The one incident that sticks with me is when I left my coat on my seat on a flight from London. I only realized it after I had left Changi airport and was in a taxi home.

I called SATS, told them about it, and they said, yes, we collected it for you and why don’t you return to the airport and we’ll have someone waiting for you to deliver it – and lo and behold, soon as I arrived, my coat was ready for me.

A coat though is a pretty innocuous item to be left behind on planes apparently. According to my favourite travel poller, Skyscanner – there is a reason they have scanner in their name, they scan everything not only the best air fares – a live parrot, a glass eye and a bag of sand are just a few of the bizarre items left behind on planes each year.

So according to this survey of 700 international cabin crew, extensive list of items have been found on flights after passengers have disembarked.

It includes a surprising number of forgotten pets, with crew members reporting to have found a falcon, frog, tortoise, as well as a parrot abandoned at the end of a flight.

Dentures, underwear, a glass eye and a prosthetic leg were also in the long list of weird and wonderful items revealed by cabin crew, and which pose the question; ‘how did the passenger manage to forget them?’

Other items found were just simply random: a single egg (without packaging), a bag of sand and a written marriage proposal. Whether the latter was intended for a cabin crew member or a passenger is unclear. And let’s hope the lost wedding dress found its owner before the big day.

When it comes to the more regular travel essentials, it seems that passengers are no less forgetful. Almost a quarter (24%) of crew have found a lost passport on board, which is even higher than the number of phones (23%) and books (21%) left behind.

items that cabin crew have found on a plane: Live parrot, glass eye, prosthetic leg, a bag of sand, clog, box of dried fish, one shoe, wedding dress, bag of diamonds, wig, bag of onions, toupee, handcuffs, double bass, frog, underwear, written marriage proposal …

Now I can’t wait to catch the new Pedro Almodovar movie on my next flight – “I’m So Excited” is all set on a plane, and is described as a “campy, frothy and proudly absurd”.

Not that I am suggesting anything about this poll …