{"id":699492,"date":"2026-05-28T06:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/699492\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:51:12","slug":"passengers-disgusting-mid-flight-act-on-busy-plane-sparks-fury-and-health-warning-from-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/699492\/","title":{"rendered":"Passenger\u2019s \u2018disgusting\u2019 mid-flight act on busy plane sparks fury and health warning from experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

A passenger on a packed flight has been left horrified after a fellow traveller was seen picking at the skin on their feet during the journey.<\/p>\n

The incident was described in an online forum, Reddit, by another passenger, who claimed the woman removed her shoes mid-flight before repeatedly peeling skin from her bare feet while seated among other travellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLady next to me on the flight started picking at the dead skin on her BARE FEET,\u201d the witness shared in the viral thread<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photos in the post show the woman holding her bare foot up on her knee as she picks at the skin around her toenails.<\/p>\n

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A Sydney-based podiatrist has warned the vile act is not just poor in-flight etiquette but also a potential health risk to other people on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cPicking your skin and nails on your feet is particularly disgusting because you use your hands to do this,\u201d Dr Kate Edwards told news.com.au.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you actually cleaning your hands afterwards, or are you touching everything around you \u2013 your food, drinks, seatbelts, TV screens, doors?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Edwards explained that performing an in-flight pedicure increases the chances of bacteria, fungus and yeast being transferred from shared surfaces on an aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, barefoot on planes is also gross, as you are walking in everyone else\u2019s fungus, bacteria, and yeast, then popping your feet into a warm, dark, moist sock or shoe. This will breed like wildfire,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

She advises all passengers to keep their shoes on during the duration of a flight.<\/p>\n

Poor in-flight etiquette isn\u2019t uncommon among travellers. Virgin passenger Justin Fok was recently left repulsed by another traveller\u2019s vile act on board a domestic flight.<\/p>\n

\"AA passenger picking at their feet. Credit: Reddit<\/p>\n

The videographer was flying from Sydney to Brisbane for a film festival when another passenger removed her shoes and placed her bare feet beside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer feet started stretching and edging closer and over to my seat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I prompted her to stop, she being in the middle seat, switched sides and proceeded to lay her feet on the other unfortunate soul on the other side!\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cgross\u201d encounter started on the wrong foot when the 27-year-old boarded the plane to find the passenger sitting in his assigned seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I politely asked her to move she scooted over and didn\u2019t stand up, despite the whole row being empty, so I had to awkwardly squeeze past her, not a huge issue, but a bit odd,\u201d Mr Fok said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the safety briefings, she was talking loudly on the phone on speaker, despite being the time for airplane mode.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A passenger on a packed flight has been left horrified after a fellow traveller was seen picking at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,1625,44,41,39,42,40,3792],"class_list":["post-699492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}