There’s nothing more frustrating than a flight delay. We hate sitting in the airport, or worse on the plane, wondering what's going on and how many minutes, hours or even days late we'll be. It's not always the weather or a strike keeping the plane behind schedule though. There have been some truly bizarre reasons for flight delays in recent years, so here are just a few of them.

In August 2017, British holidaymakers were stranded in Zante, Greece, for up to three days due to endangered turtles. The only airport on the island is located near the beach where turtles lay their eggs at night, which means night flights are banned to protect the animals from noise and disorienting lights while they're nesting. After a fault with the wing flap was discovered on the original plane and no replacement was found in time for take off, passengers were stuck on the island. There are worse places to be stranded, mind. 

That isn't the only time turtles have prevented a flight from taking off. Just a month before, in July, a plane was prevented from leaving JFK Airport in New York City after 40 diamondback terrapins decided to make their annual migration for a nesting ritual across the runway.

In another animal-related delay, in 2012 a Rhodesian ridgeback puppy named Byrdie escaped from her kennel while being loaded onto the plane. The pup caused taxiing planes to grind to a halt, while desperate airline workers and several trucks chased her around for a whole 20 minutes. Eventually, staff asked Byrdie’s owner to get off the plane to help with the chase and, as expected, the dog ran straight to her master.

In 2011, a flight from Paris to Dublin was delayed for nearly two hours after French actor Gerard Depardieu allegedly urinated on the floor of the plane before take-off. According to one passenger, when cabin crew refused to let him go to the loo, he “stood up and did it on the ground”, while other reports say he tried to do his business in a bottle. The actor was escorted off the flight with his luggage and told to book another one, while passengers were delayed while staff cleaned the carpet.

This is a story worthy of Hollywood. In 2013, Qantas had to fork out for hundreds of passengers to spend the night in a Sydney hotel after a flight to Tokyo was cancelled when a Mandarin rat snake was found on board. It was the second time that year that a Qantas flight was disturbed by a serpent. A 10-foot-long scrub python was spotted clinging to the wing of a plane for the whole duration of a flight from Cairns to Port Moresby just months earlier.

In 2015, passengers on a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Dubai were delayed for 15 hours by an overflowing toilet, supposedly caused by, in the words of a local town councillor who was on board, a “smelly poo”. The flight took off as planned but was forced to turn around near Brussels when cabin crew could not fix the problem and the odour became unbearable for people sitting nearby.

In March 2017, a plane from London Heathrow to San Francisco was delayed by four hours after a mouse was spotted on board. Because mice can gnaw through wiring, the plane was unable to take off, so passengers had to wait for a replacement aircraft. British Airways saw the funny side, with one spokesperson saying: “On this occasion there was one very small customer who we had to send back to the gate. Everyone with two legs is now on their way to California and we are sorry for the delay."

This must have been terrifying for anyone afraid of bees. In March 2017, a plane from Miami to New York City was delayed by four hours after a giant swarm of bees clung to the side of the plane. A beekeeper had to be called, who got stung several times while removing the insects. In 2015, a flight leaving from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Frankfurt was delayed for over an hour after a similar incident when bees swarmed around the plane.

In 1982, in a scene worthy of the 2009 film Up, a truck driver named Larry Walters attached a bunch of balloons to a lawn chair and flew into the air over California. The moment of glory ended in him being arrested after floating into the airspace 16,000 feet over Los Angeles International Airport, resulting in a number of delayed flights. 

In 1993, several flights were delayed and four runways were shut down at Los Angeles International Airport while President Bill Clinton’s Beverly Hills hairstylist cut his hair on board Air Force One. The White House communications director said at the time: “Everybody has to get their hair cut. I think the President normally gets his hair cut sometime during the week... he has a very busy schedule, and he just tries to work it in when he can. That was when we were able to work it in."

An Air India pilot delayed a flight by an hour after refusing to switch her scheduled Mumbai-Jodhpur-Delhi route for a direct, later flight from Mumbai to Delhi. Her reason for doing so was interesting to say the least: she wanted to fly via Jodhpur to pick up some onion kachoris that she’d previously ordered. By refusing to switch routes, she delayed the direct flight by an hour as it was left without a pilot.

In 2016, an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse was delayed for nearly two hours after a passenger reported seeing some suspicious-looking scribblings on a notepad, worried it might be linked to terrorism. It turned out to be the work of Italian mathematician Guido Menzio, who was working on an equation, but the professor was escorted off the plane and questioned, resulting in a considerable delay.

It sounds like a sketch in a comedy film but, in 2009, a flight from Houston to Ohio was delayed for an hour after a pair of otters escaped from the hold and ran onto the tarmac, in full view of incredulous passengers.

In 2013, a flight from Pakistan’s Allama Iqbal International Airport bound for New York was delayed for two and a half hours because the pilot was unhappy with the on-board food menu and demanded sandwiches. When the catering staff informed him that sandwiches could only be ordered from a 5-star hotel in the city, which would take more than two hours, the captain was firm in his request, resulting in a substantial delay for passengers.

In March 2017, on a Podeba Airlines flight from Novy Urengoy to Moscow, flight attendants kicked off prominent Russian volleyball player Alexander Kimerov, saying the seven-foot-tall sportsman was too tall to fly. The crew said Kimerov was blocking the aisle with his long legs, and the plane was swiftly boarded by three uniformed police officers who ordered the player to get off. The incident delayed the flight for nearly an hour.

In 2015, an airBaltic flight from Oslo to Crete was delayed for nearly five hours after all but one of the airline crew were found to be drunk, including the pilot. Worried passengers tipped off the police, who then made the crew take alcohol tests inside the plane. Finding sober staff members to replace those who’d had a bit too much to drink took almost five hours, delaying passengers substantially.

An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York City was forced to make an emergency landing when a female passenger refused to stop singing I Will Always Love You, the Dolly Parton song made famous by Whitney Houston. The plane had to make an emergency stop in Kansas City, the singing passenger was escorted off, and the plane refuelled and carried on to JFK with nearly an hour’s delay. 

An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to London was delayed for 17 hours in 2014 after a passenger changed the name of their wifi hotspot to “Al Quida Free Terror Network”. Apart from the terrible spelling, the passenger was thought to have changed the name as a prank, but was never found out by staff. In the meantime, their stunt delayed the take-off of the plane for nearly a full day.

In 2012, a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Los Angeles was delayed for 15 minutes while One Direction reportedly enjoyed some retail therapy in the duty-free shops. An airport source was reported as saying: “The boys all seemed oblivious to the fuss, and turned up for the flight without so much as an apology to the rest of the passengers. They were more concerned about safely storing their duty-free purchases before taking to their seats."

In 2014, a Korean Air executive and daughter to the airline’s chairman forced a plane taking off from New York’s JFK airport to taxi back to the gate. The reason? The executive became irate when she was served macadamia nuts in a bag rather than on a plate, and she demanded the steward be removed from the plane. The bizarre incident resulted in a jail sentence for the angry executive, and a short delay for other passengers.

In 2012, an American Eagle flight from New York to Washington DC was delayed by four hours after two of the flight attendants got into a dramatic verbal altercation. The fight was so dramatic that the plane had to turn around while preparing for take-off and head back to the gate, making the one-hour flight four hours late.

In 2012, a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne was delayed for 30 minutes because two first-class passengers caused a pyjama-related fuss. When the Australian couple were denied a pair of extra large first class pyjamas as the airline had run out, they absolutely refused a pair of business class PJs, and decided instead to leave the plane just as it was about to taxi and take off, delaying the flight for 30 minutes as their luggage was unloaded.

In 2016, a China Southern Airlines flight from Chengdu to Urumqi was delayed for an hour after a passenger opened the emergency exit door before take-off. The passenger said he was just trying to “get some fresh air” and thought the door handle would open the window, but the mishap resulted in an hour’s delay while crew investigated the matter. If you liked this, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more great travel stories.