Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet by Elliott Hester

Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet
Elliott Hester
St. Martin's Griffin
256 pages

Speed and altitude notwithstanding, flying in a commercial jet is not much different than riding in a Greyhound bus.
~ Something Smelly in the Air, Chapter 1, and so begins Plane Insanity ~

It's hard to believe that the stories in Plane Insanity, the hilarious book by Elliott Hester, are true. But they are. Before you read even a single page, you know you're in for a wild ride just from the subtitle: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet. Hester has encountered just about everything in his 15 years of flying the skies or "riding tin," and he recounts these laugh-out-loud encounters with plenty of attitude and self-deprecating humor. Not to spoil the fun, but a few juicy tidbits include Hester as the hapless victim of a child's projectile vomit, chasing a sparrow around the cabin, mistakenly putting a woman on the wrong flight, and recalling the unfathomable account of an inebriated man defecating atop a liquor cart, to the horror of passengers and crew. Just when you think the stories can't get anymore outlandish he outdoes himself with the titillating antics of amorous couples who vie for membership in the infamous Mile High Club.

I love travelogues. What better way to see the world when vacation is a distant blur on the horizon. There are some truly humorous stories in this book. What an insightful look at human behavior, especially when we aren't always at our best and having a beautiful, shining moment. It's the bad antics and boorish behavior that make this such a fun book to read. I might have taken this book in smaller doses instead of reading it straight through. It isn't a single story that flows from one chapter to another. It is a book filled with short snippets of outlandish human deportment. If you want to know just how the seemingly quiet person in the seat next you might behave when they've had one too many or their luggage doesn't fit in the overhead bin read this book.

** If you've read the book and posted a review on your blog feel free to leave the link in a comment on this post for others to check out **