7 crew members, 1 passenger: Man has entire plane to himself on commercial flight

A Lithuanian man had a “once in a lifetime experience” when he boarded a recent flight to discover that he was the only passenger.

Skirmantas Strimaitis flew from the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania to Bergamo in northern Italy on March 16 and when he turned up, was surprised to learn that he had the entire plane – a Boeing 737-800 which seats up to 188 people – all to himself.

The only people to join him were the two pilots and five crew members.

According to Novaturas travel agency, it had charted the plane to fly a group home from Italy and to avoid flying empy, only one-way tickets were sold. Unfortunately, only one person purchased one.

But for Strimaitis, the two-hour flight turned out to be a “a once in the lifetime experience”.

Though it’s not the first time it’s happened, as one woman had a similar experience after accidentally booking a flight for cabin crew only. 

 

 

 

“When my flight was cancelled about eight hours earlier a confused agent gave me and half the passengers a seat for the plane in the pic before another agent realised everyone could go on an earlier flight,” she told The Independent.

“They made an announcement on the speaker but I’d already left to go back to my parent’s house nearby to wait for the next few hours. I was never contacted about the flight change.”

So when Beth arrived for her flight, she was surprised to discover there were only three other people on board – two pilots and one member of cabin crew.