When jetting off on holiday most of us are excited for the plane ride somewhere fun and relaxing – but many don’t consider just how dirty the aircraft can be. A flight attendant has warned holidaymakers that they should always do one specific thing before using the plane’s toilet.
There are plenty of filthy parts of the plane from tray tables to air vents, but as expected the lavatory also harbours plenty of germs. While the inside of the loo is cleaned frequently there are parts of the toilet that harbour bugs that could make you sick – and nobody wants to be ill while on holiday.
Josephine Remo has warned that you should always use hand sanitiser or wipes before and after using the plane toilet. That means even before you get to the lavatory door you should be making sure your hands are cleaned.
READ MORE: Flight attendant reveals how truly disgusting plane toilets are and warns to avoid them
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The flight attendant and travel blogger told Travel + Leisure: "The toilets are regularly cleaned, but the locks and door handles are not. It's a good idea for passengers to use hand sanitiser after stowing away their luggage, touching anything in the seat pocket in front of them, and going to the bathroom."
You don’t want to spend your holiday sick in your hotel room so it’s wise to follow her advice. In fact, other flight attendants have also shared some rather unsavoury facts about plane loos.
One crew member warned Brits never to walk to the loo bare foot. The airline worker said: "This is a big NO NO. You actually think that floor in the lavatory is clean or better yet ya think that’s water on that lavatory floor? Let’s just talk about the carpet for starters IT’S NOT CLEAN."
Essentially, she backed up what other plane workers have said and confirmed that the liquid on the floor is urine. Apparently when men and boy stand up to pee and the plane hits turbulence they're thrown around a bit… and can splash the walls and floor.
It's for this reason that flight attendant Brenda Orelus, from Miami, says you should never use the toilet paper on a plane – always choose the tissues instead. According to Brenda it’s all about hygiene and avoiding touching urine. Yes, urine.
She explained: "Little boys who are pointing and shooting, they kinda point and shoot everywhere so that usually ends up on the toilet paper." The loo roll is generally open to the room on a dispenser that doesn’t cover the paper. However, the tissues are generally higher up and can be pulled out from a narrower gap giving them more protection from stray wee. So, she says to look for the paper that’s "usually up top or yonder".
Plus, a pilot explained what happens to all the waste when you go to the loo on a plane. He said: "Did you know that whenever you flush the toilet on the aircraft, it actually doesn't dump out into the population down below? It goes through plumbing to the rear of the aircraft and the seal compartments where the ground crew at the destination will remove all that waste.
"On a 747 – on a long haul flight – toilets can be flushed over a thousand times, creating over 320 gallons of waste. That's a lot."
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