Man left fuming after sitting next to smelly passenger during flight – but people are divided
A PASSENGER has divided people’s opinions after he asked the man next to him on a flight to “ease up on the farts”.
The man was on a plane from New York to California when he noticed a persistent smell coming from the passenger he was sitting next to.
In a bid to block out the odours, the man initially put two Covid masks on, but even that couldn’t prevent the smell from reaching his nostrils.
Instead, he ended up telling the man to go to the toilet to “get it all out”.
However, the passenger refused, saying it was a natural bodily function, and instead put his headphones on and continued to fart for the remainder of the journey.
The man reached out to the internet to see if other people thought he was being unreasonable to ask the man next to him to stop farting.
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He wrote: “I was flying back to California from a work trip in NYC, and just about every 15-20 minutes, I smell the foulest of farts.
“So bad that I got the extra masks I brought and wore a double mask the whole flight to block the smell a little better.
“After a while, I was getting sick of it, and asked the guy next to me if that was him farting the whole time. I was trying to be as polite as I could about it, and he seemed not to be offended or anything…just said “Oh yeah, sorry man” and went back to watching his in-flight movie.
“Another hour goes by and he’s still letting one rip at a regular basis, so I followed up by saying, “Hey sorry to bug you again, but if you’re farting this much, could you just like…go to the bathroom or something? Just get it all out so you can ease up on the farts a bit!”
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“I was trying to have a jovial tone and keep it light, but he was NOT having it. Kept going on about how it’s a natural bodily function and to stop bugging him about it.
“To which I responded, “Yeah, it’s natural to poop too! Maybe it’s your body telling you to let it out?” After which, he just frowned at me and put his headphones back in.
“He kept it up the whole flight, and seemed pretty satisfied with himself.
“Was I really being unreasonable to ask him about it? I know some people are sensitive about their bodily odours and whatnot, but after calling him out about it, he seemed to take pleasure in the fact that he was dropping bombs the whole flight.
“I’ve never really had to ask someone else to poop, so I don’t know if there’s really established etiquette for this situation.”
Some people were on the passenger’s side, saying the man should have tried harder not to inflict his problem on to other people.
One wrote: “I think it’s pretty rude to fart that much on a plane.
“There are other people around who can’t escape the smell and you can’t open a window.”
Another said: “He could still fart in a bathroom. There’s no need to stink up the cabin.”
However, some people stuck up for the flatulent man, saying that it could have been a medical issue that he had no control over.
One said: “It could’ve been a chronic condition, which he may not have wanted to explain in depth to a stranger in the middle of a crowded plane.”
Another argued: “On a plane, this guy’s options are pretty limited.
“You made a huge deal out of this and came off as immature.
“What benefit did you even get by asking if it was him who kept farting other than making things even more awkward?”
It’s not just passengers who fart on planes either, the cabin crew are just as guilty.
In fact, passengers who annoy the flight attendants could also find themselves on the receiving end of a fart-based punishment, known to the flight staff as “crop dusting“.
Whenever cabin crew need to fart, something which is almost unavoidable during a long flight, they will make sure they hold it in to spare their colleagues any unpleasant odours.
Instead, they wait until they’re next to the passengers that have annoyed them the most, which is when they’ll let rip.
The technique was revealed in a thread on Reddit, where flight staff were asked: “Is it that common for flight attendants to walk up the aisle and drop a few?”
One said: “It’s either fart near passengers or fart near crew.
“I find the passengers who inconvenienced me. Can’t hold it in.”
Some people have tried to limit the effects of in-flight flatulence with one man even inventing a banana-shaped foam insert that is worn between the buttocks.
The insert is said to filter out fart smells and has been hailed as a “game changer for air travel”.
The Shreddies Carbonana is the brainchild of Paul O’Leary, who said his invention would “improve passenger comfort for all on board.”
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Scientists have explained why people actually fart a lot more during flights.
A plane passenger was kicked off his plane for continued farting, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.