There's nothing nice or comfortable about an airplane bathroom. Perhaps some airlines have fancier lavatories in first or business class, but the traditional coach bathroom makes the ones offered in cruise ship cabins look positively spacious.
In a broad sense, airplane bathrooms are tiny, rarely smell great, and are often not the cleanest place on a plane. That's not the fault of flight attendants or even always passengers.
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Airplanes are moving, leading to more restroom mishaps than you might see in a typical public restroom on land. In addition, while the airlines do their best to keep their bathrooms clean during a flight, in many cases, there are lines for the limited amount of available facilities.
People may complain, and flight attendants may want to clean, but the line of people waiting sometimes makes it difficult. It's fair to say that a few people opt not to use an airplane bathroom unless they simply can't wait until they land.
Passengers who must do that know that they can't always expect clean and fresh. They can, however, reasonably expect privacy.
When you lock the door, the stall is marked "occupied," and the door can't be opened from the outside (unless extreme measures are taken). And while a plane's restroom may not be pleasant, they're one-person affairs where someone can't barge in, peak under the stall, or otherwise invade your space.
That was allegedly not the case on a recent American Airlines flight where an American employee has been accused in multiple news reports of placing a hidden camera in the stall. This follows earlier allegations of a similar issue happening on United Airlines flights.
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American flight met by police at the gate
Massachusetts state police and members of the FBI met an American Airlines flight traveling from Charlotte to Boston at the gate Sept. 3, according to Boston 25 News.
"An FBI spokesperson confirmed to Boston 25 that federal agents responded to the incident but would not provide more details," the TV station's website reported.
The incident involved a minor and a male flight attendant, who allegedly stopped the young woman from entering the bathroom so he could "wash his hands before collecting trash," the news site shared. The flight attendant then reentered the bathroom after the passenger left it, an eyewitness reported.
"He said after the girl came out, other passengers saw the flight attendant go back in. That is when he says the girl’s mom came running up to the bathroom to stop another person from going in," the eyewitness shared. "...That passenger said he was told the mom was saying there was a camera in the bathroom."
American Airlines acknowledged in a statement that the flight was met by law enforcement and that it was fully cooperating. The airline did not provide any details as to what happened on the flight.
United Airlines dealt with similar bathroom camera issues
In the 2019 United case, it was a passenger, not an airline employee, who placed the camera. He was identified by police after a passenger reported the camera in the plane's bathroom to a flight attendant. The airline used the camera to identify the passenger who placed it there because he inadvertently (you have to assume) caught himself on camera placing the device in the bathroom.
"After viewing the information on the device, a male was caught on video installing the device in the first class lavatory of this particular flight," per the document. While the man's face couldn't be identified in the video, his clothing and jewelry were visible," USA Today reported in 2019.
Footage of passengers boarding the plane (a place where it's legal for the airline to record footage) was used to identify the passenger, who was arrested. The investigation also uncovered footage from an Emirates flight in a deleted files folder.
