Unforgettable Moments 2010

American Sarah Shourd (left) was freed on $500,000 bail in September after spending 14 months in a Tehran prison. Her fiancé Shane Bauer (right) and Josh Fattal remain in jail. They were hiking near the Iran/Iraq border and arrested on suspicion of spying.

Thousands of volunteers and vessels worked together on the largest oil spill in US history. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill made many travelers change their plans to avoid the beaches and big tourist attractions along the Gulf of Mexico.

A White House leak created a buzz that visits to Cuba by US citizens would be announced. However, after November's midterm elections, Congress lost all interest in relaxing travel or trade restrictions for Americans.

A worker clears snow from DC's Lincoln Memorial after 2 back-to-back storms shut down most travel along the East Coast corridor. The February blizzards halted traffic at airports, train stations and on the roads.

Passengers clap as the Carnival Cruise Lines cruise ship C/V Splendor docks in San Diego, CA. The luxury liner and its 3,300 vacationers were stranded off the Mexican coast after an engine-room fire.

An airplane was the site of an unforgettable moment for several JetBlue passengers. Flight attendant Steven Slater cursed out a passenger over the cabin speaker after an argument. Then, he grabbed a beer, deployed the emergency slide and glided into infamy.

In September, the owner of Segway, James W. Heselden, was killed when he accidently steered one of the manual-powered vehicles off a 30-foot cliff on his estate in West Yorkshire, England.

Qantas grounded its Airbus A380 fleet after one of the double-decker jets blew out an engine and made a safe emergency landing in Singapore on November 4. An oil leak near a turbine triggered a fire and engine failure. It is the most serious mid-air incident involving the world's largest passenger plane since it debuted in October 2007.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in April. Huge clouds of ash wreaked havoc from Sweden to Spain. Airlines were forced to cancel more than 100,000 flights after several countries closed their airspace -- costing the airline industry $1.7 billion.

Southwest Airlines agreed to buy AirTran for $1.42 billion, combining 2 of the largest discount carriers in the US. Southwest expanded flights to 37 new cities and added new international routes to Mexico and the Caribbean. The Dallas-based airline says it will eliminate AirTran's bag fees by 2012 when the merger is complete.