2026-05-13 13:00:18

A Southwest Airlines flight out of Oakland ended up running more than an hour late after cabin crew realised one of the passengers buckled into a seat wasn’t a person at all – it was a 4‑foot robot called Bebop.

Bebop, a 70‑pound creation from Elite Event Robotics, was travelling with company founder Eily Ben‑Abraham, who had bought the bot its own ticket like any other traveller. Things went sideways the moment staff noticed the robot had been placed in an aisle seat, which breaks Southwest’s rules for bulky items and triggered an immediate reshuffle to a window spot.

But moving Bebop only opened the door to more questions.

Ben‑Abraham told KGO‑TV: “Then they come and start asking, what kind of batteries does it have? What’s going on with this? X, Y and Z. They want to see it.”

Once inspected, the robot’s lithium battery turned out to be too large for Southwest’s safety limits.

The only way the plane could take off was by removing and confiscating the power pack — leaving Bebop switched off and slumped in its seat for the rest of the journey.

With the robot officially powerless, Ben‑Abraham and his silent travel buddy were finally cleared to fly to San Diego, departing one hour and two minutes behind schedule.

Visit Bang Bizarre (main website)