Meet The Man Who Ate An Entire Plane
As Michel Lotito finished the last morsel of food on his plate, he came to the end of a two-year challenge that had really put his name on the map. After all, how many people could say they’d just eaten an entire airplane? Over the course of his strange and fascinating life, Lotito became renowned for gobbling up a host of unusual objects made of glass and metal. How on Earth was that even possible? And why didn’t the stunts kill him?
An unusual childhood hobby
Lotito was born in 1950 and grew up in the French city of Grenoble. He seemed to be just like any other young kid during the first few years of his life. However, things began to change when he turned eight.
At this point, Lotito started to experiment with something called sophrology, a relaxation method and well-being practice. He also tried out “self-hypnosis” and other similar practices. We can’t imagine many other eight-year-olds finding these hobbies!
He experienced no more pain
As Lotito began to perfect these techniques, he noticed something rather strange. Soon, he found that his tolerance for pain was a lot higher than it had been before. The methods he was trying, which were said to help with pain control, were seemingly working.
Mind you, Lotito didn’t really push himself to the limit until he entered his teenage years — and even then it came entirely by accident. The incident in question took place when he was just 16 years old; he grabbed a drink from the kitchen, just like he had done a thousand times.
“I knew other people had eaten glass in the past”
“I accidentally broke a glass while drinking, and I had a piece in my mouth,” Lotito explained during an interview for the 2006 edition of Guinness World Records. “I knew other people had eaten glass in the past and decided that I could do it as well.”
As ill-advised and dangerous as that might have been, Lotito finished his glassy snack without issue. And once he knew he could do it, the teen set his sights on other inedible objects.
Gaining international attention
“Then I moved on to razor blades, plates, and small pieces of metal such as nuts and bolts,” Lotito continued. That’s a dinner party spread we’d like to avoid! But his jaw-dropping talent soon began attracting a lot of attention.
Lotito noted, “People started to ask me if I wanted to eat something bigger. And so I said, ‘Okay, I think I can eat a bicycle.’ It was a great success — they called me for TV shows in South America and Canada.”