Aeroplane travel. Most of us safely assume that because planes have been built by ENGINEERS and that pilots have spent a million hours completing flight school that we must be in good hands. Right? Actually what happens in the cabin of an aeroplane is not always as sanitary and efficient as you may think. There has been some speculation on the interwebs lately, specifically amongst us crowd who hop onto planes on the reg , as to how safe our our modern aeroplanes truly are, with a specific interest in the cleanliness and hygiene factor in all of it. Look, no matter which way you look at it, you are ultimately sitting in a small and confined space with recycled air amongst a lot of sweaty strange people who may or may not carry any number of strange and exotic diseases in their systems. No, this isn’t paranoia speaking. This is common sense. Not enough of us travellers are really considering the health implications of this type of travel. Before you book your next flight, consider these points:

What are the conditions of the hold in which pets are stored?

Thankfully it turns out that your beloved Mittens is kept safely warm and well-looked after in the hold. An unpressurised hold would mean that Mittens would be an ice cube within an hour. But the concern about couriering animals in an aeroplane has more to do with the peripheral chaos and noise around the flight. It’s very much akin to the cacophony of Guy Fawks night – so sedating your little moppet might be a tad more considerate.

Aeroplane water is safe to drink – surely????

Nope. Those big tanks that hold water for use in the cabin? Not ayoba. Apparently they are an absolute breeding ground for the most despicable forms forms of bacteria. This has been confirmed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Wall Street Journal. So just don’t, ever, drink aeroplane water. Ever.

Do aeroplanes dump their ‘waste’ into the sky?

The answer is: Sometimes. Basically aeroplanes are designed to NOT to do this, however it can happen from time to time. The actual mechanics of how this happens is not apparent here, but reports abound of people in boats who sometimes enjoy a light shower of blue-ice cascading onto the deck as a Boeing sails overhead. Yeah, human waste is made into something bright blue on aeroplanes as a result of the chemicals it has to be treated with.

Dimming of the lights before landing? Why?

Oh that ones simple -it’s so that your eyes can adjust to the outside lighting in the event of an accident. How considerate.

Can a stranger unlock the aeroplane bathroom door FROM THe OUTSIDE?

Yes. And it’s kind of obvious why. Do we really need to explain why this is a necessary fixture on an aeroplane bathroom door? Moving along swiftly then…..

Cabin air is filthy and will make you contract the Bubonic plague.

Actually this is interesting. One automatically assumes that recycled cabin air would automatically be quite gritty and not healthy for the lungs. But the truth is that cabin air is so severely filtered that it tests as being cleaner that a first-world private hospitals air. Just remember that everything else you can touch on an aeroplane is pretty much a cesspool of germs though.

How certain am I that the pilot really HAS a pilots license and hasn’t faked his way into the cockpit ala Leonardo Di Caprio in ‘Catch Me If You Can’ ?

Okay , so this might make you freak out. Slightly. Apparently, just because you fly in a big commercial airliner does NOT necessarily mean that you are going to get flown around by Captain Planet. The big airlines have recently started using subcontracted regional airline crew. And your pilot? He might be making less money a year than the manager of your local DVD rental store. Why? To save money of course! That’s what the big corporations do! Remember?

[SOURCE] Budget Travel