The Malaysian school holidays are here and it’s time to plan your holidays! Do you find that you are prone to falling sick after taking a flight? Well, that’s probably because airplanes are basically enclosed places crammed with people sharing the same space for a few hours.
You may never look at an airplane the same again after reading the list below.
1. Pillows and blankets
If you can afford a flight on a full-service airline, the you can enjoy snuggling up with the provided blankets and pillows that comes with the package.
Before you doze off, keep in mind that certain airlines only provide freshly washed pillow and blankets for the first flights of the day and reused them after.
A flight attendant admitted that, “I worked for Southwest as a flight attendant. Those blankets and pillows? Yeah, those just get refolded and stuffed back in the bins between flights. Only fresh ones I ever saw were on an originating first flight in the morning in a provisioning city.”
2. Toilet flush handle
This may be rather obvious as toilets are natural breeding grounds for germs, especially the toilet handle that every one touches after doing their ‘business’.
To prevent from coming into contact with any disgusting bacteria, it is important that you flush the toilet before you wash your hands. (Also, remember to wash your hands after!)
3. The tray table
The majority of flight passengers uses their tray tables for eating but you there have been cases where flight attendants witnessed baby diapers being changed right on the table itself. So, just to be safe, the next time you’re eating your in-flight meal, properly disinfect it first!
4. The seat pocket
If you are fond of using the seat pocket to store your items, you should reconsider doing so as this is often used as a rubbish bin where you can find “treasures” such as used tissues, used chewing gum, old receipts and basically any kind of rubbish. Always sanitize your hands if you come into contact with these germ-laden rubbish.
5. The in-flight magazines
The magazines supplied by the airlines have been well and thoroughly thumbed by the many passengers through daily.
It’s normal for them to be wrinkled and tatty but it’s impossible for you to know whether the hands that touched the pages are clean too!
6. Seats and carpets
Try to keep as little skin contact as possible to most of the airplane surfaces unless necessary which of course includes the plane seat and cabin floor carpeting. There have been reports of despicable passengers even urinating in their seats and that’s not something you ever want to touch.
With all these dirty spots, one thing you can do is to bring a sanitizer and to use them regularly. Also, remember to not ever touch your face otherwise you will be 20% more prone to fall sick.
Stay safe and happy flying!
