Horror Stories - 7 Most Disturbing TRUE Airport Horror Stories That Will Make You Dread Your Next Flight

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Starting point is 00:01:17 world. Also, don't forget to like and subscribe if you're enjoying the episodes. Story 1. I must have been about six or seven years old when it happened in the early 2000s. It's one of those scenes that stayed with me in flashes for years, until my grandmother finally helped me fill in the gaps. That day my aunt was arriving by plane, and for my family that was the whole event. She had been living in another city for quite a while, and every time she came to see us, it felt like a little celebration. The airport we went to wasn't very big. Our city wasn't either, but since it was an important political hub, there were always planes landing and taking off.

Starting point is 00:02:06 To me, it all felt busy and exciting. I remember doing little hops as we walked in, clinging down. to my grandmother's hand, talking non-stop about what I was going to say to my aunt when she appeared. The waiting area was right next to the sliding glass doors that connected to baggage claim. You could see travelers grabbing their suitcases and heading toward the exit, which for a kid like me was like watching people step out of the TV screen. I kept chattering about whatever popped into my head until suddenly my grandmother's hand closed tightly around mine.

Starting point is 00:02:40 When I looked up at her, she gave me one of those sharp looks that makes you shut up instantly. At first I thought I'd said something out of place, but she wasn't looking at me. She had leaned slightly toward the people beside us listening. There were two of them, arguing in a low voice, though with an intensity that made it clear this wasn't just any disagreement. One was an older man, around 60, and beside him was a young woman very far along in her pregnancy. Their voices rose and fell, cutting and restrained. And even though I couldn't make out the words, it was obvious it was something serious. My grandmother has always had that habit of getting absorbed in other people's business,

Starting point is 00:03:24 so she stood very still, squeezing my hand, while I got bored and looked back at the sliding doors. What happened next I remember in fragments, as if parts of the tape in my memory had been recorded over. What I do know for sure is that all of a sudden, the older man started shouting. His voice boomed over the airport's murmur. He repeated something, maybe a name, maybe a threat, and pointed toward the doors. Right then, someone came out dragging a suitcase and in the blink of an eye, everything collapsed into chaos. I remember screams filling everything sharp and desperate. My grandmother yanked me hard, lifted my feet off.

Starting point is 00:04:07 off the ground and threw me down onto the floor before I could even understand what was happening. Then she covered me with her whole body. The tile was ice cold against my cheek, but underneath her the air turned stifling and hot. I heard a series of dry popping sounds echoing through the terminal. At the time they sounded like fireworks to me. People ran and screamed. Some dropped to the floor like we did. Others fled in every direction. There was a strange. strange smell in the air, acrid, that stuck to my nose and throat, and I started gagging under her weight. I panicked and tried to push her off, crying, until she shoved my face against the floor so hard it almost heard and whispered. In a tone so severe and urgent, it froze my

Starting point is 00:04:55 blood. Don't move. Play dead. That was the first time the certainty really hit me that something terrible was happening. I stayed still. My face pressed to the floor. every muscle shaking as I tried not to move. My ears rang with the screams, the hurried footsteps, and the older man's voice booming somewhere nearby, though I couldn't make out the words anymore. Time stretched in an unnatural way. Every second felt like a minute.

Starting point is 00:05:26 I was still there, breathing that bitter air, tears burning my eyes. After a while, my grandmother hauled me up with a firm hand, and almost dragging me, took me to a thick concrete column where we crouched down. My legs were trembling like jelly. I could barely stay upright, but she held me tightly until we were covered. By then there were already police nearby moving quickly in barking orders, telling everyone to stay on the ground to remain calm.

Starting point is 00:05:58 The older man's voice still dominated the terminal, but now it was breaking. Less fury and more something like anguish. Then after a while an odd silence arrived. I don't remember the immediate aftermath clearly. An officer led my grandmother and me toward another area. As we crossed the terminal, he put his hand over my eyes as if to block my view. I squirmed and tried to push it away.

Starting point is 00:06:26 I hated being handled like that. And the instant I managed to move his hand, I saw something I never forgot. The pregnant woman was lying on her back, completely motioned. That image lodged in me forever, even though I didn't fully understand it then. For years, my grandmother hid the details from me. In that moment, she only told me they had caught a bad man and that I was safe now. It wasn't until I grew up that she told me what had really happened. The older man was the woman's father, the man he was shouting at, the one with the suitcase,

Starting point is 00:07:02 was her boyfriend, the baby's father. That man had abandoned her when she got pregnant and only recently had decided he wanted to come back and take responsibility. The father never forgave him for leaving in the first place and blamed him for ruining his daughter's life. He went to the airport armed waiting for him to arrive. When the boyfriend came through the sliding doors, the father pulled the gun and started shooting. He aimed badly, wildly, probably overwhelmed by emotion and saw him. stray bullets hit several people. In the middle of it all, his daughter screamed that she loved that man, and when her father

Starting point is 00:07:41 finally pointed the gun directly at the boyfriend, she stepped between them. In that moment, both she and her partner, along with the baby she was carrying, died. When the police subdued him, the old man had gone from fury to nothing, and he let them take the weapon without resisting. According to my grandmother, the whole incident lasted less than twenty. 20 minutes. For me, curled up under her body, it felt like hours. Only years later when she explained how close we'd been to where people fell, did I understand that the red I remember just inches from my face on the floor was blood. If she hadn't thrown me down and covered me,

Starting point is 00:08:23 I might have been hit while trying to get up. Luckily, my aunt never even made her out of the secure area. As soon as the shots rang out, staff guided passengers back down the court. her and kept her sheltered until the police gave the all clear. But for my grandmother and me, those minutes in the terminal stretched into one of the most terrifying experiences of our lives. And even today, I can still bring back the smell, the sounds, and the weight of her arms pinning me to the floor, protecting me from something I wouldn't understand until many years later. Story 2. This past summer, my younger sister and I traveled to another state to visit family and some friends. She was 16 at the time and I was 18. People always tell us we look a lot

Starting point is 00:09:16 alike, except she's about five inches taller than me and carries herself with a confidence that makes her seem older than she is. Because of that, we often get mistaken for women in their 20s. On top of that, the two of us are very loud and kind of unbearable when we're together. My parents can't stand it. But honestly, it's part of our dynamic. We got to the airport and, as expected, my parents were a little nervous before letting us go. Our local airport is pretty small, so once you get through security, it's easy to find your way around. We found our gate and had to wait at least an hour, because the flight kept getting delayed due to another plane having to make an emergency landing. The terminal itself is tiny.

Starting point is 00:10:03 To the left, you go to some gates, to the right to the others. and in the middle there are a few shops and restaurants. We settled in at the gate closest to the food court. Past us there were, at most, about three more gates, but overall everything felt empty. And since our flight had very few passengers, there were easily a hundred empty seats around us. I was sitting on the floor charging my phone and watching Netflix.

Starting point is 00:10:32 My sister was in a chair next to me, doing exactly the same thing. And then this older man, really strange, sat down directly in front of us. Even though literally every other seat was open, he was extremely thin, like something out of a horror movie, and right away he gave me a bad feeling. At first we ignored him and kept joking around, saying dumb things about how long the flight was taking,

Starting point is 00:10:59 making stupid jokes, the usual. But I started noticing that he laughed at practically everything we said, even things that weren't funny at all. Like, do you want water? Or wow, this is taking forever. My sister and I share a kind of six cents for spotting weird people, and I was already uneasy. But I still watched him because I like knowing what's going on around me.

Starting point is 00:11:24 Then my sister texted me. I think this guy is taking pictures of me. In that instant, I went into full protective mode. I didn't even respond right away. I looked up and from what she told me later, he had his phone tilted directly toward her. She said she noticed it with zero doubt, the way teenage girls can tell when someone is trying to sneak a photo of them, and he wasn't even trying to hide it. The second I realized what was happening, the guy stood up and walked away, like he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do.

Starting point is 00:12:00 I felt this mix of anger and disbelief. I asked my sister exactly what happened. She explained everything and I wanted to go after him. I walked up and down our stretch of gate several times looking for him, but he had vanished. We texted our mom and she completely freaked out, telling us to alert the gate agents and find a security guard. But since I couldn't find him anywhere, I didn't push it further in that moment. The weirdest part, honestly, was that he never came back to our gate or break. boarded our flight. He'd sat in front of us for no reason other than to make us uncomfortable.

Starting point is 00:12:39 Once we were on the plane, nothing else happened, but the memory stuck with me. My sister was obviously shaken. I stayed in full alert mode, and the whole situation reminded me that even in small airports, the kind where you feel completely safe, there can be people who make you feel uncomfortable for no reason. And that staying aware and having someone watch your back, like me for my sister, and her for me, is worth more than anything else. Story 3. When I was around 10 years old, my mom and I flew to Austin to see my dad during one of my school breaks. I already had a phone back then, but only because my parents traveled a lot for work and wanted

Starting point is 00:13:28 to be able to reach me. It wasn't like I used it all the time. My mom smokes, and airports have those glass smoking lounges that she likes to use. but she didn't want me going in there. So she decided I would wait in the nearby bookstore while she stayed by the gate, making sure she didn't lose sight of me. Before we split up, she told me something really important.

Starting point is 00:13:51 If someone gave me a bad feeling or made me uncomfortable, I had to text her the phrase, I really love this book. Then she would come right away. I thought everything would be fine. I love reading, and bookstores are basically my happy, place. I walked in convinced I could get lost among the shelves for a while without any problem.

Starting point is 00:14:14 A few minutes later, I noticed a man came in. I don't remember his face, but I do remember his gray suit and shiny black shoes. At first I didn't think much of it, but I realized he kept showing up near me over and over. I was in the thriller section and he walked right past me. I moved to another aisle to look at the books on the display tables in the middle, and somehow he ended up there too, standing on the other side. At that point my stomach tightened and my instinct screamed that something wasn't right, which almost never happens to me. To make sure I wasn't imagining it, I went to the children's section, the boardbook area, like the very hungry caterpillar. And yes, he followed me again, positioning himself across from me like it was the most normal

Starting point is 00:15:03 thing in the world. By then I was pretty scared, so I grabbed a random book from the thriller section, the one closest to the register, and quickly texted my mom. I didn't even have time to wait, because almost immediately I smelled her perfume and heard her say, good, you found something. She had already seen him follow me twice and was coming toward me before I even sent the text. We paid as fast as possible and left the bookstore. As soon as we had, we had to be able to be able to As soon as we were back in full view of everyone, I told her everything that had happened. She nodded with a serious tense expression and explained that she'd noticed too, and that the way he moved didn't feel right. We stopped by the bathroom on the way to our gate, and I saw him coming down the hallway behind us.

Starting point is 00:15:53 I silently pointed him out to my mom, and she went into full alert mode instantly. At the gate he ended up sitting just a couple seats away from our left. luggage, so my mom made sure I stood right next to the entrance to the plane while she held onto our bags firmly. When we boarded, he was only a few rows behind us. There was nowhere to move, and we both felt the tension rising. My mom watched him out of the corner of her eye and moved carefully, keeping me close without making me nervous, which somehow made me feel a little safer. During the layover between Nashville and Austin, my mom noticed the man got off the plane. right behind us. He followed us to our next gate, lingering like he belonged there, and it was

Starting point is 00:16:38 obvious he'd been keeping track of us the whole time. At that point, my mom was more than annoyed, but she stayed calm enough not to confront him directly because I was with her. We stopped at the smoking lounge where she quickly smoked one, and the guy waited right outside. Then we went into a gift shop to buy something for my dad and grab a drink, and he followed us in there too. My mom's Mom's patience completely ran out, but she knew she couldn't physically confront him since he still hadn't done anything violent. So she decided to go straight to security. Back at our gate, she told the agent everything in detail, pointing him out plainly, and explaining that he'd been following us since Nashville and was making us extremely uncomfortable.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Security arrived a few minutes later, and as soon as the man realized my mom was serious and was pointing him out, he took off running. Security went after him, and finally my mom and I were able to board the flight to Austin without him nearby. I don't remember ever feeling such huge relief in my life, and it made me realize how quickly an airport can stop feeling safe, even when everything looks normal, and how much of a difference it can make when someone is looking out for you.

Starting point is 00:17:53 Like my mom was for me, so you can stay calm instead of panicking. Story 4. When I was 11 years old, my aunt ended up in the hospital with kidney stones while she was very pregnant with her second child. My mom was the only one in the family who could take time off at the last minute. So she booked an early morning flight to Tennessee for the next day. We were going to help take care of my one-year-old cousin until my aunt got better. Then we would fly back to Omaha, because this was before online booking was really common.

Starting point is 00:18:32 We ended up with a ridiculous five-hour layover in Chicago. I don't remember if it was Midway or O'Hare, but the airport was enormous. So huge it felt like you could get lost forever if you weren't careful. Even at 11 I was tall for my age and was often mistaken for someone older, which, as I was about to find out, made me a target for creepy guys. It was the first time it ever happened to me. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last. To kill time during the layover,

Starting point is 00:19:06 my mom and I started wandering around the airport, browsing stores grabbing something to eat, and just taking in everything the place had to offer. Security wasn't anywhere near as strict as it is now, but there were still plenty of checkpoints. And somehow, at everyone we went through, I kept seeing the same man. He was wearing a hat and a trench coat,

Starting point is 00:19:29 and he looked strange. His clothes were clean, but there was something underneath it all that made him seem almost homeless, like he didn't belong anywhere. He was older, hadn't shaved in a while, and for some reason I ran into him at every checkpoint.

Starting point is 00:19:45 I grabbed my mom's arm and whispered that I thought he was following us. She didn't even need me to say anything else. She had already noticed him, and she'd been taking me through the checkpoints in a kind of zigzag pattern to try to lose him. At the next checkpoint though he was gone and we finally relaxed a little thinking maybe he'd gone to catch his own flight. We went into one of the bigger stores just to pass the time and I started looking at the Beanie Babies because of course I had to see if there were any new ones I didn't already have.

Starting point is 00:20:19 Then I felt that same weird drop in my stomach. The feeling you get when something isn't right. I looked up and saw my mom staring hard at something not far from. me. Her eyes were wide and her face was completely tense. Suddenly she yelled, hey, what are you doing? Get away from my daughter. I turned around and saw that same man standing nearby, pretending to look at the toys. He didn't hesitate for a second. The moment she shouted, he took off running. My mom grabbed me immediately and we went straight to airport security to report him. I have no idea if they ever found him, but they helped us get safely to our guard. gate, and we stayed there until our flight finally boarded. He never actually touched me or tried to do

Starting point is 00:21:05 anything beyond following us. But my mom told me afterward that when she saw him near me, her maternal instincts kicked in so hard that she reacted on pure reflex. She said she wished she'd reported him as soon as she noticed, but in the moment she thought maybe she was being paranoid. From that day on, my mom and I agreed it's better to be overly cautious than to regret it later. It's a less I've carried with me ever since. Story 5. I should start by saying that as a child, I was incredibly precocious. By the time I was 18 months old, I could sing every single word of the bare necessities

Starting point is 00:21:47 from the Jungle Book perfectly, and I would perform it for my mom's co-workers like it was my full-time job. I didn't really understand the concept of strangers beyond the basic rule of not talking to them, and nobody had taught me what to do if one of them tried to grab me. me. On top of that, I had a very short haircut, like a boy's, which my mom let me get when I was about three or four, and I refused to wear girl clothes. People constantly mistook me for a boy, which would end up being relevant to this story. One day my grandmother took me to the airport. I don't remember whether my parents were out of town or if we were picking someone up,

Starting point is 00:22:30 but I do remember that from my small perspective the place felt enormous. Every hallway, every gate, every staircase seemed to stretch on forever. And I remember running ahead of my grandmother more than once despite her scolding me. I loved exploring, and at three or four years old, rules sounded more like suggestions. So, of course, I took off running down a little set of stairs again, maybe three or four steps, and that was when everything went completely wrong. Suddenly a very large man scoop me up. He smelled weird, like a mix of sweat and something I couldn't identify,

Starting point is 00:23:10 and his messy blonde hair along with an unkempt beard didn't help. The worst part was his eyes, cold, calculating, unblinking. And even though I was terrified, for some reason I felt strangely calm, my grandmother was right there. In my little head, nothing could hurt. me if she was nearby. And then she arrived. My grandmother came down the stairs faster than I had ever seen her move in my life, yelling at the man to let me go and swinging her purse with all the strength she could muster. The guy froze for a second and said, Ma'am, calm down. This is my son.

Starting point is 00:23:51 The child you're looking for must have gone another way. That was when I, without thinking at all about politeness, blurted out with all the authority in the world. I'm not a boy and you're not my dad. Put me down now. The look of shock on his face was incredible. He looked horrified, confused, maybe even a little disgusted, and he immediately set me down before taking off at full speed through the airport. I turned to my grandmother, who picked me up, still shaking and furious, and whispered that I had been very brave. My family still tells the story all the time, analyzing every detail. Some of us wonder if he genuinely thought I was his son, or if he made a terrible mistake.

Starting point is 00:24:37 But most of us leaned toward the darker possibility. He didn't say a single word before he grabbed me. And the moment he realized I wasn't the child he thought, he ran. If it had been innocent, he probably would have stayed to explain or apologize. Instead, he vanished into the chaos of the airport, leaving behind only the memory of a terrifying few seconds that my grandmother and I will never forget. Story 6. This happened a few years ago when my sister and I were around 14 or 15.

Starting point is 00:25:17 We had already flown alone many times as unaccompanied minors and had never had even the slightest problem. Honestly, airports felt like just another part of our routine. But this episode shook me more than anything I'd experienced up to that point. We were headed to Russia and had a layover in a large U.S. airport. We still had a couple of hours before boarding. At the time, we were standing near the counter trying to sort out some paperwork. I was leaning against a pillar talking with my sister when a man stumbled into the gate area.

Starting point is 00:25:51 At first glance, he looked fairly normal. Early 30s, brown hair thinning at the crown, average. height, wiry build. He was wearing black loafers, jeans, a plain t-shirt, and a denim jacket, and he was carrying only a tennis racket, no bag, no anything else. That detail stood out to me immediately because it was so odd. Most travelers carry at least a backpack or some kind of bag. When he got closer, I understood why he was moving so strangely. He was clearly drunk on something he'd bought in duty-free. I made a quiet comment to my sister, half-joking, half-hoping I wouldn't have to sit near him on the plane. And then something happened that made my stomach drop.

Starting point is 00:26:37 We made eye contact. He smiled, a huge unsettling smile, and started walking straight toward us. That was when my brain went into full alert mode. There was something in the way he looked at us that screamed trouble. He stopped right in front of us and asked, Do you speak Russian girls? In Russian, girls isn't a generic term for young women, so it was obvious he could tell we were teenagers. I opened my mouth to lie and say no, but my sister,

Starting point is 00:27:10 true to her kind nature, even if she can be a little oblivious sometimes, answered yes. His smile widened even more and I felt my chest tighten. He asked if we lived near my chest tighten. Moscow and we said yes. At that point he seemed almost delighted, like he'd found exactly what he was looking for. He wanted to know if someone was picking us up, and I reassured him several times that, yes, someone would be there for us. Then, leaning in slightly at he said, that's a shame, but if you have

Starting point is 00:27:43 any trouble getting home, you can always come with me. I answered politely but firmly. No thank you. Eventually, he got the hint and walked away. When he left, my sister and I looked at each other, half disgusted, half nervous, and let out an awkward laugh. The counter-employee had seen the whole thing and gave us a worried look, making sure we were okay. Once the paperwork was done, we went to the seating area and tried to forget about him. A few minutes later, I saw him again.

Starting point is 00:28:18 Luckily, this time you didn't spot us. He collapsed into a row. short distance away and almost immediately passed out from being so drunk, letting out a faint snore. Boarding time was getting closer, and I silently wished he would stay asleep and miss the flight. But before that, we got a small win. Someone, probably the counter-employee, had called security about him. It wasn't long before TSA officers showed up and escorted him away. Seeing him finally removed from the terminal was a huge relief. I couldn't help feeling a strange satisfaction at the thought that hopefully they'd at least detain him for the night. Now I tell this story as a sort of funny anecdote

Starting point is 00:29:03 when I'm talking with friends, exaggerating his ridiculous smile or how absurd it was that he thought he could get away with it. But deep down, a chill always comes back when I think about what could have happened if he hadn't been drunk, or if he had tried something. In Russia, I know kiddness kidnappings like that really do happen. And for a moment, I can still feel that sharp edge of fear that made my heart race while we pretended to stay calm. Story 7. In January, I traveled to Washington, D.C. with some family friends I trust a lot. I come from a small town of about 11,000 people, so the idea of a city even remotely like D.C. absolutely terrified me. I was convinced someone was going to steal my purse, mug me, or at the very least shoved me around in the crowds.

Starting point is 00:30:01 TV had put it in my head that big cities were basically war zones, chaos and danger everywhere. Needless to say, I let out a massive sigh of relief when the trip ended without any of that happening, even though I was on edge the entire time. The flight back was a nightmare of delays. Our 6 a.m. flight ended up getting pushed back three or four times because of the time. the weather. And when we finally landed in Denver, Colorado, it was already around midnight. We had originally planned to drive home that same night, but that stopped being an option. Also, I'm extremely picky about airplane bathrooms, so by the time we touched down, I was desperate to go. I went with my friend's mom. She needed to go too, and we walked to the restroom together.

Starting point is 00:30:50 At that hour the airport was basically deserted and my nerves were already shot. I went into a stall, did my thing, and came out to find a security guard standing by the door. I couldn't hear any other footsteps and other than us, the bathroom was completely empty. So it threw me off a little. But I smiled at her and started washing my hands. That's when it happened. About ten seconds later I heard a toilet flush behind me and, When I looked up, it wasn't my friend's mom coming out.

Starting point is 00:31:23 It was a man wearing a black hoodie with the hood up. The moment he saw the guard, he lowered his head and hurried toward the exit. The officer followed him, irritated, saying something like, this is clearly marked as the women's restroom. In that moment, mostly because I was exhausted and half asleep, I didn't fully process how terrifying it was. But the next morning it hit me all at once. man had managed to get into the women's restroom without making a sound in a nearly empty place at

Starting point is 00:31:55 midnight. He didn't even look at me, didn't make any move toward me, and he just pretended to flush before trying to leave. Thinking about what could have happened made my stomach turn. He could have attacked me, dragged me somewhere, or a thousand other horrible things. I replayed the scene in my head over and over, silently thanking that guard for noticing him. for staying alert, and for preventing what could have been something truly awful. I never told my friends or the family, and I don't think I ever told my parents the whole story either, though my mom might have sensed that something happened.

Starting point is 00:32:35 That small act of vigilance probably saved me from a situation I don't even want to imagine.

Horror Stories - 7 Most Disturbing TRUE Airport Horror Stories That Will Make You Dread Your Next Flight

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