An Air France passenger has bad blood with the airline after he discovered a patch of blood-soaked carpet under his seat during a flight from Paris to Toronto and was even forced to clean up the horrific scene by himself.
Habib Battah - a journalist and founder of the Beirut Report - took to social media on July 1 to share photo and video of the revolting incident, adding that his belongings even got blood on them.
He said "I've seen a few things in my life, but the horrific blood-soaked carpet on my Air France plane yesterday was another level! An hour into the transatlantic flight from Paris to Toronto, I kept smelling something gross and couldn't figure it out. Until I got up and looked down."
Battah explained that the stain was covering the "whole carpet of the seats" and that it was "wet to touch." He said that once he informed the flight attendant of the mess, they only gave him some wipes to clean up the disgusting mess.
Initially believing the blood to be poop, Battah shared that he "used over a dozen" of the wipes upon realizing that the stuff coming up was "blood red."
"I took out my backpack from under the seat and the strap was soaked in blood too and with that same awful stench. I got on my hands and knees and cleaned for half an hour," he shared, adding that the staff gave him more wipes to clean up the mess and "casually noted a passenger had hemorrhaged on a flight before ours."
Included in the posts was a video of Battah cleaning the blood off his luggage that it absorbed from the carpet. He can be seen scrubbing diligently to get the mess off.
"The staff were shocked because they claimed a cleaning crew had removed the seats after the sick passenger, but apparently not cleaned the floor," he said.
He added: "I just kept wondering what happened to this poor passenger that lost this much blood and how did it happen. One staff member mentioned internal bleeding and infection. What if it was a disease-would I or any other passengers be exposed?"
Battah was distraught and shared his hope that the Air France International Air Transport Association would take the incident "seriously" and inform him and his wife whether they were "exposed to any hazardous medical/bio waste."
"Chief attendant filed a report, noting sick passenger traveled Thursday from Paris to Boston, so 1 other flight exposed passengers to blood before ours," Battah said as he concluded the posts.
In a statement to CNN, Air France confirmed that the liquid was blood and feces and that "specific products are used" to clean biohazardous waste on board their aircrafts.
"Cleaning has been done, and the seat cushions had to be removed, resulting in the decommercialization of the row of seats," the airline shared, not confirming where the initial cleaning took place.
Air France added: “A customer travelling on the next flight from Paris (CDG) to Toronto (YYZ) reported residual traces of blood on the floor, soiling his personal belongings. The crew immediately assisted him in cleaning his belongings, providing him with suitable equipment such as sterile gloves and disinfectant wipes."
“An internal investigation has been launched to understand the reasons for this situation," they later continued. “The risk of exposure to residual traces of blood on the carpet is low, if not non-existent.”
Battah explained to CNN that he initially believed the smell was coming from his cats, who were in carriers not too far from where the mess was. He had to clean blood off the carriers, as well.
The journalist, who was traveling with his wife, said that the pair were offered "two small bottles of Evian water" and two blankets from business class were used to soak up the blood.
Unfortunately, the flight was full and the couple were unable to move seats.
“We had to sit there smelling the blood for the next seven hours,” he added. “The smell of rotten blood is like manure. I’d taken my shoes off at the start of the flight, and there was blood on my socks.”
He later stated: “I’ve been covering Beirut for 20 years as a journalist. I’ve lived through wars, airstrikes, seen assassinations, car bombs, and narrowly survived the port explosion. I thought I’d seen it all. I didn’t expect to find more blood than I’ve seen in Beirut on an Air France plane.”
