No fighting for overhead locker space, no awkward toilet waits – one man has revealed how he enjoyed the ultimate dream flight after becoming the only passenger on board. Phil Stringer explained how his flight from Oklahoma City to Charlotte, North Carolina was delayed by 18 hours, but rather than give up on the journey he decided to endure the long wait. His patience paid out dividends when he rocked up at the departure gate to find he was the only person there – but the flight still went ahead. Originally scheduled for 6.20am on Sunday, it finally took off after midnight, and Stringer became king of the skies: with his pick of first class seats and the finest food and drink American Airlines has to offer. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The TikToker filmed the empty jet accompanied by the caption: “When you buy every single ticket on the plane so you don’t have to deal with people.” He then added: “Just kidding, it was delayed 18 hours and everyone else gave up,” before giving viewers a taste of his once-in-a-lifetime experience. Addressing the camera directly, Stringer said incredulously: “I am the only person on this plane and they have an entire flight crew. They do not want to do this flight.” Laughing, he then filmed a smiling baggage handler who acknowledged that he’d just loaded “all the bags” onto the aircraft. “All” being “one”, that is. Stringer then explained that the airline had been forced to “pull” staff from a nearby hotel to man the flight “for just one person”. He then recorded the aircrew clearly enjoying the whole, bizarre situation: playing up to the camera and keeping things light-hearted as they went through the standard safety announcements. Stringer’s video racked up more than 21.9 million views and 4.5 million likes in just one day, as fellow TikTokers shared their delight and envy at the unusual scenario. “That plane flew just for you! Who else can say that?” one commented, adding: “Private Boeing.” “Love how they all engaged in your experience!” wrote another. @phil.stringer 18-hour delay turned this flight into a private party! ✈️? Watch how the amazing crew and I made the most of it! #americanairlines #flightattendant #airplanetiktok #privateparty #FlightFun #delayedflight #fyp #viral In an interview with Insider, Stringer said that he initially thought he’d missed boarding when he turned up at the empty departure area. “I went to the gate and nobody was there. I was like, ‘Did you guys already board everyone?'” he explained. But, he said, the flight attendant responded: “No, honey, you’re the only passenger.” The lucky traveller told the news outlet that he had tried to change his flight multiple times, to no avail, so spent nearly a whole day waiting in the airport for his delayed departure. Stringer said he felt terrible for getting the crew dragged out of bed to man his journey, insisting he apologised to them “like 400 times”. “They were kind of teasing me, like, ‘Really, bro, you couldn’t have left a few hours later?'” he added. Once the flight finally took off, the unintended VIP spent the whole flight chatting and joking with the friendly team, all while enjoying those tasty first class perks. Reflecting on the adventure, Stringer said: “I believe that your attitude determines your destination. “Yeah, it was a sucky day. No one wants to stay in the airport for 18 hours, but if you have a positive view, you can turn something into a lot of fun.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Marriott International on Wednesday forecast two-year annualized global revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth of 3% to 6%

Nikola Jokic's powerful display at both ends of the court propelled the Denver Nuggets past the Los Angeles Lakers 132-126 in the opener of the Western Conference Finals

xQc highlighted major revelations, labeling them as 'big bad leaks' regarding Adept

Many of us look to the stars for answers to life’s most complex questions. But actually, some of the greatest mysteries lie beneath our very feet. One might think we’d know the Earth pretty well by now but, in fact, our planet’s core remains shrouded in enigma. Indeed, there are two gigantic blobs located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean that occupy around six per cent of the world’s entire volume. And yet, we’re still not entirely sure what they’re made of or where they came from. There are a number of hypotheses, including that they are piles of oceanic crust that have accumulated over billions of years. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But a more interesting theory is that they are huge chunks of an ancient planet that hit the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. To give an indication of just how massive these things are, the structure under Africa – an area known as Tuzo – is thought to be around 800km (497 miles) tall – the equivalent of some 90 Mount Everests stacked on top of one another, as IFLScience notes. The problem with determining the origin of these monster formations is that there are no direct ways of observing the Earth’s core. The deepest hole humans have ever dug – branded the "entrance to hell" – reached a pretty staggering 12,263m (40,230ft), but that doesn’t even come close to breaking through the crust to the layers beneath. Our most effective tool for analysing what lies beneath the ground is a technique called seismic tomography, which looks at how waves of energy travel when earthquakes occur. Since rocks and liquids have different densities, the waves move through them at different speeds. By measuring the tremors from different points on the surface, geologists can determine what kind of material the waves are travelling through and, in so doing, map out the Earth’s interior. It was by using this technique that the two unusual structures – known as large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) – were found. Waves travel more slowly in these areas – fondly known as “blobs” – than through the surrounding lower mantle, indicating that they’re made of something different. We can’t tell what this material is based on seismic tomography data alone, but some scientists like to believe that they are the remnants of an ancient planet called Theia – an idea known as the “giant impact hypothesis”. According to this hypothesis, around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object collided with the Earth. This impact not only created the planet we call home today, but also threw off enough rock to form the moon that lights up our night skies. Some scientists suggest that some of Theia’s leftovers also sunk to the bottom of the planet, probably settling somewhere above the core – thereby forming at least one of the two LLSVPs. More Updates About Strange Blob Structures Inside Planet Earth youtu.be Experts have been investigating the area for decades but there’s still no way of knowing for sure just what these two giant blobs are. Still, studies into Theia have offered important insights into how the possible collision might have kickstarted key plate tectonic and mantle motion inside our planet – crucial processes for establishing the world on which we live. It’s also a useful reminder that we still have so much to learn about our planet and where we came from. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said policymakers expect interest rates will need to move higher to reduce US

By Tim Reid and Alexandra Ulmer U.S. presidential candidate Ron DeSantis will use a televised debate against California's

Key lessons learned from Arsenal's 3-0 Premier League win over Bournemouth, including Bukayo Saka's durability, Kai Havertz's value to the squad and the struggles that still dog Mikel Arteta's side

Paris Saint-Germain are now leading the race for Eintracht Frankfurt's Randal Kolo Muani, in a move that could well have a knock-on effect on the rest of a highly-competitive striker's market this summer. While the pursuit is entirely separate to Kylian Mbappe's future, since the French champions are looking for a No 9 regardless, it may well affect the plans of other clubs. The 24-year-old is almost seen as the ideal striker target this summer in how he offers an increasingly rare set of qualities but is also gettable for a relatively reasonable price, with all of Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur having seriously looked. It is understood that PSG's interest has influenced Bayern's position, especially as they accelerate attempts to sign Harry Kane. The German champions had been seen as favourites to secure Kolo Muani just a few months ago but that has now changed. PSG are understood to have successfully sold the idea that a return to his home nation will suit him better at this point in his career, as Luis Enrique attempts to build a new stage of the Qatari project. While Frankfurt had previously set a price of around £100m, it is believed a deal can be struck for £80m. That has also shaped United's plans although there had already been a rethink about how to apportion their summer budget, with Atalanta's Rasmus Hojlund potentially offering a cheaper option, who Erik ten Hag also greatly admires.

Spain's chances coming into the Women's World Cup seemed to hinge on the fitness of Alexia Putellas but they have enjoyed a remarkable run to the final despite their star...

Jack Dorsey has said it is “critical to preserve the open internet” after Twitter owner Elon Musk announced controversial new “rate limits” for viewing tweets on the social media platform. The Twitter co-founder and former chief said “running Twitter is hard” after widespread backlash against Mr Musk’s temporary limits on the number of tweets people can read on the microblogging site. He, however, expressed hopes that the platform would build on “censorship-resistant open protocols” that would be “good for all, and critical to preserve the open internet”. Thousands of Twitter users took to the platform to report problems with the site over the weekend, with complaints of inability in retrieving tweets, missing timelines and disappearing followers. Reports of outages began flooding Down Detector, peaking on Sunday and extending to Monday. The backlash started after Twitter declared on Saturday that verified accounts were being limited to reading 6,000 posts a day. Mr Musk later said “rate limits” were increasing to “8,000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified”. He reasoned that the limits were being imposed to “address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation”. Many users expressed their frustration with the new move as they got a notification that said, “Sorry, you are rate limited. Please wait a few moments then try again”. Industry experts were also baffled at such a move by a social media company to put people off its platform, especially as Twitter has battled with retaining advertisers on the platform ever since Mr Musk took over last November. “Never have I seen a social network try so hard to put people off using a platform and to completely curtail any potential future for its business,” Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and industry analyst told PA, adding that the move was “yet another crazy decision by Elon Musk”. Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, said the new move could be “catastrophic” for Twitter’s ad business, that has already reeled from dwindling revenues. The company even roped in former NBCUniversal advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to be its new chief to repair relationships with advertisers who pulled away from the platform. The latest “reading limits”, according to Lou Paskalis, the founder of advertising consultancy AJL Advisory, “signals to the marketplace that he’s not capable of empowering her to save him from himself”. Mr Dorsey acknowledged that running Twitter was “hard”, adding that he trusted the team was “doing their best under the constraints they have”. “It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar... which I’m guilty of... but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will,” he said. It remains unclear how long the restrictions will last, as thousands continue to report about outages on the platform. Twitter did not reply to requests for comment as it had earlier this year changed its policy for interacting with reporters. Read More Twitter limits number of tweets people can read in a day, Elon Musk announces Pete Buttigieg blames severe weather for Fourth of July travel chaos Explosive devices and ‘Molotov cocktail-style object’ detonated in Washington DC Twitter limits number of tweets people can read in a day Heart transplant woman’s daughter twice saved her life using Alexa iPhone users urged to check their photo library amid fears they could be deleted

If you're tired of that same old, single-serve cup coffee (or, alternately, are in the