It’s Only May, but We’re Pretty Sure This Is the Worst Tourist of 2026

A man allegedly threw a rock at a monk seal in Maui while it was swimming off the Lahaina shoreline. In a video shared online, fellow beachgoers asked him to stop and questioned his actions, but the belligerent tourist yelled at them that he didn’t care and that he was rich. The 37-year-old was later detained by police and is believed to be from Seattle.

Another video has since gone viral on social media. In this one, a local is seen approaching the tourist and punching him for harming the animal. The man is being hailed as a hero for meting out justice, and Hawaii State Sen. Brenton Awa also played the clip during a state meeting.

The monk seal, Lani, is a beloved member of the community, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in an Instagram post. This behavior will not be tolerated, he added, determined to get justice for the marine animal.  

Monk seals are endangered animals, and it is against the law to disturb or harass them.

In an unbelievable incident, a plane struck a man on the runway during takeoff on Friday. The Frontier Airlines flight was heading to Los Angeles from Denver when a man jumped the airport fence and was struck and killed. The impact caused an engine fire, and the takeoff was suspended. All 224 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated through emergency slides. Five people were hospitalized after the incident.

The pilot communicated to air traffic control: “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.” There is also a video captured by a passenger of the moment the collision happened, which also recorded a loud crash and screams.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tweeted, “Late last night, a trespasser breached airport security at Denver Int’l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway. The trespasser on the runway was then struck by Frontier Airlines Flight 4345 during takeoff at high speed. The pilot stopped takeoff procedures immediately.”

A week after Spirit Airlines’ collapse, a crowdfunding campaign on TikTok has gained traction, with $337 million raised in pledges. It was 22-year-old Hunter Peterson’s idea to build an airline owned by the people. “There are over 250 million individuals over the age of 18 in the U.S. Now if we took only 20% of them and paid basically the average fare of a Spirit Airline flight which is somewhere around $30 to $40, we could buy Spirit Airlines,” he said in a video. He created a website called letsbuyspirit.com and posted a series of updates after the video went viral. Now he is addressing himself as the potential future CEO of Spirit Airlines.  

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYFQjicMprh/  

It may have started as a joke, but people have pledged money to support a crowdfunded airline, and Peterson said he is talking to lawyers to make this a reality.

However, experts suggest it would be nearly impossible to get this off the ground. There will be regulatory hurdles from the start, and aviation has too many moving parts. “I would be shocked if it ever became a reality. I think it’s like going to Mars,” retired finance professor Charles Elson told NBC News.

Related: The Weird, Expensive Business of Repossessing Spirit’s Yellow Jets

Eighteen passengers who were aboard MV Hondius landed in the U.S. from Tenerife on Monday morning. They were medically evacuated from the Canary Islands after a hantavirus outbreak on the ship caused three deaths. One passenger tested positive for the virus and another showed mild symptoms. 

In an update, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 16 passengers are at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) in Omaha. Meanwhile, two people were at Emory University’s RESPTC in Atlanta.  

The WHO recommends a 42-day quarantine, but health officials may decide to send people home for isolation with the help of state departments. The U.S. is no longer part of the WHO, which experts worry could hinder its response.

There is little risk to the wider American public from hantavirus, which is caused by rodent droppings. Human-to-human spread is rare, and unlike the COVID-19 infection, scientists have studied it for decades.

More than 150 passengers spent several weeks on a cruise in the South Atlantic, and their journey ended tragically after three people died on board due to hantavirus. For days, the ship was moored off Cape Verde before Spain allowed it to dock in the Canary Islands.

Related: Should Travelers Be Worried About the Hantavirus Outbreak?

A 33-year-old hiker, Anthony Edward Pollio from South Florida, died from a suspected bear attack in Glacier National Park in Montana. He was on a two-week trip across the central U.S. when he was reported missing. His body was found last Wednesday, and the injuries were consistent with those of a bear attack.

His father, Arthur Pollio, received the last communication from his son on May 3. “Dad, I’m hiking up a mountain. It is wild out here. I love you dad,” he said in a text.

“Based from the coroner’s report on his injuries, we believe he came across a grizzly bear, and he used all of his bear spray,” Arthur Pollio said. He further called his son a warrior and said he fought till the end.

Fatal bear attacks are uncommon in Montana; Pollio’s death was the state’s first such fatality in 25 years.