When you walk on the beach, you expect to see certain things. Probably some seaweed. Sand and seashells (think twice about taking them. Just as it’s illegal to take sand from most beaches, many beaches don’t allow you to take seashells, either). You’ll also find some discarded bottles and other things that people should have thrown in the trash.
You generally don’t think you’re going to find what looks like an old set of seats from an airplane washed up on the shore. But that’s exactly what a man in New Jersey discovered not long ago.
Jacob showed a closeup of the rusted seats in the video. You could see that although all the fabric was gone, the seats still had their springs. Some of them even still had a metal handrail between them, and they looked like the ones you’d see on a plane.
Jacob said his first thought was that they were from the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which disappeared while flying over the Indian Ocean in March, 2014. All 227 passengers and 12 crew on board were presumed dead in what was, at the time, the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777 and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines’ history.
Here’s Jacob’s video from when he found the seats:
@itsmatthewjacob
The video got thousands of responses, some of which were obviously (or at least people who appeared to be) plane enthusiasts, as well as fans of other types of transportation:
- 4 across means that it has to be from a widebody plane. TWA 800 had a 3-4-3 economy config, just saying — centralmidfield
- Bus or ferry/boarding seats. Plane seats have different brackets and mounting plates. — WanderWomanChristy
- it’s from the subway cars used to make the artificial reef — Joe
- mounting points dont look to be aircraft, possibly train, bus, or something — RJ_Dingman
- I’m an aircraft mechanic, those are not aircraft seats. Mounting rails are completely different. (Seat to floor) — Jet
- hi a lot of debris like that is used to make artificial reefs for marine life habitat. that’s my guess is a bunch was dumped to creat habitat — andrewj0urd4n
- They look like old airport seats. PHL pulled out a ton of those from the terminal about 6 years ago. — beer_flights
Jacob’s next three videos were brief.
One, from Dec. 19th, appeared to be taken from indoors, from when the police showed up to look at the seats he found:
@itsmatthewjacob Lets see if TikTok can help crack the case
The next, posted on December 20th, was after the police had taken the seats for investigation, but Jacob asked what would happen next:
@itsmatthewjacob
And the third, which he posted on December 21st, was a brief update that didn’t really advance the story any more, but gave some background of how/why he was out on the beach in the first place.
@itsmatthewjacob
The day after Christmas, Jacob wrote his final update on the plane seats…which, as it turned out (and some of you may have figured out already), weren’t plane seats after all:
He spoke to the police, who said that, in the 70s or 80s, train and/or bus seats were dumped in the ocean to help form artificial reefs (which several people had said in response to his first video on the 19th). Those were the seats he had found
Here’s the final video (heads up for some adult language):
@itsmatthewjacob 🚨WE HAVE A PLANE UPDATE🚨 #planeupdate #planeseats #planeseatupdate
One of the replies, from a Tiktokker named Birdie Savage, to this video said:
If you look up the interior of old city busses [sic], you’ll see these seats. It’s the ones at the front that face the aisle with back to window–4 wide on each side.
Look up interior photos of old AM General Buses. The feet of the “plane seats” you found would be for a bus. Look up Detroit Transit History photos for good photos.
I did search for the photos Birdie was referencing but never did find any. However yes, I could imagine the seats at the front of a bus, and even having those sorts of legs.
So…mystery solved. And they weren’t seats from a plane.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.