Sometimes, flying sucks. There are possibilities that your flight could be delayed, cancelled, or worse. If you do get on your flight, there could be not very good seats, limited snacks, bad quality, or, in this case, a very terrible passenger.

United Airlines flight 976 was a flight that went from Buenos Aires to New York City on October 19 to 20, 1995. Upon landing at JFK International Airport, one passenger was arrested by the FBI. Why? Well, here’s why:

Gerard Finneran, a Wall Street investment banker, was seated in first class and even became unlikable before the flight started. He demanded to be moved into where the crewmembers sit after having a couple of glasses of champagne and got threatening with some of the crewmembers, even shoving one! Eventually, he was able to be seated once the plane took off, and once they were airborne, Finneran was served some red wine. Soon, he was found pouring even more red wine for himself. Eventually, after threatening a flight attendant who told him, “we’re going to take a little break from drinking now”, he returned to his seat again and calmed down.

For now, anyways.

A meal was served, and after, the curtains had been drawn. Then, a flight attendant felt her seat shake, and when she came to see the issue, Finneran was on a drink cart, and he lowered his pants and underwear, and…um…defecated on the floor behind the cart. 😬.

He wiped himself with linen napkins and tracked the waste (and the napkins) across the cabin, where he then went to the lavatory and locked himself in there. He was then taken out and went back to his seat, where he fell asleep when the flight attendants put a blanket over him to cover up his odor and sprayed perfume across the cabin. By then, the pilots considered diverting to San Juan, but since there were Portuguese president Mário Soares and Argentinian foreign minister Guido di Tella on board, they could not do so.

Eventually, they landed in NYC, and upon landing, Finneran was arrested and charged with interfering with a flight crew and assaulting and intimidating a flight attendant, but was released after he pleaded not guilty and posted a $100,000 bond.

So, the answer is, why did he do these unlikable acts?

Well, the reason may have been that he was intoxicated. His defense for the court case said he had traveler’s diarrhea. Maybe it was the worst case of air rage ever! Whatever the outcome, he ended up doing 300 hours of community service and paid $49,000 for airline reimbursement for all the passengers.

After his arrest, Finneran’s story went on the national news and became excellent comedy material. David Letterman did a reading of his “Top 10 Gerard Finneran Excuses”, and Spy magazine ranked it 22 on its 100 least likable things about 1995. Finneran died in 2004, but no matter where he may be, we will always learn about his experience with United Airlines.

That is an interesting story. Just hope that when you fly from Buenos Aires to NYC, you better not fly first class, in hopes of not traumatizing both your mind and your nose…