A furious plane passenger launched into a foul-mouthed rant on an American Airlines flight has gone viral after screaming ‘I’m Instagram famous’.

In echoes of the Tiffany Gomas ‘that motherf***** isn’t real’ saga, a new unidentified ‘plane woman’ is causing chaos online. 

Viewers have slated the glamorous passenger as ‘entitled’ and a ‘clown’ for throwing a tantrum on the American Airlines flight.

Influencer Morgan Osman has claimed that she is the woman in the footage on social media, but has not responded to requests for comment from DailyMail.com. 

Posting on Instagram, she said ‘I said what I said,’ before adding: ‘I didn’t get kicked off, I asked to leave instead of it turning violent. Thank u.’

The 20-second video begins with the woman, wearing a skin-tight gray unitard, taking her luggage from the overhead locker while shouting at a fellow passenger.

‘Call me a b***h again,’ she says to them, as the passenger filming lets out a snort of laughter. 

‘Call me a b****h again, I did nothing wrong!’ she shouts as she holds her suitcase and a handbag by her side. 

Someone tells her to shut up, to which she responds: ‘No you shut the f*** up! You shut the f*** up, and your b***h.’

The brunette turns to walk down the aisle before noticing the woman filming the interaction on her phone. 

Furious, she turns to her and shouts: ‘Film me – I’m Instagram famous, you f*****g bum.’

She can be heard cussing at other passengers as she stomps down the aisle out of shot, as several people laugh at the performance. 

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment by DailyMail.com, and it is unclear when the footage was taken. 

It is currently unclear if Osman is the ‘Instagram famous’ woman is or which flight she was on.  

The unhinged interaction is reminiscent of Tiffany Gomas’ viral plane meltdown on July 2 where she shouted ‘that mother f***er isn’t real’ at another passenger as she left the aircraft. 

The 38-year-old marketing executive could be seen loudly telling a male flight attendant near her seat on the flight from Dallas to Orlando: ‘Stop the f***ing plane, stop the f***ing plane, stop the plane.’

Police reports show she had earlier accused a relative of stealing her AirPods, before screeching that the plane was not safe and would not make it to its destination. 

Social media users were quick to make the comparison between the two, with one woman tweeting screenshots of the two plane dramas side-by-side with the caption: ‘Who did it better?’

Another X user shared the video of the unitard-wearing Instagram-famous woman commented: ‘Imagine being this entitled.’ 

Others laughed at her use of the insult ‘you bum’ and commented the clown emoji. 

Many people questioned who she is, with one person saying: ”I’m Instagram famous’ and no one on that plane knew who she was.’  

Moment easyJet passengers caught having sex in plane toilet emerge to applause and cheers of ‘top girl’ from other fliers before they are led away by cops in Ibiza

• Do you know the couple? Email tips@dailymail.com 

By Mark Duell and Stewart Carr

Published: 12:52 EDT, 14 September 2023 | Updated: 13:41 EDT, 14 September 2023

Every year tens of thousands of people with valid plane tickets are bumped off flights because they’ve been overbooked.

Overbooking is not illegal and every airline does it to maximise its revenue – because there is almost a zero per cent chance that every passenger will show up for their flight.

In the event that every single ticket holder does turn up for an overbooked flight, the airline will ask for volunteers to be re-routed. If there are no volunteers, the airline will pick passengers to be denied boarding – or deplaned.

Easyjet has revealed that those who’ve booked a package trip with easyJet Holidays are less likely to be ‘bumped‘.

The company said in a statement: ‘Our ground staff are given guidance on which groups of customers to try and avoid selecting not to travel in the event where not enough volunteers come forward when an aircraft is downgraded, which includes a number of groups like those requiring special assistance and, where possible, easyJet Holidays customers.’

United goes into even greater detail regarding which passengers it prioritises.

Its website says: ‘Passengers who are “Qualified Individuals with Disabilities” and their “Service Animal” or travel assistant, unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 years, or minors between the ages of five to 14 years who use the unaccompanied minor service, and for Canada departures only, families traveling together, will be the last to be involuntarily denied boarding if it is determined by UA that such denial would constitute a hardship.

‘The priority of all other confirmed passengers may be determined based on a passenger’s fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, whether the passenger purchased the ticket under select UA corporate travel agreements, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.’

Aviation expert Alex Macheras told MailOnline Travel that, as a general rule, families will normally be prioritised.

He said: ‘Airline overbooking is necessary as airlines need to ensure that they are not flying with empty seats.

‘However, there are procedures in place that are implemented industry-wide, which guide both airport staff and passengers as to how an overbooking scenario should take place. In normal circumstances, if the flight was overbooked by “two seats”, then the last two passengers to check in/or reach the gate, will be denied boarding.

‘These passengers would more often than not be a little more understanding as they turned up late, meaning they could have risked missing the flight anyway.

‘On the whole, passengers who are travelling as a family, or with children, would not normally be chosen for “denied boarding” on an overbooked flight.

‘It tends to be solo passengers, especially those travelling with hand luggage only – and with a high sequence number [people who check in last].’

What are your rights if you are deplaned or volunteer to switch flights?

Which? said: ‘Those that agree are entitled to a refund or re-route as well as “benefits”, though there are no set rules on what those benefits are.

‘If there aren’t enough volunteers the airline can free up seats by denying you the right to board. If this happens, you have the same entitlement to assistance and compensation as you’d have if your flight was cancelled, the only difference being that you’re also able to claim compensation straight away.’

In Europe, under the Denied Boarding Regulation (Regulation 261/2004 EC), passengers who are bumped under this regulation are entitled to €250 for short-haul flights (1,500km/932 miles or less), 400 euros for medium-haul flights (between 1,500km and 3,500km/932 miles and 2,175 miles) and up to €600 for long-haul flights (more than 3,500km).

Compensation is reduced if the airline gives you the option of re-routing your flights and arriving within two hours of your original scheduled arrival time, for short haul, three hours for medium haul and within four hours for long haul.

The U.S Department of Transportation states: ‘Travellers who don’t get to fly are frequently entitled to denied boarding compensation in the form of a check or cash. The amount depends on the price of their ticket and the length of the delay.’

Gilbert Ott, founder of the air travel website godsavethepoints.com, added that bumping can be extremely lucrative for passengers.

He said: ‘Airlines run like hedge funds and are so analytical these days that they rarely fly with empty seats and oversell betting that at least a few will no show. Bumps can be a very lucrative “gaming” of the system for passengers, as evidenced by someone who once made $10,000 dollars in Delta vouchers after getting bumped off multiple consecutive flights. If passengers have flexibility, these bumps are a great way to secure credit towards future (free) travel.

‘On the other hand, if they’re not flexible, bumps are a disaster.’

An incorrect flight plan inputted in to an ageing system may be to blame for the air traffic control meltdown, an expert has claimed.

The widespread disruption which started on Monday is understood to have been caused by a single rogue flight plan and continues to affect dozens of services two days on.

Controllers need basic information on each flight to populate their display, such as the flight number, aircraft type, destination and route.

If these details are not spaced and formatted in a certain way, and the computer does not recognise the data, it can cause a system collapse – a failure described this morning as ‘staggering’ by former British Airways boss Willie Walsh.

Many affected travellers are being told to wait as long as 10 days for flights home, with some forced to sleep on airport floors or take long routes by land after their flights were cancelled.

Airlines have been criticised for failing to book hotel rooms for many people who were delayed overnight.

Michele Robson, who has worked in air traffic control for more than 20 years, told the Sky News Daily podcast: ‘When there have been failures in the past, it’s normally something to do with a bad information that’s been input in the incorrect format.

‘It’s a very old system, it’s been running for many years and generally we’ve been very lucky and we don’t often have failures, or if we do, we get it back during that backup time, which is what it’s there for.

‘There have been other instances where something has been incorrectly formatted and the flight plan computer behaves in a way they’re not expecting and effectively causes it to a fail, so that could be enough to potentially crash the system in effect if it was formatted incorrectly.

‘You have to space things in a certain way using a certain number of dots, as an example. They do it in a very unique way that’s never been done before, otherwise it would happen every day.

‘So it has to be something pretty unusual that they’ve input for it to happen, but it’s an old system and perhaps something was input yesterday that it’s never seen before and that’s what caused it to have this reaction where it’s failed.’

Ms Robson, who now runs the Turning Left For Less site, told MailOnline: ‘It could be something like a small operator – not a name like British Airways – doing something unusual. 

‘That can be something like where an aircraft is crossing boundaries between UK and French air space several times. Also, if it is a small operator, they may not be as used to filing plans. It’s unlikely to be one dot in the wrong place.

‘I describe it as the Swiss Cheese model, lots of things added together causing the system to accept that message. For some reason, because it’s never been seen before, it accepted it, and caused the system to fail. 

‘I’ve been through failures and had to go to a manual system and I think people assume it’s like in a film where there are people running around and shouting on the phone, but these people are used to working in a high pressured job.

‘They have emergency training at least once a year, so they know exactly what to do, and take it in their stride. 

Martin Rolfe, chief executive of National Air Traffic Services told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, was asked this morning why the problematic flight data was not rejected by Nats ‘like a piece of spam’.

He replied: ‘Our systems are safety-critical systems, they are dealing with the lives of passengers and the travelling public.

‘So even things like just throwing data away needs to be very carefully considered.

‘If you throw away a critical piece of data you may end up in the next 30 seconds, a minute or an hour with something that then is not right on the screens in front of the controller. So it is nothing like throwing away spam.’

Quizzed on the age of the system and how frequently it needs to be updated, Mr Rolfe added: ‘We have a full programme and we invest £100m a year in new systems and we are constantly evaluating which systems need to be replaced and when. 

‘This is an obviously complex system with safety at the heart of it and the piece of the system we are discussing was replaced quite recently, about five years ago.’

When the failure was first flagged on Monday morning, the system went into its back-up mode – which stores up to four hours of data – rather than risk air-traffic controllers being presented with false information.

As bosses quickly realised the problem wouldn’t be fixed within that four-hour period, they decided to switch to a manual system, where all flight plans have to be entered individually.

This time-consuming process meant that controllers were unable to handle even a percentage of the usual number of aircraft moving in and out of UK airports.

The system was fully restored by 2.30pm on Monday, Mr Rolfe said, but the knock-on effect continues to be felt by passengers, who have been condemned to sleeping on airport floors while desperately waiting for their rescheduled flights.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 64 flights due to serve UK airports today were cancelled as of 9am – after some 1,585 flights were axed on Monday and a further 345 on Tuesday.

Former British Airways boss Willie Walsh said it was ‘staggering’ that the system was allowed to collapse by a piece of incorrect data. 

Mr Willie, director-general of global airline body the International Air Transport Association (Iata), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I find it staggering, I really do.

‘This system should be designed to reject data that’s incorrect, not to collapse the system.

‘If that is true, it demonstrates a considerable weakness that must have been there for some time and I’m amazed if that is the cause of this.

‘Clearly we’ll wait for the full evaluation of the problem but that explanation doesn’t stand up from what I know of the system.’

It comes as it emerged that Martin Rolfe, chief executive of National Air Traffic Services, saw his pay double last year to more than £1.3m, after receiving pensions benefits, a £281,000 annual bonus, and a backdated £555,000 long-term incentive plan.

Mr Rolfe declined to answer on whether NATS – or he himself following his personal windfall – should pay as a result of the disruption.

‘At this point, my focus has been entirely on making sure we have recovered the system, which we did on Monday, we were running as normal by 2.30pm,’ he said.

‘We have been supporting and working very closely with the airline CEOs many of whom I’ve spoken to directly to make sure we absolutely get everyone to their destinations as quick as we possibly can, but most importantly, as safely as we possibly can.’ 

Mr Walsh estimated that the chaos will cost airlines around £100million.

He said: ‘It’s very unfair because the air traffic control system which was at the heart of this failure doesn’t pay a single penny.’

The impact continued today with at least a further 42 flights to or from Heathrow cancelled.

Many affected travellers are being told to wait several days for flights home.

Some have been forced to sleep on airport floors or take long routes by land after their flights were cancelled.

Airlines were criticised for failing to book hotel rooms for many people who were delayed overnight.

Rory Boland, editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, said: ‘We’re seeing worrying reports of passengers being left stranded without support, and airlines failing to properly communicate with their passengers or fulfil their legal obligations such as offering timely rerouting or providing overnight accommodation.

‘In particular, travellers should be aware that their airline has a responsibility to reroute them as soon as possible, even if that means buying them a ticket with a rival carrier – a rule that some airlines appear to be ignoring.

‘Passengers should also be given food and refreshments and overnight accommodation if required.’

EasyJet is operating five repatriation flights to Gatwick, with the first two setting off today.

The airline said: ‘During this traditionally very busy week for travel, options for returning to the UK are more limited on some routes and so easyJet will be operating five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days from Palma and Faro on August 30, and Tenerife and Enfidha on August 31, and from Rhodes on September 1.

‘We are also operating larger aircraft on key routes including Faro, Ibiza, Dalaman and Tenerife to provide some additional 700 seats this week.’

There is speculation the ATC failure was caused by a French airline submitting a flight plan to Nats in the wrong format.

Downing Street did not rule out that possibility, while Nats declined to comment on whether that was what happened.

The problem resulted in flights to and from UK airports being restricted for several hours on Monday afternoon while flight plans were checked manually.

This caused the cancellation of around 1,500 flights on Monday, with a further 300 axed on Tuesday due to aircraft and crews being out of position.

Mr Rolfe said Nats is working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to provide a preliminary report into what happened to Transport Secretary Mark Harper.

The conclusions of the inquiry will be made public, he added.

Air passengers may be more likely to get payouts if their flights are delayed after a landmark ruling against budget airline Wizz Air.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) made it clear that it will take enforcement action against companies that fail meet passenger obligations.

The unprecedented intervention means that thousands of passengers could be entitled to compensation.

The CAA demanded that Wizz Air pay back holidaymakers whose claims over cancelled flights were wrongly dismissed.

In April, it emerged that Wizz Air was the worst major airline for delays from UK airports for the second year in a row.

The tough stance comes after investigations found several occasions where passengers were not being awarded compensation when they should have been.

The aviation regulator also concluded that Wizz Air failed to find alternative flights for passengers if there were cancellations, leaving them completely helpless.

Passengers who had claims wrongly rejected across the past 15 months for flights arriving or leaving the UK will have their cases looked at again. It’s understood some 15,000 people could have claims reviewed.

Those who feel they were unfairly treated for claims before March 18 2022 can also request for their case to be reviewed, going back as far as six years.

Paul Smith, joint-interim chief executive at the CAA, said: ‘This enforcement action sends a clear message that airlines must meet their obligations to passengers when they cancel or delay a flight.

‘We will not hesitate to step in if we believe that airlines are not consistently doing this.

‘Passengers have every right to expect their complaints and claims to be resolved quickly and efficiently and to be treated fairly by airlines, in line with regulations.

‘We made it clear to Wizz Air last year that the way it was treating passengers was unacceptable.

‘We will continue to watch the situation closely to check that passengers receive what they are owed and that Wizz Air’s policies have improved, so that consumers have a better experience if things go wrong.’

Action was taken by the CAA following widespread anger from passengers over getting compensated by the airline.

But Wizz Air came under more heat when the CAA found several county court judgments against Wizz Air in the last nine months.

The Government has got behind the landmark ruling, with aviation minister Baroness Vere warning other ‘rogue operators’ should understand the severity of the decision.

She said: ‘I hope today sends a clear signal to operators that the UK Civil Aviation Authority is watching and will take action to protect passengers.’

When Wizz Air were announced as the worst airline for delays earlier this year, Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, called on the Government to ‘give the CAA effective powers to clamp down on poor airline behaviour’, including the ability to hand out hefty fines.

Claims that can be reviewed include those made for replacement flight costs, transfers when new flights were via different airports, and care and assistance which covers things such as hotel costs incurred after delays.

The CAA is now working with Wizz Air, which has agreed to change its policies. 

The aviation authority will be keeping an eye on the airline’s movements and if it finds failures are continuing, it has the option of taking legal action.

Wizz Air’s UK managing director, Marion Geoffroy, said: ‘Last summer, like all airlines in Europe, Wizz Air faced unprecedented operating challenges, driven mostly by the external environment, including ATC (air traffic control) disruptions, airport constraints and staff shortages across the whole supply chain.

‘As a result, we were unable to meet our own high standards of service.

‘Flights were too often late or cancelled, disruption management overwhelmed our internal and external resources, and claims took too long to process and pay.

‘We have learned from this experience and have taken significant steps to make our operation more robust and customer-centric.

‘We expect this summer to be challenging for air traffic control, which will impact airlines.

‘While we cannot anticipate every disruption, we have invested over £90 million to prepare for increased air traffic.

‘We are confident that we have taken the right steps to better support passengers this summer season.’

Wizz Air said its flight reliability was ‘well above the industry average’ in the first half of 2023.

A decorated former Navy doctor has revealed what would have happened during the Titanic Five’s tragic final moments before their vessel suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion.’

Dr. Dale Molé, the former director of undersea medicine and radiation health for the US Navy, told DailyMail.com the deaths would have been quick and painless, dying almost instantly by the extraordinary forces exerted by the ocean at depth.

Molé said: ‘It would have been so sudden, that they wouldn’t even have known that there was a problem, or what happened to them.

‘It’s like being here one minute, and then the switch is turned off. You’re alive one millisecond, and the next millisecond you’re dead.’

US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed in a Thursday press conference that the search for Titan yielded debris that is ‘consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.’

The crew were more than 2 miles below the ocean surface, which would have generated more than 5,500 pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure.

On board the vessel was OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61; French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, 77; British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 41;  and his son Suleman, who was just 19. 

The tiny vessel carrying the crew was protected by a pressure chamber, a sealed pod that holds internal pressure significantly higher than ambient pressure, a pressurized gas system to control the internal pressure, and a supply of breathing gas for the occupants.

Molé said: ‘The pressure hull is the chamber where the occupants reside. It sounds as though they had reached the bottom when the pressure vessel imploded, and usually, when it gives way, it gives way all at once. 

‘It sounds like it was the carbon fiber cylinder that gave way and resulted in the implosion.’

How the pressure chamber was breached remains unclear. But such an implosion could be due to a leak, power failure, or small fire from an electrical short circuit. 

What would have resulted would have been a violent and instantaneous implosion as the high pressure water outside flooded in, wrenching away the rear cover, landing frame, and ripping apart the sub’s hull, crushing those inside. 

Molé said: ‘They would have been ripped to shreds. 

‘An implosion is when the wave of pressure is inward, whereas an explosion is when the pressure wave or the shock wave goes out from whatever the source of that is.’

He explained it like blowing up a balloon too much – the balloon will eventually pop when there is too much pressure.

In an implosion, the opposite occurs, when there is more outward pressure than the container can understand, then the insides collapse. 

Molé said: ‘When somebody stands on an empty soda can, it would support your weight, but then if you press on the sides, the can would collapse immediately.’ 

He added: ‘It’s simply where the debris and fragments and everything else goes inward because of a strong external force. In this case, it was the ocean.

‘At least at the depth of the Titanic, which is 12,500 feet, the external pressure would be 6,000 lbs per square inch. It’s that pressure that, if there were a weakness in the hull, would cause the hull to collapse and suddenly creates a shockwave. An implosion can certainly be every bit of destructive as an explosion.’

According to Scientific American, if the submersible was near the Titanic, it would have experienced higher pressure than a great white shark bite.

Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist at the University of Portsmouth, UK, agreed if such an implosion did occur, the pressure would have killed the  occupants almost instantly.

‘If there was any kind of hull breach, the occupants would succumb to the ocean in a near instant.’

After Thursday’s announcement of the deaths of the Titanic Five, tributes were posted and released. 

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77 – known universally as PH – was part of the first human expedition to visit the Titanic’s wreck in 1987, and had visited the site at least 35 times. His family said their hearts were broken over his death. 

‘He is a man who will be remembered as one of the greatest deep-sea explorers in modern history. When you think of the Titanic and all we know about the ship today, you will think of Paul-Henri Nargeolet and his legendary work.

‘But what we will remember him most for is his big heart, his incredible sense of humor and how much he loved his family. We will miss him today and every day for the rest of our lives.’

Harding’s company Action Aviation also released a statement on the news of his passing. 

‘Hamish Harding was a loving husband to his wife and a dedicated father to his two sons, whom he loved deeply. To his team in Action Aviation, he was a guide, an inspiration, a support, and a Living Legend,’ a statement read. 

The Dawood family said it was grateful to those who participated in the international rescue effort. Their works was the a ‘source of strength,’ Hussain and Kulsum Dawood Family said in a statement. 

‘We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues, and well-wishers from all over the world who have stood by us during our hour of need,’ the statement noted. ‘The immense love and support we receive continues to help us to endure this unimaginable loss.’

The OceanGate sub started its descent around 8 am Sunday toward the Titanic wreck site in the deep Atlantic Ocean. About one hour and 45 minutes later, the vessel lost contact with the surface. 

A new report noted the US Navy might have picked up the sound of the implosion on Sunday morning, but the massive rescue effort still continued. 

‘The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,’ a senior U.S. Navy official said. 

Earlier on Thursday, Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said it was too soon to say whether the implosion happened at the time of last communication.

The implosion was not detected by sonar buoys used by search crews, he said, which suggests it happened before they arrived – and was indeed heard by the U.S. Navy.

‘We had listening devices in the water throughout and did not hear any signs of catastrophic failure from those,’ said Mauger.

‘The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up.’

It is not known why the U.S. Navy did not make the information about the likely implosion known. It is also not known if they informed the families or rescue crews of their analysis.

One reason may be that they wanted to launch a search and rescue mission in the hope that their information was wrong, and did not want to give any reason for deterring the search.

A glimmer of hope came earlier in the week when the Coast Guard confirmed consistent ‘banging’ noises had been detected by P-3 aircraft, but the search teams were unable to find the source of the sound, or confirm that they were the SOS signals the world had hoped for. 

Instead on Thursday, a French Viking 6000 kocated debris from the imploded vessel near the site of the Titanic. 

In addition to the vessel’s landing frame and rear cover that were the first pieces of debris detected, the ROV submarine also found fragments of the pressure hull – the main body of the submersible. 

The most uncomfortable journey of my life I spent squashed in economy class between two enormously fat passengers, on a jam-packed overnight flight from London Heathrow to New Delhi.

Veritable human elephants they were, with bottoms, thighs and tree-trunk upper-arms spreading far into my territory in the middle seat.

For nine hours I suffered there, hardly able to breathe, my shoulders hunched and my elbows tucked in front of my chest, finding it almost impossible to manoeuvre my food and drink into my mouth without spilling it down my shirt.

If you’ve ever sat down to a Christmas dinner for ten, round a kitchen table designed for six, you will understand my difficulty.

I thought of that flight this week, when I read that an American woman described as a ‘plus-size travel influencer’ is campaigning to make airlines offer free extra seats to passengers of her substantial proportions, who take up two or even three each. It’s a question of their human rights, apparently.

‘People with smaller bodies get to pay one fare to get to their destination,’ says Jaelynn Chaney, who keeps her weight private but admits that her frocks are an impressive size 6XL (that’s 24 UK, or European size 50). ‘But we have to pay two fares, even though we’re getting the same experience. If anything, our experiences are a little bit more challenging.’

Call me a brute, but I would have thought that if she wanted her experience of air travel to be a little less challenging, the remedy might lie in her own hands.

Isn’t it just possible that her discomfort in single seats may have something to do with the quantity and quality of her diet?

Dare I say it, wouldn’t it be within her power to slim down, if only she were to limit her intake of calories?

Not possible, says her champion Gabor Lukacs, the founder of an organisation called Air Passenger Rights. ‘Being a large-size person is not a choice,’ he says, ‘as many people mistakenly believe.’

Thus, in a single sentence, he dismisses the age-old notion that human beings are endowed with free will.

I’m reminded of that brilliant comedian Peter Cook’s waspish rejoinder when someone said that it wasn’t Elizabeth Taylor’s fault she was putting on weight. It was all down to her glands.

‘I know, poor woman,’ he said. ‘There she is, in her suite in the Dorchester, harmlessly watching television. Suddenly her glands pick up the phone and order two dozen eclairs and a bottle of brandy.

‘No,’ she screams, ‘please, I beg you!’ but her glands take no notice. Determined glands they are, her glands.

‘You’ve never known glands like them. The trolley arrives and Elizabeth Taylor hides in the bathroom, but her glands, her glands take the eclairs, smash down the door and stuff them down her throat.

‘I’m glad I haven’t got glands like that. Terrible glands.’

All I will say, cruel though this may sound, is that you don’t see many morbidly obese people among the wretched souls fleeing from famine in refugee camps.

Now, as regular readers will be quick to point out, I am the last person on Earth qualified to get on my high horse and preach against people in the grip of addictions. After all, I have a revolting 50-a-day cigarette habit, and I know how terribly hard it is to quit. I imagine the same must be true of people who are addicted to doughnuts and sweets, Big Macs and chips.

Indeed, I’m sure that it’s only my half century of addiction to nicotine that has kept my own weight down to between 10½ and 11 st since I was 18 — or rather less, over recent months, since my rotting teeth began to make eating a bit of an ordeal.

It’s almost certain that if I were to give up smoking now, and get my teeth fixed, I would exchange the hit I get from my Marlboro Reds for the comfort of over-eating. No doubt my figure would balloon, as has happened to so many of my friends, with stronger wills than mine, who have managed to wean themselves off the evil weed.

(I hasten to say that I can’t recommend chain-smoking or avoiding the dentist as wholly satisfactory ways of losing weight. The former is cripplingly expensive, at well over £14 a packet these days. As for the latter, I find that children tend to shriek and run away, terrified, when I smile.)

All I will say in my defence is that I fully acknowledge my weakness, I don’t blame anyone else for it and I try, as far as possible, to avoid letting my self-indulgence cause discomfort to others, never lighting up in the presence of people who object.

Oh, and unlike Jaelynn Chaney, who appears to believe all passengers on a flight should share the cost of awarding her an extra seat, I don’t expect anyone else to suffer financially because I won’t make the effort to kick my anti-social habit. Yes, I know. Anti-smoking fanatics will tell me that my vice costs the health service a fortune, estimated by NHS England at £2.6 billion a year.

To them, I can only point out the Office for Budget Responsibility’s estimate that tobacco duty alone will raise £10.4 billion in the current financial year.

What’s more, the obesity epidemic is claimed to cost a whopping £14 billion a year, which is the amount the NHS would save if everyone were of a healthy weight.

That’s according to an authoritative study last month, led by Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, a public lecturer at Imperial College London and head of health analytics at a consultancy firm, Lane Clark & Peacock.

But, no, I’m not for one moment disputing Jaelynn Chaney’s right to be fat. Nor do I begrudge overweight people the subsidy from other passengers which they already enjoy if they occupy single seats, since every extra pound of flab aboard increases the amount of fuel a plane needs and so pushes up fares for all.

Still less would I suggest that in the UK, the NHS should refuse to treat patients who have brought their suffering on themselves — whether smokers, fatties, speeding motorists or enthusiasts for dangerous sports.

All I am saying is that Jaelynn should acknowledge her personal responsibility for her enormous size, and accept that she could do something about it, if only she put her mind to it. As with me and my smoking (all right, Mrs U, and my drinking too), she has a choice.

No doubt I’ll be roundly condemned for ‘fat-shaming’. But then we nicotine addicts are constantly shamed for our habit, banished like lepers from enclosed public spaces, and scolded by warnings on our cigarette packets that our selfishness harms others around us, and stunts our unborn babies’ growth.

But you won’t hear many of us whimpering that this is an abuse of our human rights.

I would even argue that the shaming of smokers, whether by governments of every hue or by hosts at private parties who tell us to light up in the garden or the street, ‘if you really must’, has improved the health of the nation’s lungs.

Of course, the annual increases in tobacco duty have been by far the most influential factor in bringing the number of UK smokers down from roughly 40 per cent of the adult population in the 1970s, to the mere 13.3 per cent recorded in the 2021 census. But the campaign to shame us must surely have helped.

By the same token, mightn’t a spot of concerted fat-shaming help slim down the Great British buttocks, and save our own growing army of Jaelynns from themselves?

But let me end with a plea to airline check-in staff the world over. As a nicotine addict, I have a great deal of sympathy with people who can’t bring themselves to say no to that extra slice of cake. But the next time a pair of human elephants waddle up to your desk, please don’t seat me between them.

Drivers waiting to cross the Channel were treated to a supercar and classic car show over the weekend as petrolheads headed to Le Mans and back.

With the famous Le Mans 24 hour race taking place on Saturday and Sunday, thousands of British motorsport fans made the pilgrimage from the UK to France’s Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe.

That meant that passengers taking the LeShuttle service, the newly-rebranded former Eurotunnel, between England’s Folkestone and France’s Calais got to watch a parade of exotic motors as they waited to board.

An astonishing display of travelling cars were on show heading out last week and returning on Sunday evening and yesterday.

A spokesperson said: ‘This will be amongst the most expensive cargo to travel under the Channel, with many of these cars worth hundreds of thousands of pounds each, and some a lot more than that.’

LeShuttle said that more than 1,000 supercar and elite sports car journeys were booked around the weekend of the race.

Among them was an array of vehicles from a Ferrari owners club that travelled on Thursday. And those fans of the Prancing Horse will have been delighted with the weekend’s events, as Ferrari AF Corse won the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary Trophy.

The legendary Italian manufacturer was making its return to the premier league of endurance racing after a 50-year absence.

And in a turn up for the story books, Ferrari marked that reappearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours – and 100 years since the race was first run – with its tenth outright victory.

This was Ferrari’s win first since 1965, with Alessandro Pier Guidi, Britain’s James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi claiming the honours in the #51 Ferrari 499P Hypercar.

It beat Toyota, Cadillac, Peugeot, Glickenhaus, Vanwall and Porsche, leading the bells to ring out in its Italian home town of Maranello to celebrate the win.

The first 12 hours of the race saw the lead change hands numerous times, with many of the 16 Hypercars on the starting grid leading at some point during the opening stages, which were affected by two heavy rain showers.

In the end, Ferrari claimed victory, with Toyota in second place and Cadillac in third. 

The centenary year at Le Mans gave British petrolheads even greater impetus to make the journey down there for the weekend festival of motorsport.

LeShuttle said that among those heading to France and back, more than 120 Ferraris were due to cross last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, along with more than 80 Aston Martins and more than 50 Lamborghinis.

Most of the exotic cars will have headed back on Sunday and Money, providing another opportunity to play Top Trumps in the queue for passport control.

Manifest lists revealed supercar spotters would also be treated to an array of other marques, including McLaren, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Maserati, Porsche, Morgan and Noble.

The wide track on many of the special cars requires the wider single deck carriages, which can accommodate 48 cars per shuttle.

I’m a flight attendant and by far the most annoying thing passengers do happens before we even take off

• A steward shared a video on TikTok, explaining the importance of following rules
• He gave a simple message – if your bag doesn’t fit, it will have to be checked in 

By Milica Cosic

Updated: 13:03 EDT, 27 May 2023

A private jet pilot has lifted the veil on his amazing life in a fascinating online Q&A.

The aviator took to Reddit and started a thread with the title ‘I’ve been a private jet pilot for 15 years – ask me anything!’

He explained that he has been a private pilot for around 15 years and that he’s qualified to fly the Citation 500 series and Embraer Legacy 500 aircraft, among others.

Then the questions came thick and fast.

One early enquiry, from ‘kay_till’, was, ‘What’s the craziest thing that has happened on a private flight’?

The pilot, who goes by the name Legacy500Driver on Reddit, said: ‘A lot of people assume the back of a private jet is a place of debauchery. Honestly, 99.9 per cent of the time it is boring. The occasional person will try to light a cig, and I have found a small vial of what I assume was cocaine, or an A-list athlete will party too hard in Vegas and throw up.’

Has he ever seen a couple try and become members of the mile-high club (user ‘GaryV83_at_Work’)?

‘Yes,’ the pilot wrote. ‘I can only recall once that I know of, and they were very subtle about it, but I happened to turn around and she was sitting on his lap and I quickly turned around.’

‘Do you get tipped by your clients?’ asked ‘Emotional-Reaction49’.

Legacy500Driver wrote: ‘Charter pilots can usually expect some tips. One of my fave passengers when I flew charters was a well-known football player for the Chicago Bears, who has since retired. I used to fly him to Vegas and he would tip $1,000 [£800] without fail.

‘Other perks are things like collecting hotel rewards points. I stay at Marriott properties and built up enough status and points that all of my personal vacations are free. The same is true for rental cars. Not to mention when a passenger goes to a cool destination, I am there enjoying it as we typically stay nearby in case they want to go home early. So if they are in Iceland for a week, so am I, and they are paying for everything.’

‘User-no-relation’ chimed in with ‘how much do you make?’

Quite a lot, it would seem.

The pilot wrote: ‘A pilot at my level can expect $250k – $350k [£200,000-£240,000] based upon a few factors such as home base, schedule, etc… ‘

‘Massive-Particular51’, meanwhile, wanted to know the identity of the most famous person the pilot had ever flown.

Legacy500Driver didn’t name any names, but did reveal that he’s flown ‘a former president, someone who played Batman, an A-list couple with many children that have since divorced, a well-known country band that has recently split, and various Oscar winners and nominees’.

Have you seen anything up there you couldn’t explain? This was a query from ‘Iamanediblefriend’.

Legacy500Driver wrote: ‘Yes. Most things end up having an explanation, such as we realize it’s a weather balloon as we get closer. Once I saw something metallic that I can’t really explain, but it also didn’t do anything particularly crazy such as change directions quickly that made me jump to the UAP [unidentified aerial phenomena] assumption.’

‘Have you ever fulfilled requests to go elsewhere mid-flight?’ was the question posed by ‘justelectricboogie’.

The pilot said: ‘I once was flying someone from Seattle to NY and as we got close to Chicago he remembered his favorite steak house was there and asked if we could stop. Otherwise, we change destinations mid-flight based upon weather at the destination most often.’

Other questions touched on whether the Earth is round or flat – ‘most definitely round… at 51,000ft [private jets fly higher than commercial airliners] you can see the subtle curve of the Earth’ – what the pilot does with his time on autopilot – ‘check emails, listen to a podcast, take care of paperwork, keep a watchful eye and scan everything… and we have frequent radio communications’ – and whether a passenger ever did something that made him fear for his safety.

He replied: ‘Rarely, maybe too hungover or drinking a little too much on the flight but create a little artificial turbulence such that the drink would spill and they’ll stop.’

When asked for advice on getting over a fear of turbulence, the pilot said: ‘Know that turbulence while uncomfortable and can cause injury when not in a seat belt has rarely ever been the cause of an airplane crash. As in so extremely rare I can’t think of an actual crash caused by turbulence off the top of my head.’

One user asked if turbulence is less severe in a private jet than a commercial airliner.

The pilot said: ‘Generally less simply due to the fact we can fly higher. Airlines might be getting beat up at 35,000 and 38,000ft and we are smooth at 45,000ft. Very little weather ever reaches that high with the exception of a massive thunderstorm and even then it’s so rare it’s easy to fly around. Clear air turbulence can be at all altitudes but seems to diminish that high. We experience most of our turbulence on the climb out and arrival portions where we now line up with the airliners.’

The pilot also revealed the cheapest way to fly in a private jet, explaining: ‘The jet is sold by the hour, not by the seat, so if you find a cheaper single-engine turboprop or a light jet and find enough friends to fill each seat and split the costs then you’re going to be at about as low cost as you can get. Something like Phoenix to Vegas in a seven-seat jet for a night and back may cost $7,500. Split that seven ways.

‘Some companies will also try and sell empty legs at a discount. Say they have a jet in LA that has to get to Vegas for its next flight, they may try and sell that flight dirt cheap as they have to move it regardless.’