Celebrities Behaving Badly on Planes

Taking a flight isn’t that difficult, but these 15 celebrities couldn’t help but make it hellish for everyone involved.

Celebrity Bad Behavior on Planes

Riding in an airplane has got to be among the most simple activities human beings undertake: you get on the plane, you sit down, and, after a pre-determined period of time, you get back up and off the plane. Sure, flying can be stressful, between the long lines at security and the ever-changing time of departure, but let’s be honest: it’s not hard.

Yet celebrities seem to be terrible at flying, far worse than the typical bored, nervous flyer. Maybe it’s because famous people are so often pampered in their everyday lives that they seem to think the rules of air travel do not apply to them. They want to stand up when they’re not supposed to, play on their cell phones when they should be turned off, and have everyone around them act in accordance with their wishes. No wonder so many of them have been kicked off planes, or arrested once the flight lands.

Here’s a round-up of the worst examples of celebrity bad behavior on planes!

Alec Baldwin

We’re big fans of Alec Baldwin, and we’re also big fans of the online game Words with Friends, so this infamous story is a little heart-breaking: In 2011, Baldwin refused to comply with an attendant’s reminder to turn off his cell phone before his flight could take off. Why? He wanted to finish the round of Words with Friends he was playing.

Oh, Alec, we too remember the joy of winning that game, played against some stranger we’ll never meet. But, come on, a rule is a rule. Baldwin said he was singled out — the flight crew said he was “extremely rude” and swore at them before he was removed from the plane.

A nice addendum to this story is that celebrity boxed Oscar De LaHoya was on the same flight, and he tweeted that the flight attendant did indeed pick on Baldwin.

Naomi Campbell

When you Google supermodel Campbell’s name, you come up with two kinds of links, either gorgeous shots of her modeling prowess, or revelations about her epic bad behavior.

One of her most notorious incidents was in 2008, when she protested because she learned that her luggage, and that of her traveling companions, was not loaded onto her British Airways flight from London to Los Angeles. A full-on melt-down occurred, even after the pilot of the plane came back to apologize personally to Campbell, which ended with Campbell spitting at the police officers sent to arrest her.

The fit she threw was so epic that British Airways banned her for several years.

Gerard Depardieu

Everyone hates being pinned to their seat, unable to use the bathroom facilities on their flight, but few would resort to peeing in the aisle, as French actor Depardieu did in 2011 on an Air France flight.

Apparently, Depardieu who had consumed 6-7 bottles of wine (he couldn’t remember exactly how many) really, really had to go, but the flight attendants told him that he would have to wait. He then tried to pee into a bottle into the back to the plane, but his aim was, uh, less than perfect. He was escorted off the flight, ironically delaying it anyway.

David Hasselhoff

Overconsumption of alcohol is a recurring theme in stories about celebrity bad behavior on flights. Take "Baywatch" star Hasselhof in 2006, when British Airways refused to let him board a flight.

The reason? He was too drunk. Lest we’re too quick to excuse him, because, after all, who of us has not killed one too many at an airport bar while waiting for a delayed flight, do keep in mind that the flight was scheduled to leave London at 7 a.m.

Conrad Hilton

We’re not sure that Conrad Hilton, heir to the hotel family’s fortune and brother to Paris, really counts as a “celebrity,” but he’s certainly well-known enough that his behavior on a 2015 British Airways flight is worth remembering.

Hilton, who later blamed his behavior on a mix of alcohol and pills, stalked up and down the aisle cursing out his fellow passengers, at one point referred to everyone in the economy section as “peasants,” and was caught smoking weed in the plane’s bathroom.

After he finally fell asleep in his seat, he was handcuffed to it, and turned over to authorities upon landing.

Lamar Odom

And in the last of our trio of alcohol-fueled meltdowns, we have basketball player Lamar Odom, who, in 2016, got himself good and drunk in the Delta lounge at LAX before a flight to New York City. He boarded the flight, threw up a few times, and was escorted off.

Then, to the other passengers’ shock, he was allowed to re-board the plane, where he was promptly sick again, and finally removed.

This was shortly before Odom began seeking help for alcohol abuse, so we’re hopeful he won’t ever do this again.

Snoop Dogg

In fact, when you hear about enough of these celebrity flight meltdowns, you start to see a trend: pre-gaming in the airline’s lounge before departure. It’s enough to make you wonder why airlines lets famous folks into the lounges at all.

A classic case in point is the brawl that Snoop Dogg and his posse apparently got into outside the VIP British Airways lounge in Heathrow in 2006. Apparently, the entire 30-person group wasn’t welcomed, but shoved their way in anyway.

Airline representatives kicked them off their upcoming flight, and the police were called, leading to a physical brawl — including the throwing of duty free bottles of alcohol and smashing shelving - when the officers came to escort them out. Yikes!

Ivana Trump

Who of us has not been on a plane with obnoxious children? All of us, of course.

And who of us hasn’t wanted to shut those kids up? Again, we can all raise our hands.

And who of us has called those children “little f----rs” and rushed the cockpit to express our annoyance? Oh, wait, that’s just Ivana Trump, ex-wife of the guy in the Oval Office, who behaved this way on a flight in 2009, leading to her being kicked off of it.

Courtney Love

Way back in 2003, long before the movie "Bridesmaids" came out, singer Courtney Love apparently tried to pull off the same sneak-from-economy-into-first-class trick that Kristen Wiig’s characters attempts in that film.

In Love’s case, she was actually seated in first class, but she wanted the nurse who was traveling with her to be moved up from economy, and became abusive to the flight personnel when that was not possible. She was arrested for endangering the flight.

Clay Aiken

And then there’s celebrity behavior that isn’t quite so terrible as the prior examples, but is somehow even more upsetting.

In 2007, American Idolwinner Aiken got into a spat with a fellow passenger on a flight to Tulsa when his foot somehow ended up in her lap. Aiken later claimed that he was asleep and didn’t realize his foot had “wandered” into his seat mate’s space.

Readers especially grossed out by this will be pleased to learn that the seat mate hit Aiken in the chest to let him know this was not OK

Billie Joe Armstrong

Once in a while, the airline employees seem to be more at fault than the celebrity.

When Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong was kicked off a Southwest flight in 2011, he took to Twitter to explain that he had been targeted because he was wearing baggy pants. Other passengers on the flight concurred that the attendant had ordered Armstrong to pull up his pants without good reason.

Armstrong apparently asked the attendant if she didn’t have more important things to worry about, and Billie Joe, we agree!

Christian Slater

Although this 1994 incident was quite a long time ago, we’re still scratching our heads about it.

Back then, heartthrob Slater brought a gun — yes, a gun — with him to JFK, and was subsequently arrested for carrying an unlicensed firearm. He had tried to bring it onto his flight!

Granted, this was before 9/11, but who doesn’t know that you can’t bring a gun onto an aircraft?

Paul McCartney

Since we’re digging through the archives, we should pause at the 1980 incident that ended up with the former Beatles member jailed in Japan.

What did Paul do? He brought a half-pound (yes, that’s right) of marijuana onto a flight from London to Japan with him. After being held for a week in jail, he was deported back to England.

Kids, don't try to take a half-pound of weed on a flight with you.

Ty Dolla $ign

While the rapper Ty Dolla $ign may not quite be a famous person yet, his behavior in this incident is despicable enough to make this list.

On a flight from Montreal to Ottawa earlier this summer, he apparently tried to have a blind woman and her seeing-eye dog removed. The reason? He said he was allergic to dogs. Uh, gross.

Kate Moss

And finally, we return to the pool from where we started: supermodels. Kate Moss doesn’t have Naomi Campbell’s reputation for belligerence, but she had an incident on a plane too, in 2015.

Apparently, she wanted to be served alcohol, but the flight attendants felt she had already had quite enough beforehand. She was eventually arrested once the plane landed.

That said, another passenger on the flight said the crew had overreacted, which absolutely no one said about Naomi Campbell!