They made us laugh, roll our eyes and some even made us cringe. Wrap up your work week with some of the funniest, random travel news stories we could find.
1. Virtual air crashes – apparently that’s a thing
‘Hobbits’ pointing out safety exits or football players sharing life jacket tips (we love those) could soon be a thing of the past.
According to the Daily Mail, there’s a new virtual reality video out in the wide world that show passengers how survive a plane crash landing on water using a real life simulation.
If you’ve ever trialled a virtual reality headset, then you know how incredibly ‘real’ the experience can be.
2. Busted! Steward caught selling lost items
A Ryanair crew member has been busted trying to sell an item left behind by a passenger on eBay.
Aaron Galloway, said he went onto the online shopping site to find a replacement for the $1,000 Nikon camera he’d recently forgotten on a plane in Prague
That’s when Galloway found his camera on sale with only 33 minutes before the auction was scheduled to close.
He swiftly contacted the seller, who turned out to be 34-year-old steward, Fernando Miguel Andrade Viseu.
In the email, Galloway told the air crew member that he had a choice either ‘lose your job for theft and get prosecuted. Or you can give it back to me”.
“I’ll tell the police there must have been a mistake and it turned up in Prague. Up to you buddy. I’ll meet you in the Stansted terminal, heck I’ll even give you £50 providing everything’s OK with it. You’re £50 richer and still have your job.”
The steward responded to email with an apology, but it was after finding out the crewmember had sold 118 lost items in only a few months that he decided to notify authorities.
Needless to say, Viseu was fired and given 100 hours of community service.
3. My, my this airline crew performance is awesome!
Now this is how you celebrate a milestone!
One LOT Polish Airline passenger was serenaded by airline ground crew for being the half a millionth traveller to fly on the carrier’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Captured on the video above, the man is seen handing over his passport when suddenly the airline worker broke out in song.
We may be a little late with this one, because it happened in November last year, but it was too good not to share.
4. All Nippon Airways adopts ‘The Force’
‘The Force’ is coming to Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) in the form of a new Star Wars branded plane.
The airline is jumping on the Sci-Fi bandwagon, with the announcement dropping on the day the trailer for the seventh installment of the movie series was released.
Side note: how awesome does the movie look?!
5. How these unwanted plane passengers are getting onboard
Germs – the unavoidable plane passengers nobody wants onboard that will be there no matter how much we sanitise.
There’s no surprise in that, but what you might find a little shocking is how they’re getting onboard.
While one would expect the unwanted plane passenger to come from coughing or a lack of hand sanitisation, a study on British travellers found a shocking number of dirt came from travellers’ handheld electronics such as mobile phones and tablets.
