2023 was another massive year for travel as demand to get away continued to surge.

With record numbers of people venturing out over the past 12 months there certainly was no shortage of downright crazy incidents that made the headlines.?

Whether it was a naughty passenger climbing onto the wing or TSA agents springing into action to save a life, a handful of stories jumped off the page.

Here are the craziest travel stories from the past year.?

The year began with a frightening report about a December 2022 incident involving a San Francisco-bound United Airlines flight out of Hawaii that suddenly plunged toward the Pacific Ocean as fast as 8,600 feet per minute, forcing pilots to put the plane in a dramatic climb that produced forces of nearly 2.7 times the force of gravity on the aircraft and its occupants.

The National Transportation Safety Board later attributed the dive to "the flight crew¡¯s failure to manage the airplane¡¯s vertical flightpath" following a "miscommunication" between the two pilots over the position of the plane's wing flaps.

The plane came within 748 feet of the ocean. "When the plane started to nosedive, multiple screams are being let out, at that point," passenger Rod Williams II told CNN.

A chaotic scene unfolded on an Atlanta-bound Southwest Airlines plane in New Orleans in November when a passenger opened the emergency door and walked out onto the wing before jumping down onto the tarmac.

The man was ultimately arrested and taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.

Over Labor Day weekend in September, a Delta Air Lines flight traveling from Atlanta to Barcelona had to turn back after a passenger experienced a diarrhea episode that was deemed a biohazard by the plane's pilots.

"We've had a passenger who's had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta," the pilot can be heard telling air traffic control.

A JetBlue crew averted disaster this fall when an overheated battery charger inside the backpack of passenger and former American Idol contestant Jimmy Levy exploded and caught fire shortly before takeoff from New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The crew doused the backpack with water to prevent any injuries but the flight had to be evacuated as a result.

¡°With the help of the flight staff and water, the fire was contained,¡± Levy told Caters News. ¡°However, due to the gravity of the situation, everyone was required to evacuate the plane for a thorough investigation.¡±

A trio of TSA officers at Miami International Airport was arrested in July and indicted for an "organized scheme to defraud" after being caught on video surveillance stealing cash and other items from travelers' baggage during the security screening process.

TSA condemned the actions and immediately removed the three officers from screening.

A pair of TSA agents were credited with helping save the life of a pilot at Virginia's Richmond International Airport in April after he apparently suffered a cardiac arrest incident while walking in the concourse.

TSA officer Nigel Allen performed emergency CPR and along with lead officer Trenard Collier cleared the area for first responders.

"Officer Allen¡¯s actions displayed conspicuous initiative, capability, and above and beyond service to the community he serves," said TSA Federal Security Director Robin ¡°Chuck¡± Burke. "His actions clearly contributed to saving the pilot¡¯s life."

Turbulence isn't an uncommon experience in the sky but a severe episode on a Florida-bound Allegiant Air flight over the summer sent two passengers and two flight attendants to the hospital.

"More than halfway through descending and all of sudden we heard a small turbulence. The stewardess fell to the ground," passenger Lisa Spriggs told NBC Miami.

The plane dropped 5,000 feet in altitude in less than two minutes, sending those who weren't wearing seatbelts into the air.

"Then we hit major turbulence which was petrifying and she [the flight attendant] was literally like 'the Matrix,'" she added. "You can watch her go up in the air and land straight down. She broke her ankle."

Tiffany Gomes, who went viral as the "crazy plane lady" following a bizarre outburst aboard an Orlando-bound American Airlines flight at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport over the Fourth of July weekend, spooked air travelers nationwide this past summer after something spooked her into a vulgar meltdown in which she claimed a fellow passenger was "not real."

Gomes quickly became a meme that has been shared countless times on social media.?

In one of the year's scariest in-flight incidents, an off-duty pilot attempted to shut off the engines on an Alaska Airlines flight amid an apparent panic attack.

Forty-four-year-old Joseph David Emerson was off duty but traveling in the cockpit's flight deck jump seat at the time of?the incident on October 22.

He's been charged with one count of endangering aircraft in the first degree and 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person.??