The Craziest Travel Mishaps of 2018: From Finding a Human Heart to a Fight Over Flatulence

A Southwest plane had to turn around mid-flight recently after a human heart was discovered on board the aircraft. According to the Seattle Times, the captain told passengers that the heart, which had been left on the plane following a previous flight from Sacramento, was supposed to have been delivered to a local hospital in Seattle.

A representative for Southwest confirmed to PEOPLE that the flight turned around after “we learned of a life-critical cargo shipment onboard the aircraft that was intended to stay in Seattle for delivery to a local hospital.” Initially no area hospitals said they were expecting a heart, but it was later claimed by an organ donation center.

One man on board a Delta airlines flight claimed he stepped in a pile of dog waste while trying to get into his seat, and when he complained to a manager on board, he claims she told him, "Well that’s not my problem.”

"It was feces, and it was everywhere,” Matthew Meehan told WBS-TV. “It was on my seat. It was on the floor. My feet were in it. I was in the bathroom cleaning feces off of the back of my legs, off of my shoes. I was wearing loafers unfortunately, so the feces was all over my bare ankles.”

Passengers on board the Carnival Sunshine ship had their dream vacation turned into a nightmare when a malfunctioning switchboard caused the boat to tip onto its side for one minute. "It kept leaning," said passenger David Crews. "Plates and silverware started sliding off the tables. Then the tables themselves started to slide. Glasses and plates started to fall and shatter. At this point, it was pure chaos. Screams. Cries. Panic.”

According to a statement from Carnival obtained by PEOPLE, the boat reportedly leveled out after about a minute and then proceeded as usual.

A Piedmont Airlines baggage handler working an American Airlines flight at Kansas City International Airport took a nap in the forward cargo hold of an aircraft, but when he woke up, he wasn't in Kansas anymore. According to a spokesperson for American Airlines, the employee fell asleep and the flight took off and then landed safely.

Upon arrival, the Chicago Police Department was alerted to a person in an unauthorized area of the aircraft, and when he was detained and questioned by the police, the airport security, and the FBI, he admitted to being intoxicated and falling asleep.

A man traveling on an All Nippon Airways flight from Chicago to Tokyo was arrested for urinating on another passenger after reportedly drinking at least four glasses of champagne and one cup of sake. According to the Japan Times, the 24-year-old passenger was seated two rows ahead of the 50-year-old victim (who was asleep in business class) when he relieved himself mid-flight.

One passenger who was flying for the first time on a Go Air flight sparked a panic when he mistook the emergency exit in the back of the plane for the restroom and attempted to open the door. When he tried to pull the door open, it sounded an alarm, and crew members apprehended him.

An airport official told The Telegraph India of the incident, which took place on a flight from New Delhi to Patna, India, that when his fellow passengers asked him what he was doing, he said he “needed to use the washroom urgently and kept tugging at the exit door.”

“He said that the confusion happened because he had boarded a flight for the first time in his life,” the official told the newspaper.

After missing his flight from Melbourne to Adelaide, Australia, a man took matters into his own hands by running out onto the tarmac and attempting to rip open the door of a Jetstar plane he believed to be his flight. When he was unsuccessful with his hands, he began kicking the locked entry until airport security restrained him, 9News reports.

The plane he was attempting to enter was empty and was next scheduled to fly to Sydney.

A Transavia Airlines pilot made an emergency landing after a fight broke out over a passenger’s continued flatulence. The incident reportedly began after two passengers on a flight from Dubai to Amsterdam Schiphol asked another passenger sitting next to them to stop passing gas and were ignored, so they allegedly alerted the flight crew to the problem but did not receive the assistance they were looking for. After the pilot warned them to stop fighting and they didn't, he decided to land the flight for the safety of other passengers.

A Jetstar flight scheduled to travel from Auckland to Sydney was forced to return to New Zealand after an airport employee left his clipboard — which he was using during pre-flight checks while preparing the airbus for service — on the engine of the aircraft.

The clipboard was “ingested” by the engine as the aircraft prepared for takeoff, according to a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and left minor damage to the engine’s fan blade and its attrition liner (responsible for assisting with noise controls).

After a violent brawl broke out on a Carnival Legend cruise ship, 23 members of the same family were kicked off the trip, which made an unplanned stop in New South Wales on the eighth night of it's ten-day journey. It is unclear how the fight began, but footage obtained by Australian radio station 3AWRadio shows security personnel scrambling to break up a crowd of people who were throwing punches and tackling passengers to the ground.

Passengers described the incident as a “bloodbath” — and one even dubbed the 10-day trip the “cruise from hell,” according to 9News, a local Australian news outlet.

A woman traveling through John Wayne Airport was angered when a Southwest Airlines agent made fun of her five-year-old daughter's unique name: Abcde, which is pronounced "ab-city."

"I turned around and just said, ‘Hey, I can hear you, so if I can hear you, my daughter can, too. I’d appreciate it if you’d just stop,'" said Traci Redford.

After the agent also posted a photo of Redford's daugther's boarding pass and name on social media, Southwest apologized, saying their agent's behavior was "not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees.”