Funny story on Tropic Air from way back in the late 90s...
We had a group of 11 divers travelling together from Belize City to Ambergris. When we got into Belize City, our group leader went over and checked in and told the counter agent for Tropic Air that we had 11 people. There were others waiting for Tropic Air flights as well. At least 4 times over the next 30-45 minutes, the agent would come back and ask the trip leader "Ten right?" and the trip leader would say "No, eleven."
Finally, after about the 4th time he asked, the agent left for a few minutes out onto the tarmac and came back and said "Lets go." We walked out to the plane and as we reached it, he grabbed one of the guys in our group and said "No, you come around this side" and proceeded to put him in the copilot's seat. The pilot did not look happy at all about the whole situation, but we took off, and while we were in flight, the guy's wife wanted to take a picture of him in the copilot's seat. He reached his hands up to pretend to grab the flight controls in front of him, and the pilot reached over and swatted his hands and just said "NO!" then went back to flying the plane and never said another word the rest of the flight.
The second funny thing was that when we had gotten on the plane, there was already another couple on the plane that looked like locals. The lady was carrying a wicker basket with a lid (picture a large picnic basket) on her lap. When we got off the plane in Ambergis and were standing around waiting for our bags, the lady reached down and took the lid off the basket and out pops a fairly good sized dog (picture an 8-12 month old labrador retreiver or weimarunner). There is no way that dog should have been able to fit in the basket she was carrying it in, but the dog just shook himself out and started walking around like it was no big deal.
Tropic Air seemed like a good airline, although my experience with them is obviously over a decade old...but I will never forget that flight.
