Airplane etiquette is going down the potty — but there’s one particularly stinky behavior that airlines are hesitant to call out.
A veteran flight attendant claims that carriers are declining to educate unfamiliar passengers on how to use Western-style toilets — over concerns they’ll take offense.
The confounding concession to cultural sensitivity means things can get pretty messy at 30,000 feet, according to Marcus Daniels, who retired in 2019 after working the friendly skies for over five years in Australia and the Middle East.
“Passengers will defecate on the floor and you just do your best to smile and not say anything,” the inflight insider told the Daily Mail. “You get used to it after a while and can start mentally preparing yourself for those flights.”
In fact, the crew member said he could recall dozens of stories of airplane “accidents,” the lion’s share of which occur in developing countries, where many aren’t privy to the doo’s and doo not do’s of modern lavatory use.
“As cabin crew, you notice it happens on specific flights to specific destinations,” said Daniels. “We’ll chat and find other crew picked up on the trend too.”
And while he declined to specify the routes where this issue is most common, he said it’s “not really a problem in first-world countries because we know how to use western toilets.”
According to Mobility International USA, four billion people worldwide use squat pots, which require the goer to hunker down over a hole in the ground — and use a bucket or hose for heinie hygiene in lieu of TP.
Meanwhile, a whopping 420 million of earth’s inhabitants still defecate in the street, per a World Bank Blog from 2023.
This can pose problems when nature calls high above certain parts of the world.
“On these routes, we’re having to constantly check the toilets to make sure they’re clean and the toilet rolls aren’t stuffed down the bin,” lamented Daniels. “On one flight I had a passenger who kept peeing on the floor. I tried to show her how to use the toilet, and she would nod and agree, then do it again.”
He added that things got so unsanitary on one trip that he “had to lock off the toilet for the rest of the flight.”
Daniels chalked up the inability to master the game of thrones to a lack of “education,” declaring, “If they knew how to use the toilets, they would.”
“Most of the confused passengers don’t speak English as their first language so we can’t really explain how to use the toilet,” the former FA lamented. “It would be great if there were visual guides showing how to use the toilet properly, rather than just guides for flushing.”
Despite the abundance of inflight brownouts, this change likely isn’t in the pipeline, per Daniels.
“Airlines are very particular about how they communicate with customers because they don’t want to offend anyone,” the ex-crewmember claimed. “All of us are trying to be accepting of all cultures. However, there needs to be some kind of video or visual guide about using and keeping the toilets clean.”
He added, “It would be a dream come true. I have friends who are still working these routes and, nine years later, it’s still an issue.”
A lack of bathroom etiquette isn’t just revolting — a catastrophic trip to the lavatory can also jeopardize flights as well.
In March, Air India implored passengers to use the lavatories for their intended purpose after passengers clogged airplane toilets with clothing, diverting an international flight.
A so-called lavatory backup might seem trivial, but just one clogged toilet can prompt the pilots ground a flight due to the limited number of facilities in the air.
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