The noises persisted throughout the flight
Recordings of strange groaning noises have been shared by a passenger on board an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Dallas.
Film producer Emerson Collins posted the unexplained moans on Twitter and TikTok, with the videos since racking up millions of views.
The noises started before takeoff and persisted while the plane was in the air, Collins told The Washington Post.
In the video, the sounds range from groans and grumbles to whoops.
Collins dubbed it the “weirdest flight ever” on his social media accounts.
The weirdest flight ever.
These sounds started over the intercom before takeoff and continued throughout the flight.
They couldn’t stop it, and after landing still had no idea what it was. pic.twitter.com/F8lJlZHJ63— Emerson Collins (@ActuallyEmerson) September 23, 2022
At one point, a flight attendant speaks through the intercom and apologises for the “extremely irritating sound”, adding that the pilots are working to mitigate the problem.
As soon as she stops speaking, the sounds restart, with one resembling a “ho!” followed by a guttural moan.
Collins apparently walked up and down the aisle, trying to find where the noises were coming from, without success.
The Airbus A321 landed safely in Dallas, but other passengers have since reported hearing similar things.
Doug Boehner, who recently took a flight between Orlando and Dallas, tweeted:
“It wasn’t the whole flight, but periodically weird phrases and sounds. Then a huge ‘oh yeah’ when we landed. We thought the pilot left his mic open.”
Another Twitter user claimed that he and his wife had experienced a similar phenomenon on an AA flight in July.
“To be clear, it was just sounds like the moans and groans of someone in extreme pain. The crew said that it had happened before, and had no explanation.”
A spokesperson for American Airlines told The Independent: “The PA systems onboard our aircraft are hardwired and there is no external access.
“Following the initial report, our maintenance team thoroughly inspected the aircraft and the PA system and determined the sounds were caused by a mechanical issue with the PA amplifier, which raises the volume of the PA system when the engines are running.”
“Our team is reviewing the additional reports,” they added.
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