There were five times as many reported unruly passenger incidents in 2021 than in 2019. While the skies have calmed down since the pandemic, incidents remain elevated.

Yet the all-time most extreme case of air rage in history probably remains the case of United Airlines flight 976, which occurred in 1995. This one incident even has its own Wikipedia page.

And since readers were discussing it in the comments it made sense to compare modern times to this famous incident from nearly 30 years ago that still haunts aviation today.

United had just begun painting planes in battleship grey at the time.

United battleship grey pic.twitter.com/qeG8hleplv

— redtailsforever (@redtailsforever) January 8, 2020

On October 19, 1995, passenger Gerard Finneran was on board United Airlines flight 976 from Buenos Aires to New York JFK. The Wall Street investment banker was in first class, drank two glasses of champagne, and demanded to sit in crew rest seats for takeoff because his seat was in ‘the smoking section.’ He wandered the cabin, poured himself more champagne from the galley. When confronted, he shoved a flight attendant.

After takeoff, Finneran was served two glasses of red wine, but he later grabbed an entire bottle, securing it between his legs. When a flight attendant intervened and told him, “we’re going to take a little break from drinking now,” Finneran responded “I will bust your ass!” Only then did things begin to get wild.

• After the meal service, he went to the galley, climbed onto a drinks cart, crouched down, and defecated in full view of the cabin.

• He used linen napkins to clean himself and then smeared his feces on walls and tracked it through the cabin on his shoes.

• The crew, unable to use the cart or clean the mess, canceled food service and sprayed Karl Lagerfeld perfume to mask the overwhelming stench.

• Finneran then locked himself in the lavatory until his business partner and a flight attendant coaxed him out and returned him to his seat.

The pilots sought a diversion to San Juan, but this was denied as a security risk because Portuguese President Mário Soares and Argentinian Foreign Minister Guido di Tella were passengers in the cabin. The flight was forced to continue to New York, with Finneran subdued under a blanket to contain the odor of his soiled clothing.

Upon landing, Finneran was arrested and charged with assaulting and intimidating flight attendants and interfering with the crew. His legal defense was that he suffered from severe traveler’s diarrhea and had been prevented from using the first class lavatory by the Portuguese President’s security detail.

He pled guilty to threatening a flight attendant, explaining that he’d become angry after being denied more alcohol. He received two years of probation, a $5,000,and was required to reimburse United Airlines $48,000 for cleaning costs.

There was no video to go viral on social media back then, but the incident still spread like wildfire and even became to subject of a David Letterman top 10 list, “Top Ten Gerard Finneran Excuses.”

10. Misread brochure about advantages of first class
9. Confused when steward asked for headset deposit
8. Went nuts after learning they were out of chicken almondine
7. Thought he heard somebody yell, “We’re going to crash!” and that was just something he always wanted to do before he died
6. Hoping to impress aloof blonde English woman in 2-D
5. Had already used airphone to call everyone he knew
4. You try drinking for 14 hours and see if you can tell the difference between a food cart and a bathroom
3. All part of an elaborate plan to intimidate the real killers
2. His … wouldn’t fit in the overhead compartment
1. “Oh, like you’ve never done it”

This incident has stood the test of time – the standard against which future passenger incidents are compared.