Travelling by plane, no matter where you sit or what ticket you’ve paid for, you always feel a bit grim getting off.
That’s because, according to a lot of scientific research I definitely didn’t do, by the time you get off a flight the air inside the cabin has changed from mostly air to mostly farts. The ratio of oxygen to farts has tipped in favour of farts and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
Cars, buses and most trains are slightly different, they have windows you can crack open. However, commercial planes don’t usually have windows which open. And for good reason. So breathe the farts we must.
This woman, however, was having none of it:
As the video shows, one traveller did not want to breathe in your farts thank you very much. No farts for her! The cabin was too stuffy already and she needed some fresh air.
So, without a window to crack open, she reached for the next best thing – the emergency exit door.
The viral footage was reportedly filmed on a Xiamen Airlines flight. Luckily the plane was still on the runway, so there was no mid-air emergency. Though the reckless action caused the flight to be delayed for an hour at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, in the capital of central China’s Hubei Province.
According to reports, cabin crew had already warned the passengers, and others nearby, not to touch the door or the lever of the emergency exit – not because they were trying to keep the heat in, of course, but for general safety, y’know.
However, the female passenger either didn’t get the message or didn’t care for rules, and proceeded to open the door because she felt it was ‘too stuffy’ in the cabin and she needed some ‘fresh air’.
Passengers and staff then had to wait on board the plane as airport police came and apprehended the woman for the offence. An hour later, after a second round of safety checks, the flight was able to depart.
The woman may face an indefinite travel ban for her actions.
It could be worse, your plane could be forced into an emergency landing after some guy sparks up a joint mid-flight. Then again, it would mask the smell of farts at least.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.