From rats grounding planes, pilots forgetting to extend landing gear and expletive-filled rants being broadcast over the airspace, 2011 has been a year full of embarrassing bloopers on behalf of airlines. Here are some of the best: Smell a rat? A red-faced Qantas had to ground one of its passenger jets in May when five rats were found on board. They couldn't explain how the rodents got in to the 767 cabin, and passengers were transferred to another flight while the bizarre appearance was investigated. Passengers pay the fuel bill Travellers on a Comtel Air flight from India to Britain last month claim they were held to ransom and forced to hand over thousands of dollars to refuel their aircraft in Vienna. Almost 200 passengers paid $41,000 in cash when the airline told them it could not fund the remainder of the trip. Understandably, they were pretty peeved. Pilot's sexist, foul-mouthed rant A Southwest Airlines pilot had to apologise red-faced after he was caught ranting and raving about the flight attendants' appearance in March. He'd been oblivious to the fact that his views were being broadcast over the local airspace for all and sundry to cringe at â and worse yet, a Texas television station later obtained a copy of the recording and broadcast it even further. In the conversation he managed to insult women, overweight people and gay people. Southwest suspended the pilot, saying they were "deeply saddened" by his language. Oops, forgot the landing gear This one's an oldie actually, but a goodie. The incident happened in 2009, but a report released in October 2011 found two Qantas pilots were distracted during their approach to Sydney Airport when they failed to fully extend the plane's landing gear. They aborted the landing when they realised their error at an altitude of 500ft. "Interruptions and distractions" in the cockpit, including seeing rain showers near the runway, contributed to their lack of "situational awareness". Let's just hope they've learnt how to multitask since then. Uh, wrong airport captain! Surprised passengers were loaded into limousines in September when their plane landed at the wrong airport in Louisiana â a mistake which is not entirely unheard of. The Continental Connection flight touched down at Southland Field in Sulphur instead of Lake Charles Regional airport, a half-hour drive away. There have been at least two other incidents in the last 15 years, and the confusion is attributed to the two terminals being on the same latitude and looking similar from the air.
