Air France passenger smelled something funny on flight to Toronto. It turned out to be human blood and faeces

If there's a list of out-of-the ordinary things you can find on a flight, blood will any day be among the top three... and an Air France passenger had to witness exactly that on a flight to Toronto. 

What

On June 30, Habib Battah, who was an Air France passenger on his way to Toronto, Canada, from Paris, France, noticed an unusual smell coming from the area beneath his and his wife's seats, shortly after the plane took off. Upon looking for a source, they found a 20-inch stain of blood on the floor beneath their seats. 

How did they find it?

Battah and his wife were travelling on the Boeing 777 with their two pet cats, carrying them in two separate carriers in the footwell in front of their seats. Battah is a Beirut-based journalist who was travelling to the US from Lebanon to work as a university lecturer. 

Few minutes after takeoff, Battah could smell a disturbing odour, which he thought was a “manure” smell at first.

Battah and his wife initially thought that the smell was coming from their cats. But, much to their uneasiness, after Battah got on his knees to look for the source of the smell, he found a 20-inch-long stain of blood on the floor beneath the cat carriers. 

Whose blood was it? 

Battah reached out to a flight attendant to complain about the issue, which marked the start to confusion and uneasiness. The flight attendant notified the pilot, who then radioed Paris to ask why on Earth were there blood stains on the floor under seats 30A and 30B.

Paris ground control responded that the blood was reportedly from a passenger on one of the flight’s previous trips, who suffered a likely “hemorrhage”.

On a trip from Paris to Boston the previous day, a passenger fell ill and soiled the floor. When the plane reached Boston, the crew had asked the cleaners to clean the floor; which, apparently, they forgot to do.

The airplane flew back to Paris from Boston with the stain on the floor; and the next trip of the Air France Boeing 777 was from Paris to Toronto, which Battah was on. 

What then?

After getting the information about the blood being of a human, Battah started to clean the carrier, with his cat still in it. He moved to the galley area and started stroking off the stains with the wet wipes he got from one of the flight attendants. 

Battah said that apart from one apologetic flight attendant, everyone else from the cabin crew were very non-reactive to the entire issue. 

Upon reaching Toronto after an endless and most uneasy two hour, Battah was left even more disappointed by the cabin as he had to take the blood-stained carrier with him and no one from the crew offered any assistance. 

On asking Air France about the issue, the authorities informed that the liquid was 'blood and faeces'.

Upon asking them about their deep-cleaning procedure, they said “special products are used”.

The airline also implied that the scenario was not as serious as portrayed.

According to their statement to CNN, the blood and faeces found beneath Battah's seat had "low to non-existent risks". 

In its statement to CNN, Air France said, "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." 

Meanwhile, Battah, who is currently seeking advice from lawyers, shared disturbing pictures on Twitter. He mentioned that three days after the flight, Air France contacted him. They proposed to clean the cats and offered a $500 voucher. However, Battah chose not to accept their offer.

On Twitter, Air France responded to Battah's tweets with a standard response: "This particular matter is being taken into account and you will be contacted by our teams as soon as possible. Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Hi @habib_b, this particular matter is being taken into account and you will be contacted by our teams as soon as possible. Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Thank you.

— Air France (@airfrance) July 3, 2023

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