Airplane’s ‘Believe I Can Fly’ Rendition Goes Viral

An airplane’s “Believe I Can Fly” video went viral after a group of passengers, stuck for hours on a grounded Allegiant Air flight, made the best of a bad situation by breaking out into song and karaoke-ing some R. Kelly.

The Harlem Shake may be banned by the FAA, but the airplane’s “Believe I Can Fly” number didn’t seem to attract the eye of any meddling bureaucrats — or at least we’d hope their first concern would be a plane full of people stuck sweating in 112 plus degree heat without food or water and not an unapproved rendition of the 90s slow jam.

A video of the airplane’s “Believe I Can Fly” number was uploaded to YouTube, by user and apparent passenger Dustin Kaelberer.

Kaelberer and his fellow Allegiant fliers were trapped in a travel nightmare by many accounts, stranded for a total five hours across two planes at Las Vegas McCarren Airport — in a situation so hot and terrible that a few passengers reportedly suffered vomiting spells, bloody noses and fainting.

But others seemed to endure the ordeal more placidly, as the airplane’s “Believe I Can Fly” clip attests. The entire aisle is seen listening to the song on one dude’s speakers, before the chorus comes along and the plane belts out the “I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky, I think about it every night and day, I spread my wings and fly away” part in unison. Remarkably, most were laughing as well.

But even Kaelberer says it wasn’t all a laugh — he explains:

“Pretty much everybody was just, if you don’t laugh about it, you cry … People were getting nose bleeds, they were throwing up in the bathrooms because of the heat.”

Allegiant said after the airplane’s “Believe I Can Fly” clip hit:

“While we’re glad that our customers were able to make light of the delay by singing an R. Kelly song, we take these matters very seriously … Allegiant’s top priority is the safety of each of our passengers and crew members, and we will always take a delay to ensure the safety of all involved.”

In addition to viral fame, the airplane’s “Believe I Can Fly” chorus also got a $100 Allegiant credit for future travel on the airline.