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Home / Travel

Woman stuns plane passengers with over-the-top hygiene routine on flight

NZ Herald
5 Jul, 2023 02:27 AM2 mins to read

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A woman on a flight from Australia to London has outed a fellow passenger for a gross act while in the company of hundreds of others. Photo / Reddit

A woman on a flight from Australia to London has outed a fellow passenger for a gross act while in the company of hundreds of others. Photo / Reddit

A woman on a flight from Australia to London has outed a fellow passenger for a gross act while in the company of hundreds of others.

The woman took to social media to post about the experience to raise questions about passenger hygiene etiquette while flying.

In her post online, she alleges a passenger next to her brushed her teeth in front of others and spat in a cup before letting the brush air out in front of others for hours.

“I was on a 14-hour flight to London, and next to me was an Australian couple.

“I fell asleep, then woke up to the girl brushing her teeth from her seat?!

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“She then proceeded to spit in a cup, shook the toothbrush in the air to dry it out, and kept the cup there for four hours.

A woman on a flight from Australia to London has outed a fellow passenger for a gross act while in the company of hundreds of others. Photo / Reddit
A woman on a flight from Australia to London has outed a fellow passenger for a gross act while in the company of hundreds of others. Photo / Reddit

“The toilets were three rows in front of me and were free.”

The passenger who complained also uploaded the image to social media, which shows the cup sitting on the tray in full view of others.

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The annoyed passenger claims the cup sat there for four hours.

Former flight attendant Elaine Swann has previously spoken out about flight hygiene, and in particular brushing your teeth while on planes.

In an interview with the Seattle Times, she said grooming of the mouth should “not be performed in your seat”, suggesting it be done in the bathroom.

Travel expert Gilbert Ott also suggested not using water on planes at all because their “water tanks are Petri dishes” that contain nearly every “bacteria under the sun”.

It’s not the first time oral hygiene has been a talking point on planes.

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In 2020, a man caused controversy after he was caught brushing his teeth mid-flight.

Looking away from the camera, he has a toothbrush in his mouth as he cleans his teeth, and it isn’t clear where or how he spat the toothpaste out afterward.

April, who posted the image, wrote: “In all my years of flying, I’ve literally never seen someone brush their damn teeth on the plane.”

Some labelled it disgusting, but others didn’t see it as a problem and backed the man up claiming he was just practicing good hygiene.


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