Back in 2005, on a United flight from Omaha to Denver, I was seated in the front coach row waiting for our plane to take off. I was the only person on that side of the aisle and I had the window, so I thought I had it made. But just before the doors were shut, an older woman, probably in her early 60s, came and sat in my row. She was a large woman and needed to use both the aisle and middle seats, as well as one of the seatbelt extenders.
After she got settled in, I noticed a peculiar odor, but I couldn’t place what it was. We took off and several minutes into the flight the smell continued to grow stronger. It wasn’t until the child sitting in the seat behind me said “Mommy, I smell pee” that I realized what the odor was. Of course, once I knew this, the smell got even worse. I turned my blower on as high as it would go, pointed it at my face, and attempted to keep my face as far away from her as possible.
By the time we reached Denver, the smell had become near unbearable. I wanted to get off of the plane as fast as possible, but the woman was too large for me to get around and she waited until every other passenger had exited the plane before finally getting up and waddling out. Picking up my carry-ons from under and above the seat, I noticed something wet on the floor that went all the way under the seats to the floor of the next row back. As I was walking through first class to exit, I heard the woman telling the head flight attendant something. It turns out that she had some sort of bag attached to her ankle that had sprung a leak on the floor when she was squeezing into the aisle. She was letting them know that someone would need to clean it up.
They ended up delaying the next flight at that gate because they had to switch the planes to clean it.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That is absolutely disgusting. And seriously, why did she wait until the *end* of the flight to alert the flights attendant/s of the problem? Or, why didn't she go to the restroom and empty it out, for chrissake?
I feel bad for her. And you. That's a really crappy situation for everyone involved.
I feel bad for everyone who had to smell that… but even worse for the poor woman to whom it happened.
How embarrassing it must have been for her. I can sort of understand why she didn't go anywhere (with a leaking bag, it might have made things worse) because it likely would have resulted in even more embarrassment for her.
A terribly unfortunate situation for all.
She might not have even known it was happening. A lot of older people don't have a sense of smell any more.
I'm with SAW and GottaLoveIt, though if the OP is accurate in his/her assessment that the woman was in her early 60s, I doubt her sense of smell had declined because of age. It sounds as though she was in just poor health…
That poor woman must have been mortified.