We’re probably all used to airlines not doing a great job with cleaning planes. Maybe you find a used food wrapper in your seatback pocket, or some crumbs on the floor. However, hopefully you’ve never dealt with something quite like this story, whereby an Air France passenger spent the entire flight in a seat where the floor was soaked in blood and feces.
In this post:
An Air France passenger’s gruesome discovery
On June 30, 2023, a Lebanese journalist named Habib Battah was flying on an Air France Boeing 777 from Paris (CDG) to Toronto (YYZ), with his wife and their two cats (who were in carriers). The passengers were seated in seats 30A and 30B, and shortly after takeoff, Battah noticed a strange smell coming from the footwell under their seats, which he claimed smelled like manure.
At first he was worried that his cats had an accident:
“It was our first time traveling with the cats, and I was thinking, ‘Oh god, they’ve had an accident, I’m so embarrassed.’ Then I thought, maybe it’s someone’s body odor. I was sniffing and sniffing, then said, let me get the cats out. I looked at the cats – the poor cats were totally fine.”
Underneath the cat carriers, Battah noticed a wet stain, roughly 20 inches long and wide. He called a flight attendant, who handed him wet wipes. He started wiping, and discovered that the area was blood red, and it kept coming up red.
A flight attendant then passed on a note to the pilots about the discovery. A while later, the captain had received a message back from Air France headquarters about the cause of this. As Battah explains:
“I didn’t know it was blood until a flight attendant said, casually, ‘Oh, we heard another passenger had a hemorrhage. Then I noticed the cat carrier was stained as well.”
On a flight from Paris to Boston the previous day, a passenger had a serious issue — the passenger survived, but the crew requested that the area be cleaned. Obviously that didn’t happen.
Battah then went to the galley to try to clean the cat carriers more thoroughly. One flight attendant seemed apologetic, while the others seemingly didn’t react. The crew reportedly offered the couple two bottles of Evian water as an apology, and also gave them two business class blankets to place on the floor, with powder to soak up the blood.
Unfortunately the flight was full, so the passengers couldn’t be moved to other seats:
“We had to sit there smelling the blood for the next seven hours. The smell of rotten blood is like manure. I’d taken my shoes off at the start of the flight, and there was blood on my socks.”
As it turns out, there was a reason the blood smelled so much like manure — three days after the flight, Battah reportedly received a call from Air France, informing him that the blood had been mixed with feces.
Air France’s statement about this incident
In a statement, Air France confirmed that on a June 29 flight from Paris to Boston, a passenger was treated by medics on arrival, which was the source of the blood and feces:
“As per procedure in this type of situation, a complete clean-up of the area was requested and the row of seats was made unavailable on the return flight [from Boston to Paris].”
“A customer travelling on the next flight from Paris (CDG) to Toronto (YYZ) reported residual traces of blood on the floor, soiling his personal belongings. The crew immediately assisted him in cleaning his belongings, providing him with suitable equipment such as sterile gloves and disinfectant wipes. As the flight was fully booked, it was not possible to move the passenger. An internal investigation has been launched to understand the reasons for this situation.”
In response to that, Battah has said the following:
“I brought that blood home. They sent me home with a biohazard. They never stopped me and said, ‘Hey, we don’t know what this patient had [wrong with him].’ It was so negligent.”
“[The incident] was two flights before ours, so in Boston the clean-up didn’t happen. The plane returned to Paris, this bloody, dirty, sh**ty plane. And we got on it. That means other passengers were also exposed to it. I think they endangered their passengers’ wellbeing.”
“I started to ask, ‘How do you not check? What are the protocols for biohazards?’ I couldn’t get them to tell me. It was as if there were none.”
This is just an absolutely horrible oversight. It’s bad enough when something like this happens in the first place, but it doesn’t sound like the passenger felt that the crew took the situation as seriously as they should have. In fairness, there probably wasn’t much they could do, if every seat was occupied. But still, passengers at least want to feel like their concerns are taken seriously, and the crew should have been sympathetic and apologetic.
Bottom line
An Air France passenger had a pretty lousy transatlantic flight, as he discovered that the area underneath his seat was covered in blood and feces. A passenger on a flight the day prior had a major medical issue, and this should have caused the cabin to be thoroughly cleaned. For whatever reason, that didn’t happen as it was supposed to, leading to this awful situation.
What makes matters worse is that there were no other empty seats on this flight, so the couple had to stay in their assigned seats.
The compensation for this should have been like no other.
This is so negligent and what a liability these staff members have placed on the airline. Being exposed to blood places this person at risk of communicable diseases that will require yearly testing and not to mention feces? Hopefully they didn’t have c-diff or something like this that is highly contagious or if anyone touched it and then touched something else yikes the whole plane would be at risk. Just saying. Highly negligent and I...
This is so negligent and what a liability these staff members have placed on the airline. Being exposed to blood places this person at risk of communicable diseases that will require yearly testing and not to mention feces? Hopefully they didn’t have c-diff or something like this that is highly contagious or if anyone touched it and then touched something else yikes the whole plane would be at risk. Just saying. Highly negligent and I hope this passenger takes action to let the airline and staff members now this is NOT okay.
Agree. Worse than it is. Perhaps should have had an emergency landing.
How did nobody notice the smell upon boarding though? Not blaming the passenger, but it smelled of manure then wouldn't that have been cause of someone in the area to notify the FA.
Lol - why is this a surprise? It is Air France. Ever been to Paris and taken a single step without trodding on dog shit!? Typical lazy French attitude.
If we focused on work as much as we do on protesting and vacations, the condition of the economy would not be as decrepit as it is. The European airlines are yet just another sign of our pathetic state.
Karma. People who bring pets on planes suck. No regard for other passengers who might be allergic or hear it meow/bark all flight or have to deal with it accidentally creating the same bodily fluid mess that this passenger had to deal with.
Oh my Gosh. What is goin on with the airlines!!?? This is terrible. This poor family were flying on the black hole of Calcutta!! Disgusting. I fly AF Business and will not any longer>
Because there was a single incident .. you’ve probably never flown in a premium cabin. In fact try reading negative reports about every airline and you will probably want to take a boat or charter a jet.
I’m really not surprised. AF is notorious for cheaping out on cleaning and their service staff is some of the rudest. The flight from SIN to CDG is always nasty. I’ve switched carriers now.
Are there any customs/quarantine/public health regulations in Canada that would be interested in a plane with an unidentified blood/feces contamination? Would anything have happened if the guy called or texted Canadian authorities prior to landing? In a lot of places you can't even bring an apple, but bloody shoes are OK?
Probably the original pax with ailment had a bad diverticular bleed. It's quite common in elderly patients and presents as bloody diarrhea. This can be life threatening particularly if they are on blood thinners for other conditions. I'm guessing the crew missed a puddle on cleanup and it spilled into this poor guy's row.
That said, I feel worse for the people actually sitting in the row of the index patient. They probably had...
Probably the original pax with ailment had a bad diverticular bleed. It's quite common in elderly patients and presents as bloody diarrhea. This can be life threatening particularly if they are on blood thinners for other conditions. I'm guessing the crew missed a puddle on cleanup and it spilled into this poor guy's row.
That said, I feel worse for the people actually sitting in the row of the index patient. They probably had their hands all over the cushions, monitor, etc - then proceeded to eat the mid flight meal. At least CatMan only had the feces on his feet and cat carrier.
I know most of you are worried this could be Ebola, etc - but by pure statistics, my diagnosis is most likely.
I'm a doctor btw.
Hey Doc - Catman
From time to time I am tempted by one of their low fares across the Atlantic. Then I think back to my previous experiences and say to myself "nah".
When they said the flight was 'full', you can bet that they meant the Economy cabin (row 30) only.
Even given the horror situation, they would never ever upgrade the 2 pax to Business or F (if there was a F cabin). It is unlikely every single seat on that flight was occupied.
Why was it unlikely every seat was occupied? Idiot. It’s a peak travel
period. You can absolutely guarantee they would have upgraded them had it been possible. There’s no La premiere cabin.
So what was that about Ben Smith being one of the top 5 CEOs?
You expect the CEO to wipe the cabin clean every flight?
Moron. Like the time when I flew Singapore Airlines and there was vomit on my seat. He’s still one of the top CEOs with all the positive and negative. You can guarantee he would personally conduct a full investigation
Please tell us which airline has never had a single negative incident and performs a 100% perfect operation. Waiting …
One more reason to ALWAYS keep your shoes on on a plane!! EUWWW. Poor cats!
I will say that although my Air France experience last month wasn’t as bad as this lead story I do think Air France has as issue with service.
I was flying business class fro CDG - ATL which is blocked for 9+ hours. My business class seat was inoperative for the entire flight being stuck in the half reclined lounger position. Full cabin so flight crew couldn’t move me to another seat.
Worst part of...
I will say that although my Air France experience last month wasn’t as bad as this lead story I do think Air France has as issue with service.
I was flying business class fro CDG - ATL which is blocked for 9+ hours. My business class seat was inoperative for the entire flight being stuck in the half reclined lounger position. Full cabin so flight crew couldn’t move me to another seat.
Worst part of this experience was that Air France too zero responsibility for this issue. With any other imperative and/or broken product a refund or replacement would be provided - but not with Air France!!
Try contacting them
This is really gross, but what's really bizarre is the amount of space on this blog dedicated to this story. Oof...
“I brought that blood home. They sent me home with a biohazard. They never stopped me and said, ‘Hey, we don’t know what this patient had [wrong with him].’ It was so negligent.”
It's not that this person didn't know it was blood while in flight. He chose to go home with biohazard.
If he get shot would he wait for someone to tell him he needs to go to a hospital? I feel...
“I brought that blood home. They sent me home with a biohazard. They never stopped me and said, ‘Hey, we don’t know what this patient had [wrong with him].’ It was so negligent.”
It's not that this person didn't know it was blood while in flight. He chose to go home with biohazard.
If he get shot would he wait for someone to tell him he needs to go to a hospital? I feel bad for students who has to attend his lecture.
And CNN nowadays like to exaggerate and have lots of clickbaits no different than FOX so no surprise here too.
As an American living in Paris who is Flying Blue Platinum this is not that surprising. I've been on AF flights since COVID with old socks (from the previous flight) at my seat in J, dirty seats/tables/seatbelts in J, no amenity kits in J, as well as torn and worn seats in J. AF has clearly dropped the ball on cleaning and maintaining planes. Its their planes and their responsibility to hire subcontractors in CDG...
As an American living in Paris who is Flying Blue Platinum this is not that surprising. I've been on AF flights since COVID with old socks (from the previous flight) at my seat in J, dirty seats/tables/seatbelts in J, no amenity kits in J, as well as torn and worn seats in J. AF has clearly dropped the ball on cleaning and maintaining planes. Its their planes and their responsibility to hire subcontractors in CDG and outstations (and to resource/train them properly) to ensure this kind of thing never happens. In my experience, AF doesn't offer compensation and rarely apologize for these things. The latter is stereotypically French.
You’re entirely incorrect per your last sentence. When I flew with them a year ago, my seat in business class would not recline and the entertainment system malfunctioned. I couldn’t be moved as the flight was full. The crew were really apologetic and they reported it via their tablet. Not only did I never have to contact them to complain, I received a phone call 48 hours later and was offered a USD800 voucher.
...
You’re entirely incorrect per your last sentence. When I flew with them a year ago, my seat in business class would not recline and the entertainment system malfunctioned. I couldn’t be moved as the flight was full. The crew were really apologetic and they reported it via their tablet. Not only did I never have to contact them to complain, I received a phone call 48 hours later and was offered a USD800 voucher.
I flew a few weeks ago and my flight was delayed several hours. This time to submit a claim. Within a week I was offered cash compensation or another USD800 voucher.
We - a family of six - just flew with them a couple of days ago from Tokyo to Paris. Two seats were not cleaned with food leftovers everywhere. Two other seats didn’t have operating lights. Two of us were told - despite we have pre-selected our meal in advance and had it confirmed, somebody (somebody? Like really?!) gave to another passenger by mistake. And what they offered was a noodle! It was a big time joke
I don't understand the comments re "What was the airline supposed to do, the flight was full." If there was truly nowhere else to seat the passengers, the flight should have diverted. It is the equivalent of a medical emergency to have a passenger and their pets sitting in some other passenger's potentially contaminated blood, poop, and bodily waste.
You’re deluded if you believe it was necessary to divert. The chances of contamination are negligible unless you placed it in your mouth. Horrible yes however the risk of becoming sick are highly unlikely.
Diverted to where? It’s not like there is a lot between France and Canada apart from the ocean lol
The article says the medical waste was identified shortly after take off - if that is true, a diversion to London or Dublin should have been feasible. Or even return to CDG for an aircraft swap.
Agree.
Sounds like the airline considers running the equivalent of the rug doctor over the area, clean
It was a new crew so they probably had no idea about the stain, even the passenger only notticed later. And at 35000ft with a full flight you cant do much more than throw blankets over it... not defending AF, but thinking logically
It’s likely the crew were obviously concerned and apologetic and did what they could, however if the flight was full what was the solution? Of course he’s going to say they were unhelpful.
Of course if seats were available elsewhere they would have been moved. They weren’t.
What is the expectation at 13000 metres on a full flight ?
Naturally they will investigate why the area wasn’t cleaned thoroughly.
Maybe the CREW (the airline's employees) could have tried to clean up the mess, rather than asking their customer to do it?? LOUSY customer service!
As a nurse I will attest to how horrible GI bleeds smell. Air France should certainly be doing something more for compensation.
Bloody story. does anyone know the tailnumber of this plane with the incident as I am flying tomorrow on a AF 777 and would like to know..
Thanks
Looks to have been F-GSPO. It's en route to PTY right now.
F-GSPO, seats 30A and B
Thanks that’s useful info. I’m flying tomorrow on a 777-300 and GSPO is a -200 so it should be ok.
Will continue to track tomorrow.
I just looked up this tail # and am horrified to see that my july 3rd jfk to cdg flight was on this plane LOL. I was in row 12 but good lord
I’d bet a paycheck, that plane is still in service with plenty of blood and crap and stink in row 30 today.
I wish someone had made note of the actual seat number involved. I've got a rez for BOS-CDG in a month. I sure hope this isn't the same plane, cause they sure haven't seemed to have resolved the inadequate cleaning.
F-GSPO, seats 30A and B
For a moment there I thought I was reading Gary's blog
I was on an LH flight FRA-IAD in first a number years ago and when I boarded my seat cushion was tilted up on the chair and the seatbelt fasted over it so nobody would sit there. On the cushion was a stain that was clearly blood.
The flight two flight attendants in first rushed over and apologized, and said that a new cushion was on its way, and they had me sit in a...
I was on an LH flight FRA-IAD in first a number years ago and when I boarded my seat cushion was tilted up on the chair and the seatbelt fasted over it so nobody would sit there. On the cushion was a stain that was clearly blood.
The flight two flight attendants in first rushed over and apologized, and said that a new cushion was on its way, and they had me sit in a jump seat and served me champagne there. After ~10 minutes of waiting, I realized that we were running late to pushback, and they told me that yes, we were, and we were waiting for the replacement cushion. I suggested that they simply put a blanket over the stain to make the seat usable so that we could all get going (it was a A340, so it was well over 200+ pax). They thanked me but said let's wait. A couple of minutes later the cushion arrived, the doors shut, and we departed.
They gave me a bottle of wine to take home (I think because I was laid back/reasonable about the problem) at the end of the flight, which I thought was nice.
I can only conclude AF would have told me to sit there, hoping I wouldn't notice the stain. While I'm generally an AF fan, this is revolting. And that they gave the guy gloves and wipes so HE could clean their aircraft? Just...no...
Literally just got off the plane from JFK-AMS in business class on KLM. The seatbelt was covered in vomit. No one cleaned it previously. The flight attendants were super nice and apologetic and brought wipes to clean in for me.
It's the French, expecting them to be sympathetic and apologetic is a difficult for them.
Would you care to tell us your nationality vlcnc so that folks can pile on you with equally doltish stereotypes?
Sounds like you're just mad because a Frenchman called you out for being that priggish person who says offensive things that have no basis in reality. I'll pile on. You're an idiot. Now you can say that pilots aren't sympathetic either!
The comment section of this relatively benign travel blog is always with such racists/rude/gross comments. It's surprising to me that keyboard warriors come to this blog to mouth off.
Just go to Twitter if you want to be racist.
I worked for Air France at a US hub. We had a situation once where a woman went into labor during the inbound flight from Paris in one of the premium cabins. (I don’t remember if it was business or first) Upon arrival there was definitely a smell left behind along with a stain left on the seat. At first it was said the seat would be put out of service until it could be...
I worked for Air France at a US hub. We had a situation once where a woman went into labor during the inbound flight from Paris in one of the premium cabins. (I don’t remember if it was business or first) Upon arrival there was definitely a smell left behind along with a stain left on the seat. At first it was said the seat would be put out of service until it could be properly cleaned and sanitized in Paris. It was realized that a very high value customer was to be seated there on the outbound and management decided they didn’t want to upset the passenger or her very high valued company. So they cleaned the seat just enough so that she would never know.
GROSS
ignorance is bliss.
And then we wonder why cats don't like to travel....