The airport worker’s shift started at 5am, and ended with an unfortunate nap in the cargo hold of a departing Alaska Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles.

There was a sting in the tale of a flight from Los Angeles – a scorpion bit a woman passenger on the hand.

LIME LEAK

At least six US airlines cancelled 47 flights to and from Mexico City and Toluca airports after the Popocatepetl volcano spewed ash, steam and glowing rocks.

A three-year-old boy who refused to use his seatbelt has been kicked off a flight at a US airport.

Last-minute Christmas shoppers shivered and travellers were left stranded as winter storms lashed the US from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon.

Five significant eruptions of Augustine Volcano sent ash clouds miles into the air and closed schools on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

A 12-inch hole in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines jet caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, forcing the pilots to make an emergency descent and return to the airport.

Mount St Helens, the volcano that blew its top with cataclysmic force in 1980, quietened down after spewing a plume of steam and ash – but only briefly.