diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml b/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml
index 6814d75769..4cd30e66cd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml
@@ -376,7 +376,6 @@ jobs:
               org.apache.comet.parquet.CometParquetWriterSuite
               org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadV1Suite
               org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadV2Suite
-              org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite
               org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetTimestampLtzAsNtzSuite
               org.apache.spark.sql.comet.ParquetDatetimeRebaseV1Suite
               org.apache.spark.sql.comet.ParquetDatetimeRebaseV2Suite
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml b/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml
index 66a1b62ba3..d5480dca11 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml
@@ -121,7 +121,6 @@ jobs:
               org.apache.comet.parquet.CometParquetWriterSuite
               org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadV1Suite
               org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadV2Suite
-              org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite
               org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetTimestampLtzAsNtzSuite
               org.apache.spark.sql.comet.ParquetDatetimeRebaseV1Suite
               org.apache.spark.sql.comet.ParquetDatetimeRebaseV2Suite
diff --git a/dev/ci/check-suites.py b/dev/ci/check-suites.py
index 52a221b2cd..7dc624c852 100644
--- a/dev/ci/check-suites.py
+++ b/dev/ci/check-suites.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ def file_to_class_name(path: Path) -> str | None:
     ignore_list = [
         "org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadSuite", # abstract
         "org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromS3Suite", # manual test suite
+        "org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite", # manual test suite (loads libhdfs, see #5023)
         "org.apache.comet.IcebergReadFromS3Suite", # manual test suite
         "org.apache.comet.cloud.s3.CometS3CredentialBridgeSuite", # manual test suite
         "org.apache.comet.shuffle.CelebornReflectionCompatibilitySuite", # dedicated version matrix
diff --git a/docs/source/contributor-guide/development.md b/docs/source/contributor-guide/development.md
index b04a3fdd42..3025e259e8 100644
--- a/docs/source/contributor-guide/development.md
+++ b/docs/source/contributor-guide/development.md
@@ -658,6 +658,17 @@ Choose the group that best matches the area your test covers:
 `*Suite.scala` files in the repository and verifies that each one appears in both workflow files.
 If any suite is missing, this check will fail and block the PR.
 
+A small number of suites are deliberately **not** run in CI, because they need infrastructure CI
+does not have or because running them there is not worth the cost. These are listed in the
+`ignore_list` in `dev/ci/check-suites.py`, and each one documents in its own scaladoc why it is
+excluded and how to run it. Run a manual suite with:
+
+```sh
+./mvnw test -Dtest=none -Dsuites="org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite"
+```
+
+Only add a suite to that list with a good reason; the default is that a new suite runs in CI.
+
 The macOS suites only run in the merge queue by default. See
 [Continuous Integration](ci.md) for the two tiers and the labels that opt a pull request into a
 queue-only suite.
diff --git a/docs/source/user-guide/latest/datasources.md b/docs/source/user-guide/latest/datasources.md
index 97dbece009..97d3470fac 100644
--- a/docs/source/user-guide/latest/datasources.md
+++ b/docs/source/user-guide/latest/datasources.md
@@ -61,6 +61,20 @@ Comet supports most standard storage systems, such as local file system and obje
 
 The Apache DataFusion Comet Rust-based reader seamlessly scans files from remote HDFS for [supported formats](#supported-spark-data-sources)
 
+```{warning}
+HDFS support is experimental and is not covered by continuous integration. Comet reads HDFS through
+`libhdfs`, which registers a thread-local destructor that detaches the calling thread from the JVM
+regardless of which component attached it
+([HDFS-16021](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-16021), still open upstream). Comet
+attaches its own worker threads, so a worker that has read from HDFS can crash the JVM with a
+`SIGSEGV` when it later exits
+([#5023](https://github.com/apache/datafusion-comet/issues/5023)). The crash surfaces well after
+the HDFS read itself, typically while an unrelated query is running.
+```
+
+Native Iceberg scans do not support HDFS-backed tables; those scans fall back to Spark. See the
+[Comet and Iceberg Guide](iceberg.md).
+
 ### Building Comet with HDFS support
 
 To build Comet with remote HDFS support it is required to have a JDK installed.
@@ -165,6 +179,14 @@ JAVA_HOME="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@17" make release PROFILES="-Pspark-4.1" RUS
 
 Or use `spark-shell` with HDFS support as described [above](#building-comet-with-hdfs-support)
 
+Comet also has a test suite that exercises a native scan through `libhdfs` against a fake Hadoop
+filesystem, so it needs no cluster. Because of the crash described above it is excluded from CI and
+run by hand:
+
+```shell
+./mvnw test -Dtest=none -Dsuites="org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite"
+```
+
 ## S3
 
 Comet's Parquet scan completely offloads data loading to Rust. It uses the
diff --git a/docs/source/user-guide/latest/iceberg.md b/docs/source/user-guide/latest/iceberg.md
index c542f689bb..cd8ac61bf4 100644
--- a/docs/source/user-guide/latest/iceberg.md
+++ b/docs/source/user-guide/latest/iceberg.md
@@ -110,8 +110,10 @@ The native Iceberg reader supports the following features:
 **Storage:**
 
 - Local filesystem
-- Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS)
 - S3-compatible storage (AWS S3, MinIO)
+- Google Cloud Storage (`gs`) and Alibaba Cloud OSS (`oss`)
+
+HDFS-backed tables are not supported by the native Iceberg reader and fall back to Spark.
 
 ### REST Catalog
 
diff --git a/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/rules/CometScanRule.scala b/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/rules/CometScanRule.scala
index e3b6f77eb8..f7e0fe5cb9 100644
--- a/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/rules/CometScanRule.scala
+++ b/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/rules/CometScanRule.scala
@@ -248,8 +248,9 @@ case class CometScanRule(session: SparkSession)
     //
     // EXCEPT schemes the user routes through libhdfs via `spark.hadoop.fs.comet.libhdfs.schemes`
     // (e.g. `hdfs`, or a test `fake`): those ARE natively readable through the libhdfs object_store
-    // bridge, so they must NOT be declined here (regression guarded by
-    // ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite).
+    // bridge, so they must NOT be declined here. The claim decision is guarded in CI by
+    // CometScanSchemeFallbackSuite; end-to-end execution through libhdfs is guarded by
+    // ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite, which is a manual suite (see its scaladoc).
     //
     // The default mirrors the native side: when the config is unset, `is_hdfs_scheme`
     // (native/core/src/parquet/parquet_support.rs) treats `hdfs` as natively readable, and
diff --git a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/parquet/ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite.scala b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/parquet/ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite.scala
index 12fc13b0bb..5dac5fb91c 100644
--- a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/parquet/ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite.scala
+++ b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/parquet/ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite.scala
@@ -33,6 +33,36 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.functions.{col, sum}
 import org.apache.comet.CometConf
 import org.apache.comet.hadoop.fs.FakeHDFSFileSystem
 
+/**
+ * End-to-end coverage of a native Parquet scan routed through libhdfs, using a fake Hadoop
+ * FileSystem instead of a live namenode.
+ *
+ * '''This suite is excluded from CI and must be run manually''' (it is in the ignore list in
+ * `dev/ci/check-suites.py`, so it is not listed in either `pr_build_*.yml` workflow):
+ *
+ * {{{
+ * ./mvnw test -Dtest=none \
+ *   -Dsuites="org.apache.comet.parquet.ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite"
+ * }}}
+ *
+ * It is the only suite that actually loads libhdfs, and libhdfs registers a pthread thread-local
+ * destructor (`hdfsThreadDestructor`) that detaches the current thread from the JVM regardless of
+ * who attached it. Comet attaches its own Tokio workers, so once one of them has touched libhdfs
+ * the destructor dereferences a `JNIEnv` that Comet has already freed and the JVM dies with
+ * `SIGSEGV at pc=0x0`. That is [[https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-16021 HDFS-16021]],
+ * still open upstream. The crash lands on whichever suite happens to be running when the worker
+ * exits -- usually minutes later, in a different suite -- so it reads as a random `[scans]` flake
+ * rather than an HDFS failure. See
+ * [[https://github.com/apache/datafusion-comet/issues/5023 #5023]].
+ *
+ * Comet's HDFS support is experimental (see the
+ * [[https://datafusion.apache.org/comet/user-guide/latest/datasources.html#hdfs data sources guide]]),
+ * and working around the upstream bug would mean carrying a patched copy of libhdfs in this repo,
+ * so we run this suite by hand instead of paying for the flake on every pull request. The
+ * planner-side half of the coverage -- that a `hdfs://` scan is still claimed natively rather
+ * than silently falling back -- does run in CI, in `CometScanSchemeFallbackSuite`, because it
+ * never executes the scan and so never loads libhdfs.
+ */
 class ParquetReadFromFakeHadoopFsSuite extends CometTestBase with AdaptiveSparkPlanHelper {
 
   private var fake_root_dir: File = _