An Air France passenger had to spend the entire flight in a pool of rotten blood that the cleaners forgot to wipe up after an “incident on a previous flight,” CNN reports.
According to the publication, journalist Habib Battah had to experience a “terrible flight experience” while flying from Paris to Toronto. The man said that, once in his seat, he felt a strange smell emanating from the legroom under his and his wife’s chairs.
The couple traveled with their cats, which they placed in carriers just under the front seats, and at first Khabib thought that the smell was exhaled by animals. He decided to check the pet carriers and made sure everything inside was clean. However, under them, the passenger found a large spot.
The man stopped a flight attendant passing by and asked her for wet wipes to wipe off the foul-smelling liquid.
“I didn’t know it was blood until the flight attendant casually said, ‘Oh, we heard a passenger on the previous flight was bleeding. Then I noticed that the cat carrier was also stained,” Khabib shared unpleasant memories.
The passenger added that he had to use a whole pack of wet wipes to “get rid of this horror.” According to him, only one flight attendant apologized for the situation, while the rest did not react to it. He added that as compensation, he and his wife were offered “two bottles of water and two blankets to put on the floor on the bloodstain.”
“We had to sit and smell the blood for the next seven hours. The smell of rotten blood is like manure. There was blood on my socks too. As a journalist, I have been covering events in Beirut for 20 years. I thought I saw everything. I did not expect to find more blood than I already saw on board Air France,” the journalist complained.
Khabib, who is currently negotiating with lawyers and posting gruesome photos on social media, says Air France called him three days after the flight, offering to “wash the cats” and a $500 voucher. He turned down their offer.
“Our tickets cost $2,500 – is the 20% discount worth sitting in blood and feces for the whole flight? I think it was gross negligence and someone should be held accountable for this. Incidents happen – we are human, we expire blood, but as soon as the plane landed, you had to clean it. It’s amazing that this did not happen,“ concluded the angry passenger.
An official statement from the airline says that the day before, a passenger flying from Paris to Boston became ill and was treated by doctors upon arrival.
“In accordance with the procedure in such a situation, a complete cleaning of the cabin was requested. Since the plane was full, it was not possible to transfer the passenger,” Air France explained. Representatives of the airline added that they regret the inconvenience caused by this situation.
I took out my backpack from under the seat and the strap was soaked in blood too. I got on my hands and knees and cleaned for half an hour. The @airfrance staff gave me gloves and more wipes. Then they casually noted a passenger had hemorrhaged on a flight before ours. (3 pic.twitter.com/yVW7n9w0MY
— Habib Battah (@habib_b) July 1, 2023