It doesn’t get much worse – a passenger flying Delta from Atlanta to Miami had just taken his seat when he realised he was sitting in something wet, squishy and dreadfully foul smelling.
He was sitting in a pile of dog excrement.
“Actual faeces and it was all over me,” a horrified Matthew Meehan told channel WXYZ in Detroit.
“I sat in it and it was on the seat, on the floor, the seat in front. And I was literally in it.”
Meehan’s anguished face and his dreadful story have been splashed over media throughout the US.
According to Meehan, when he and the passenger in the next seat asked a flight attendant for help to clean the stuff up, the flight attendant just handed him two paper towels and miniature bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin.
At least they chose a good gin.
Delta later apologised for the incident on flight DL1949, blaming an “ill service animal” for the mess, SF Gate in San Francisco reported.
Other news reports referred to a “service dog”, a term which in the US means a dog trained to help people who have disabilities. In other English-speaking countries they are generally called assistance dogs, or sometimes in the case of a blind person, “seeing-eye dogs”. US federal law stipulates that disabled passengers have the right to be accompanied by service dogs.
Delta explained that cleaning the aircraft had not been finished before boarding. The airline later issued a statement, which read in part: “The safety and health of our customers and employees is our top priority, and we are conducting a full investigation while following up with the right teams to prevent this from happening again.”
Meehan isn’t happy with the way the airline dealt with the situation. He says he tried to clean the stinking mess off his hands and clothes after flight attendants told him there was nothing more they could do.
When he left the plane briefly before takeoff to see a manager about it, Meehan says she just sighed and asked: “What’s your problem?”
Not guilty! This picture shows a ‘service dog’ waiting for its owner in a US banking office. It is not the one responsible for the Delta incident.
“And it was just you know, I had to step back for a moment and say, alright, keep your composure,” Meehan said.
“You do not want to be one of these people you see on the news getting kicked off a plane. Meanwhile, I’m covered in faeces.”
Meehan said fellow passengers helped him lay a blanket over the reeking mess. He sat on it for the flight, which lasts about an hour and 40 minutes – though it must seem longer when you are sitting on dog poop.
After the plane landed the aircraft was reportedly taken out of service to be disinfected, probably by people wearing biohazard “moon suits”.
Meehan said the airline didn’t offer him a refund or explain why the excrement was not immediately treated as a biohazard.
The airline says crew used disinfectant to clean the area. Delta later offered to reimburse Meehan for his ruined shoes and suit as well as refund his ticket, US reports said.
The incident may be over, but for Meehan and those seated close to him, the memory lingers like a bad smell.
Written by Peter Needham
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