"To be blatantly honest, I was more nervous than I had ever been on a flight," said [passenger] Collin Brock. "I've never felt so offended in all my life. I felt like i had been physically abused and neglected. I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours," said Brock.Here's what happened: Mid-way through the flight, the toilets stopped working. The flight made an unscheduled stop in Shannon, Ireland to fix the problem...but the problem wasn't fixed. Shortly after take-off a sewage geyser started, and this time Continental didn't turn back. ]]> Dana (who was in first class, away from the poo geyeser) from Metroblogging NYC writes:
Shortly thereafter they announced that one of the two working toilets is now completely broken, that we will all--all 250 of us--need to share the one toilet in first class and that it is not quite fully functional. We are literally told not to through any paper down and to only go "#1" if we can help it.Gross! According to Dana's post, the sewage was bad but the customer service wasn't much better. (No information, a random overnight stay in Ireland, letting people sit around in a terminal for no reason for hours before telling them their flight had been canceled, etc.)So here we are on an 8 hour transatlantic flight with one semi-functional bathroom and they start serving food and drink. I had two bloody mary's hoping that the sodium levels would make me retain water. My boyfriend and I both refrained from eating or drinking much of anything--a real bummer when you paid for first class and all that good food and alcohol that comes with it. Everyone on the flight was told to "limit their consumption" and to "control what comes out on the other end"
In the end, Continental has offered passengers a $500 voucher. Would you take it? Is that enough? Could someone pay you $500 to take a poo flight?—MEGHANN MARCO
Sewage flows down aisles of trans-Atlantic flight [King 5]
Continental Flight with Human Waste Running Down the Aisle? Yeah, I Was On That... [Metroblogging NYC]
(Photo: Collin Brock)
Yeah, I took a flight on Spirit from Detroit to New York La Guardia that took 4.5 hours of airtime - we spent most of that time circling Manhattan in turbulence. Spirit, no frills airline that it is, no longer provides barf bags, so all you could were people yacking all over the seats and in the aisle. After all that fun, we had to divert to Atlantic City to refuel and have a cleaning crew clean up as much barf as they could. The flight crew were prohibited from giving out water under threat of being fired if they did. Never, ever again will I fly Spirit. Some of these airlines truly deserve to go bankrupt...
]]>@TinaT: In the interest of sharing way too much information, on a recent round-trip of 13+ hours each way I managed to hold off numbah two until I was off the plane. I'm still not sure from where that particular talent was summoned.
]]>"I've had it with this mother @$%#ing poop on this mother @$%#ing plane"
]]>"welcome to newark - where the sewer meets the sea!"
]]>
I would freak on the airline if all i got was a $500 voucher.
Sorry about the all caps, but they're necessary to convey how incredulous I am that any decent airline would allow this to happen.
]]>Hour one, I probably would have been okay. Hour two, a bit miffed. Hour three, pissed. By the end of the flight, I would have been livid. Maybe it's my mother's fault, but I would have absolutely demanded to be compensated for the flight in addition to the $500 voucher - if not more. Double my frequent flier miles or whatever.
]]>No, $500 wouldn't do it. I'm not the squeamish type either. But... that's just fucking nasty. I think those people deserve, at the very least, the entire cost of their flights refunded (and I'm willing to bet that many of them were worth more than $500 - 1st class, business travelers who bought their tix last minute, etc.) I'd say, a $500 voucher PLUS refunding the ticket, whatever the cost of the individual ticket was. Maybe a nice gift certificate for a restaurant, too, since these folks couldn't comfortably eat on the long flight lest they need to use the toilet - not to mention eating next to a river of shit.
]]>@The Walking Eye: God, that's funny. In a thread about shit, you've done the funniest comment with a mere grammatical critique. Bnissan97, you've been justly pwned. I'm sorry but it's true.
]]>Shit happens.
]]>And unfortunately, this is a lose-lose situation. Turn around, and you face the wrath of the people who would've been willing to deal with it and are now pissed that they're facing yet another delay. Push forward and you have a plane full of people "forced to sit next to human excrement".
Lose. Lose.
]]>Agreed. Basic spelling errors like this, and the use of words like "poo" (what are we, like 3 years old now?) is why I refused to vote for consumerist to get on Google news. I still can't believe they made it! When this place stops acting like a teenager's blog, then it might be considered a news source.
Re the original subject - having been to Shannon Ireland, I'd take sitting on a stinky plane any day.
]]>Whoever "fixed" that plane and then cleared the flight should be immediately fired. The passengers should have their full fare refunded. End of story.
]]>In reference to being abused. Intentionally, knowingly exposing people to hazardous material, (human waste which has the potential to carry any number of diseases) in my opinion, is an abuse against anybody and everybody's rights, let alone of a paying customer.
I would like to make it clear to the person who said they would take the shitty flight for $500 that we were awarded vouchers. $500 does not cover the cost of the flight from Amsterdam to Newark. We in fact paid to sit in a cesspool. Also the vouchers are only good for use with Continental. It costs $100 or more, depending on your final destination, to book with them rather than, for example, travelocity.com or orbitz.com. And I don't know how often some of you bloggers fly but fyi here are business class prices from Newark to Amsterdam several months in advance, quoted from the Continental website: "Nonstop from
$4,260.00, With Stops from $3,838.00, Lowest Refundable from, $5,734.00 First/BusinessFirst Cabin from $4,260.00
Loose? I think you mean lose. Come on bnissan97, do spell check!!!
]]>
Here is Continental's website.
[www.continental.com]
Come on Consumerist-This is the second basic spelling error I have found in a week. Makes you loose credibility.
COME ON CONSUMERIST-DO SPELL CHECK!!!
Out of curiosity, why didn't Continental just get another plane or charter one if they didn't have one in their fleet?
Sorry. Better late than never.
]]>
ewww...
Oh yeah, last thing...
Should they change their name to INContinental?
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya
]]>If they stopped to fix it and it wasn't fixed leave me and get me FREE OF ADDITIONAL CHARGE on an other flight. Don't take off again and say "oh by the way here's a cork, good luck"
]]>I'm just kidding, both situations would be awful for all parties involved. I don't think $500 cuts it. Aside from being just gross - this is definitely a health hazard. This was Continental, you said? It's going on my avoid list. Along with dozens of other companies.
]]>Or even that movie Envy, where Jack Black invents a spray-on product called Va-Poo-Rize that destroys poo instantly?
...
@Bay State Darren: Guess that shows how quickly SoaP fell from the internet's collective memory. But I appreciate your effort.
]]>And I don't think $500 was enough compensation. I think Continental will learn that they needed to go above and beyond and get out ahead of the media backlash.
]]>Seriously, that's what I want to know, 8 hours of noxious fumes probably has a way of seeping into your skin, hair, pores, etc.
]]>
Jeez... as if poo in the aisle isn't bad enough, the poor guy got stuck next to Courtney Love. Ya can'ts wins I tells yas!
If I was in coach, and $500 covers the cost of the flight, then sure, I got a free flight (albeit a poo-filled one), and I'll gladly fly Continental again. I've said this before in another post, but I have been using Continental almost exclusively since '95 or so, and I've never run into any problems, except weather related events (rain in Houston or snow in Denver/NY).
]]>
....
That's still just absolutely disgusting. D:
"I've never felt so offended in all my life. I felt like i had been physically abused and neglected. I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours," said Brock.
Does anyone else think this is just a wee bit over the top? (no pun intended)
]]>Things are really looking up for the poo motivated traveler!
]]>$500 doesn't cut it.
Is it a coincidence that there are two nightmare sewage travel articles in a row?
]]>