aisle and proclaimed to everyone that it was my mother-in-law's fault. I got some understanding nods while others glared at my husband (it was his mother!!)

I've been delayed for the removal of drunk passengers and when a person failed to board an international flight after their checked bags were loaded. Someone had to crawl around the cargo hold and find and remove the bags.

But I didn't delay a flight when my revenue first class seat back didn't recline. The FA knew about it and approached me after I boarded. She told me about the problem and said that a technician could come on board and fix it if I wanted but it meant delaying my Boston-Salt Lake City flight. I said don't worry. I'll be working the whole time anyways. I got comped a bunch of additional miles. I suspect that seat back hadn't reclined for some time and the airline was just hoping reasonable people would sit in it until the plane was taken out for thorough service.

when a person failed to board an international flight after their
checked bags were loaded. Someone had to crawl around the cargo hold
and find and remove the bags.

Same thing happened to us on a flight to DC. Then on the other end, we landed at the beginning of an intense lightning storm and we sat on the tarmac for a bit over two hours because it wasn't safe for the ground crew to come out.

Another flight to Tampa was delayed after we boarded because the FAA shut down flights into Florida because of a storm cell. We were told to get off the plane but stay near the gate because things were changing minute by minute and we may have a window to get up and out. Sure enough, about half an hour later the boarding call came but 4 people had left the area and didn't hear. We lost our window by the time they showed up 20-30 minutes later and we sat again for an hour or two. We finally made it about 6 hours late.

My last delay, ATL to FRA, was due to the plane having Too Much fuel. Discovered when the flight crew boarded.

So, ground crews needed to off load fuel, which they spilled, so a fire unit and hazmat had to be called. As they cleaned up, ground crew went to the other wing. For some reason, they could not offload through the normal way, so they opened the fuel
dump valve, and let it dump onto a pile of absorbent. Of course, that then needed to be cleaned up.

We were finally able to board, but then we waited as ground support helped the pilots balance fuel loads between tanks, then further waited while ground operations recalculated load and balance data to give to the pilot to enter into the flight computer.

In all, two hour delay, missed a train connection, which I knew was a gamble and had plan B.

Of course, as I write this, I see that my return flight is already delayed 3 hours, so....

We were leaving Frankfurt when our flight was cancelled due to high winds in Iceland, yet our connecting flight from Iceland to the US was still scheduled. Could not figure out why it wasn’t safe to land there, but yet it was fine to take off. They eventually put us on a later flight scheduled to depart Frankfurt the same time as our connecting flight in Iceland was to take off. That was not going to work, so several hours later we were put on a flight with a different airline which was about to leave but was at the opposite end of Frankfurt’s airport. We had to run in order to catch it, and it avoided Iceland entirely and flew us into San Francisco instead of Portland. We eventually made it home after a very long day and night.