Rude, crude and downright dirty.
A former flight attendant is publicly outing passengers who who behave badly on commercial flights --capturing them doing everything from putting their feet on the seat in front to peeing in the bathroom sink--and posting images on social media.
Shawn Kathleen, who wants to be known only by her alias, was flight attendant for seven years. Said she started “Passenger Shaming,” on Facebook and Instagram, to expose how people really act when flying.
The idea for Passenger Shaming came about after the success of her other blog, Rants Of A Sassy Stew, which she started over five years ago to catalogue her experiences as a flight attendant.
“I started by ranting about passengers and how ridiculous people are. I just said to myself really? How is this behavior acceptable you’re a grown man!” she told FoxNews.com. “The blog started becoming more popular and I got people sending things to me. They started to commiserate so I just decided to branch out.”
Her collection of photos include people's feet in places where they don't belong: in the air, on the backs of or in between of someone's seat. Also there are plenty pictures of hands where they shouldn't be either. (We won't go into further detail on that one.) Some images are down right disgusting, like the one with a bathroom basin full of urine.
The photos are submitted to Shawn Kathleen by anonymous fliers and flight attendants who want to share what they witness. The popular Facebook and Instagram sites boast about 45,000 and 60,000 followers respectively.
Shawn Kathleen, who won't reveal which airline she worked for, acknowledged that 99 percent of the passengers she has encountered act appropriately and follow the rules. But a few bad eggs do some outrageous things.
“At the beginning I started trying to come up with witty captions but the pictures really speak for themselves,” she says. “My favorites are the ones where people are trying to defend their behavior. And the bare feet just kills me. I get chest pains when I see it.”
With airlines piling on fees and cutting cabin amenities, Shawn Kathleen admits that sometimes it puts flight attendants in a difficult situation.
“As flight crew, we’re kind of crammed in, too. People forget we’re all human,” she says. “I feel flight attendants aren’t given the tools to do the job properly. We do want to give you a pillow or a blanket or extra peanuts but now we actually can’t.”
She thinks the latest instances of airplane rage, where fights over the right to recline seats broke out, are a combination of a sense of entitlement passengers feel with a purchased seat, coupled with general flight time frustration. She's offered up a handy guide for simple rules all passengers should follow to make life onboard a little easier for everyone.
1. Be respectful of everyone's personal space.
2. Watching a DVD on your laptop? Wear headphones, no one wants to hear your movie.
3. If you're bringing on food, just don’t bring a tuna fish sandwich or anything smelly. Its one meal, I think you'll survive.
4. Keep drink orders simple and don't expect flight attendants to transform into your personal barista or bartender.
5. Try to keep your socks and shirt on.
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