About a week ago, I flew Los Angeles to New York. I am a frequent flier for The Women’s Travel Group. The plane was new, I booked a great seat and the entertainment system worked so I could watch The Accountant2 ( former bankers love financial films). I sat down in the window seat. A young man secured his seat in front of mine. Then he placed his carry on meal and 20 oz drink down. Unbeknownst to me, he had placed the drink on the middle armrest of his row. He swung himself into his window seat. The drink flew over and between the dividing row onto my lap, legs, shoes, socks. The flood covered my floor with my Longchamps carry on, the seat and armrest. Upset and drenched with icy brown liquid, I bolted for help from staff. The plane was still boarding and understandably staff were busy.
Here is where the mess gets messier. When possible and fairly quickly, attendants came with micro sized cocktail napkins plus one cloth to clean up the puddles. The floor remained wet and the seat damp in hard to dry areas of liquid. I remained standing, not sure what to do about sitting down.Fortunately I had checked bags with more important items; had it been our Mexico Day of the Dead group, I would have had carry on in the puddle.
What are a passenger’s rights when something like this happens? It is not the aircraft’s fault; or is it? See below.
If the spill is due to a passenger’s negligence, the ‘injured’ has to go after the passenger legally. There are lots of stories of negligence on the internet. We are sharing only one. Spillage is covered by common law principles. In my flooded seat, this was the case. The seat mate had a duty to act with “reasonable care”. The seat mate breached that duty by, for example, handling his drink carelessly. Domestic flight rules are governed by local laws and common law principles. Laws in Europe are different. The question is negligence vs. simple accident. I label this negligence: putting a large barely covered drink in a flimsy container, on the middle armrest between two seats is negligence with cluelessness thrown in.
There are no statistics about bringing liquids on board that cause spillage. Should airlines allow flimsily covered drinks to be carried on board? We know spills occur on planes due to cramped spaces, small level areas, turbulence and simple carelessness. Some on line complainers feel that planes should have cup holders like those embedded in cars. In the good/bad old days, planes had ashtrays in the armrest or near it- no one carelessly extinguished cigarettes on the seat or armrest. Having experienced this spilled mess, I think airplanes should only allow bottled liquids with firm tops. There are plenty of them for sale on Amazon.
The man offered to pay for my socks, a nice gesture, but meaningless, as the area was still a mess. After the flight, I looked into how often planes are cleaned? Tray and seat wipe downs are usually daily. A deep cleaning is every 30-45 days. Deep cleaning includes carpet cleaning. The sticky carpet therefore was to remain dirty for 30-45 days.
What did I do? I did triage. Asked for help from professional staff. Then I told the young man, you are going to sit in the puddles and I am taking your seat. Fortunately he agreed immediately. Note: he had the legal right to refuse; his seat was legally assigned to him-this link has a lot of interesting information. My feet and pants dried during the 5 hour flight. The brown liquid stains washed out. Shoes fortunately were sneakers so minimum damage.
So I end with this caveat, ask for staff to intervene. Do not confront the offender until the excitement dies down. Once you assess the situation think of a solution and go for it. Travel tips from The Women’s Travel Group, award winning tour company for women.
