Ever lose a shoe on an airplane?
 

My friend slipped her shoes off to be more comfortable on a recent NY-SF flight. When she went to put them on again, only one could be found.

She checked in front, behind, and to the side -- no shoe. She waited until everyone else had deplaned and enlisted the aid of the flight attendant in her search, but still no shoe. She thinks it slid forward into someone's open carryon and they unknowingly walked off with it. Any other theories?

(Just when you thought you'd heard everything...)

I think it was no accident, I think she must have been sitting near some shoe fetishist who made off with it.

Clearly a terrorist plot of some sort. They're testing out shoe-stealing techniques, because one day will steal everyone's shoes on-board and then cover the airport floors with nails and broken glass.

I lost my shirt in a casino in Tahoe once...that count? :-d

Marilyn, your friend should count her blessings instead of complaining! Just think - what if she'd lost a skirt?

Sorry I know you want me to be supportive :)

My dad had switched one of his shoes with a fellow passenger once. Which is sad, as basically each of them lost a pair of shoes.

She did feel pretty silly getting off the plane barefoot, and she was miffed because she liked that pair of shoes quite a lot. I guess she should be thankful her luggage showed up so she could put on another pair of shoes before leaving the airport.

During a recent power failure at my office (which is really a windowless glorified closet in the lower level of and assisted living apartment building for elderly) I was caught having slipped my shoes off. I was only able to find one, even crawling under my desk in the dark. Then the fire alarm went off - somehow connected to power failure - and as the nurse I had to collect elderly confused people while wearing one shoe.

Hmmmm, did anyone notice a strange little man walking along behind her, stroking a shoe?

No, but I helped a girl lose her virginity on a plane once...

Marilyn: when I first read this title, I thought for sure it was a troll. :-(( See, I am growing up on this Fodors' forum! :)

Sorry, like Faina, realize that we're supposed to be supportive -

Did your friend ever check back with the airline? Maybe the other passenger returned the shoe - unless it was a shoe fetishister...

Oh, well, back to my late eveniing glass of Chardonnay - La Crema, if you really must know! :)

Hi Easy -- I thought it was such an odd occurrence that I told her I was going to post it on fodors. She said there was an elderly woman sitting in front of her and it was her open bag she suspected. But the woman was not very helpful so my friend didn't feel she could press the matter.

You can all save your supportiveness for something much more aggravating than this, especially since it wasn't MY shoe. :-D

Now imagine the surprise on the carry-on person's part - reaching your destination, putting your hand into your carryon perhaps to grab your wallet for a hotel check-in - and finding a shoe!

How did THAT get in there?!

So , I guess we'll just shoe it away!!! :)

Maybe like the woamn who went to Madrid to avoid facing her husband - one little shoe ran away to avoid being reunited with it's mate

Which brings up something I've always wondered about.....ever notice the number of single shoes/boots along the sides of roads? How in heaven's name does someone lose one shoe while travelling at 65 mph along a highway? The other day I saw 3 different shoes along a five mile stretch of highway near us!

sardog, I have always wondered about the shoes I see hanging on wires by the roadside.

You know, I was just thinking some more about this. I wonder if there's a correlation between the number of roadside single shoes and airports. Perhaps it's all of those now single-shoed passengers tossing their one remaining piece of footwear? And for Scarlett, I've always figured it was kids tossing their friend's shoes as a keep away kind of thing, but I wonder how many times you have to toss them to hit that wire just the right way :)

Hi, Marilyn!

I've been thinking about you - have I got a proposition for you and Phil Phlash!

Yep! I'm on my third glass of chardy! Don't blame me, blame my neighbors! They started this with Beringer's! And one glass led to another! Heck! We don't drink on an empty stomach! We had some nuts to go along with the drinks on the patio!

Anyhoos, can I reach you still at the old email address? The idea sounds better with each additional glass! :)

Back to the shoe problem: have your friend take the left over shoe to Italy - or Hong Kong - and have another pair handmade. Great excuse to travel abroad.

"See, I lost this shoe on the plane once upon a time..."

Hi Easy -- I'm rather fond of that La Crema myself, as a matter of fact. Yes, my hotmail address is still valid, or the other one if you have it, too.

Write me tonight -- you've got me VERY curious!

As for the shoe, I don't think it was worth having the lost one re-made.

While I avoid drinking my Chardonnay out of shoes, you might want to try the '02 McWilliam's "Hanwood Estate" (SE Australia) as an alternative to LaCrema. It's the Best bang for the buck Chard @ $6.99 imho (and I'm not a huge chard fan).
M

I'll look for it, mikemo. We have an Australian winemaker in the family, but he only makes reds.

Easy, have you lost consciousness for the evening? Chardonnay Overdose? Or might I still hear from you?

this is a shoe-in!

In several local areas, knotted shoes/sneakers hanging over wires is a signal for a drug dealing area - have no idea what single shoes on highway might signify.

[( I thought everyone knew Chardonnay should be drank (drunk?) from a Manolo Blanik Curcia????

If she has two evil stepsisters, she may want to be on the lookout for a well dressed pilot to arrive soon riding a white (Ford) Mustang.

Either that or she hadn't paid the credit card off after the shoe purchase, and it was an obvious partial re-possession. Partial repossession IS 4.5/10ths of the law, after all.

even more traumatic: i left my heart in San Francisco......

gail, carelessness?

The rest of you guys -- too funny. Clifton, her husband will give the Pilot Prince Charming a warm welcome I am sure.

Kal, I can tell you don't wear them because it's BLAHNIK, dear.

Keep it going. When this thread dies a natural death I'm going to email it to my friend. (Did I mention that all my friends think I am slightly nuts because of my fodors addiction?)

Marilyn, only the UN - addicted friends :D

Hiya Scarlett (my thread, so I'll hijack it if I want) -- They froze your Sunday Rave thread! Veering towards the political abyss, I guess.

Later, all...I'm off to pump iron.

Sorry, Marilyn!

Yes, I drank meself under the computer table last night.

One glass is my limit.

But this time, it was all the squirrel's fault. My neighbors keep feeding this squirrel and it thinks it's human. Last night it came over and took too many of our nuts. Helped itself right out of the glass bowl ("Oh! Isn't he cute!")

One day, our OTHER neighbors' cat is going to catch that squirrel and that'll be the end of all this cuteness.

I'll try to find your email address and write you later today. It's a good idea. Trust me. :-d

Oh, to stay on topic: sorry about the shoe!

I bet it was a fetishist. My friend was shoe-mugged (shoe-jacked?) twice in NYC - definitely a fetishist because they weren't even nice shoes.

I've never lost a shoe but I watched a poor little old lady lose one during all the shoving as she was getting off a crowded metro in Rome and try frantically to find someone to retrieve it from the tracks.

TravelGina: For some reason, your story about the little old lady in Rome reminds me of when I dropped my camera bag off of one of the rides at Universal Studios. I shoeurr was mad!

Donna

I've never lost a shoe myself, but I have been surprised how far and how quickly small objects can travel across the floor of an airplane, particularly if there is turbulence. There are a couple of times I've picked up an item and found out it didn't belong to anyone in the rows nearest me - I've then handed over to one of the stewardesses. It is possible that someone picked up the shoe assuming it had fallen from the bag of one of their family members or companions and later realized their mistake, so I'd also recommend contacting the airline and see if anyone turned it in later.

Re: hanging shoes over telephone wires. My brothers (those sneakers!) and all their friends used to do this when they replaced their old Converse AllStars. We grew up in northeast Philadelphia (in the 60's and 70's). It was not connected to drugs "back in my day" (yech that sounds awful!)...times change just like fashion I guess.

Marilyn, your friend has a soulmate in the person who sat in the window seat of my row just a few weeks ago on a New York-Boston shuttle flight. She kicked off her shoes as she boarded and was sound asleep before takeoff.

Upon landing (just 40 minutes later), one of her shoes was nowhere to be seen. When I deplaned ten minutes later, she was still searching for it, and everyone around her had confirmed that her shoe (one of those very low-profile jobs) was still on the MIA list.

My theory is that the airlines are holding them for ransom.

Let's move on, people: how one shoe can be used?

To drink champagne out of it?

To put on a shelf as an object of art?

Use as X-mas decoration?

Put in an old box, leave in the middle of the street and watch the face expressions of the innocent victims who open the box?

Neal, my friend asked the FA if this had ever happened before in her experience and the FA said no. So I'm sure she will feel better knowing she is not the only one.

What is the sound of one shoe clomping?
:-D

CLOMP!

Marilyn: I wrote you at your yahoo address. Did it go through?