06-05-2024, 02:50 AM
I knew an airline employee and one of their jobs was rounding up the wheelchairs. This was back when direct airline employees did stuff like that. He said that a lot of the people who need wheelchairs... "leak". And no, they don't sanitize them between users. You don't want to sit in one unless you have to.
Of course, they also sit in the same aircraft seats as everyone else, so there's really no escaping "it".
Another friend who worked for an airline was traveling non-rev, so standby. One of the first class passengers died in their seat during boarding and it delayed the flight departure. But then she got The Offer. She could either sit in coach or... a seat just opened up in first class.
She said it felt a little weird at first, but went on to explain that people die on airplanes a lot more than the industry wants their customers to know, so chances are anybody who's flown a lot has already sat in chair that had a dead person in it. They don't (or didn't at the time) normally replace seats, they "clean as necessary".
Of course, they also sit in the same aircraft seats as everyone else, so there's really no escaping "it".
Another friend who worked for an airline was traveling non-rev, so standby. One of the first class passengers died in their seat during boarding and it delayed the flight departure. But then she got The Offer. She could either sit in coach or... a seat just opened up in first class.
She said it felt a little weird at first, but went on to explain that people die on airplanes a lot more than the industry wants their customers to know, so chances are anybody who's flown a lot has already sat in chair that had a dead person in it. They don't (or didn't at the time) normally replace seats, they "clean as necessary".