Air France has come under fire after a passenger uncovered blood and feces under his seat on a recent transatlantic flight.
Habib Battah was flying from Paris to Toronto with his wife and two cats on June 30 when he noticed a strange smell he likened to "manure."
Upon investigating, he noticed that beneath his cat carriers was a wet stain on the floor and reached out to a flight attendant.
"I said it smells like merde – s**t," Battah told CNN. "She handed me wet wipes. I started wiping and it was red – blood red. And it kept coming up red. I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’ I just wanted to see what it was. After a while, one of the flight attendants said, ‘You’d better go wash your hands, and here are some gloves.’”
“I didn’t know it was blood until a flight attendant said, casually, ‘Oh, we heard another passenger had a hemorrhage’,” says Battah. “Then I noticed the cat carrier was stained as well.”
The incident had occurred the day before on a flight from Paris to Boston flight. The male passenger survived, and the captain requested that the area be cleaned for the aircraft’s return flight to Paris. That clearly didn't happen though and Battah and his wife were forced to sit above the stain for the duration of the fully booked flight.
Three days later, Air France contacted Battah and told him that the blood had been mixed with feces. In a statement, Air France said it "understands and regrets the inconvenience caused by this situation" and that it has launched an internal investigation.
The airline offered to have Battah's cats washed and give him a $500 voucher but he declined.
“I don’t think it’s right, I think it’s a serious biohazard and should be investigated thoroughly," Battah added. "I don’t want to be shushed with some change. Our airfare cost $2,500 – is a 20 percent discount worth sitting in blood and feces for? I think it was gross negligence and someone should be held accountable."
"Incidents happen – we’re human, we bleed – but once that plane lands, you’ve got to clean the aircraft. It’s egregious that it didn’t happen."
Battah is currently talking to lawyers about potential recourse.
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