8-7-2023 (PARIS) An Air France passenger was left horrified when he discovered that the carpet beneath his feet was soaked in blood during a recent flight.
Journalist Habib Battah was on a flight from Paris to Toronto on June 30 when he noticed an unpleasant odour emanating from the footwell beneath his and his wife’s seats shortly after takeoff.
“I kept smelling something unpleasant and couldn’t identify the source. It wasn’t until I got up and looked down that I noticed a large stain covering the entire carpet area of the seats,” he shared on Twitter, noting that it also had a feces-like smell.
CNN reported that Battah and his wife were traveling with their two cats, which were housed in a separate carrier in the same footwell. Unfortunately, the blood had seeped through to the cat carrier, forcing them to endure the remaining seven hours of the flight in the same unsettling conditions.
Battah explained that the flight attendants provided him with wet wipes and gloves, while mentioning that a passenger had “hemorrhaged” on the flight before.
“The Air France staff gathered around, visibly shocked because they claimed a cleaning crew had removed the seats following the incident with the sick passenger, but apparently neglected to clean the floor,” Battah wrote.
Air France responded to CNN with a statement, explaining that due to the flight being fully booked, it was not possible to relocate Battah to another seat. The airline acknowledged that a passenger had fallen ill on a June 29 flight from Paris to Boston and had received medical attention upon arrival.
Here I am trying to get the blood off my luggage that it absorbed from the airplane carpet. The @airfrance staff crowded around, shocked because they claimed a cleaning crew had removed the seats after the sick passenger incident, but apparently not cleaned the floor. (4 pic.twitter.com/X59rYkvaAW
— Habib Battah (@habib_b) July 1, 2023
An internal investigation has been initiated by Air France to ascertain the reasons behind this situation, as stated by the airline.
Battah revealed that Air France contacted him three days after the flight, informing him that the blood had been mixed with feces. The airline offered to have his cats cleaned and proposed a $500 voucher, both of which he declined.
“I don’t think it’s right. I believe it is a serious biohazard and should be thoroughly investigated,” Battah told CNN.
“I don’t want to be pacified with some compensation. Our airfare cost $2,500. Is a 20 percent discount worth sitting in blood and feces? I consider it to be gross negligence, and someone should be held accountable.”
“Incidents happen—we’re human, we bleed—but once the plane lands, the aircraft must be cleaned. It’s egregious that it didn’t happen.”
I noticed a big stain across the whole carpet of the seats. It was wet to touch. At first the @airfrance attendant shrugged and gave me some wipes. In my broken French told her it smelled like merde (shit). Then the wipes came up blood red. I used over a dozen of them… (2 pic.twitter.com/tEg5hXX95f
— Habib Battah (@habib_b) July 1, 2023
