FA's Babble Gives Beverage Insight..
You may want to load up on java before boarding your plane, according to one industry insider.
An unidentified flight attendant “for a major American airline,” made a claim to Vice.com that the water used for coffee on flights may be dangerously unhealthy.
“Don’t drink the coffee on airplanes. It’s the same potable water that goes through the bathroom system,” the attendant claimed. Other flight attendants on major airlines have made a similar accusation over the years.
“We recently had a test for E. coli in our water and it didn’t pass, and then maintenance came on and hit a couple buttons and it passed,” the anonymous flight attendant added. “So, avoid any hot water or tea. Bottled and ice is fine, of course.”
The flight attendant, who confessed to Vice that traveling all the time is “not nearly as glamorous” as expected, may also have another reason to warn people against drinking while flying – the plane bathrooms.
The attendant claimed the bathrooms were “the most disgusting places on the planet.”
“There’s no way these people act this way in their normal lives,” the flight attendant added. “But they get on a plane and go, ‘Cool, I’ll just pee all over the floor and dump my peanuts right on the ground.’”
A spokesperson for the industry group Airlines for America about the unnamed flight attendant’s allegations, saying that she couldn’t speak to the specific remark, but denies water on aircrafts is unsafe to consume.
“What we can say is that the safety of our passengers and crew remain the airlines' primary focus, which includes the provision of clean drinking water,” she told the Daily News.
“The airline industry is subject to the Aircraft Drinking Water Rule,” she added, “which requires rigorous processes to ensure onboard water systems are regularly disinfected and that clean drinking water is available.”
