We'll just take the boat from now on.
Auburn University recently published a study revealing the dirtiest places on a plane, and it's properly put us off flying. We assumed, like we thought most would, that the dirtiest place on a plane would be the bathroom. It's cramped, really hot, always full, and being used by people who've either just ate airport food, or worse, airplane food.
Basically a breeding ground for bacteria, but as it turns out, the filthiest place on a plane is the thing we fight the most over. Yep, the armrest.
The study says that E.coli can live on an armrest for 96 hours. Now, a lot depends on how often the planes are being cleaned, but according to a Reddit poster who supposedly used to work for Southwest Airlines, that's not all that often.
The armrest wasn't the only dirty place however, as the tray table on the back of every seat came second with E.coli hanging around on that for 72 hours. That Reddit poster claimed ‘If you have ever spread your peanuts on your tray and eaten, or recently touched your tray at all, you have more than likely ingested baby poo. I saw more dirty diapers laid out on those trays than food.’
Let's take that with a few truck-fulls of salt, seeing as it's a former employee saying it, and we can't tell how disgruntled they were at the time of leaving the company.
What we do know is that the toilet isn't safe either, as its handle can support E.coli for 48 hours.
Now we're not scientists, but we'll try break it down for you. The toilet's handle is always going to be filthy,(don't make us explain why) and the first person to turn on the tap infects it, washes their hand, re-infects it by turning off the tap, then uses the door handle. Then use their tray, and touch their armrest when they go back to their seat. Multiply that by a couple hundred people, add in those who don't wash their hands, and the end result is us never flying again.
Via Metro
