BA purser? Wrong airline and wrong job. Anyway, I haven't said everything happened with one operator.
As to the "What else are we supposed to do with teapots?" brigade, the immediate answer is probably to do nothing. The solution is for aircraft designers, certification authorities and aircraft buyers to insist on galleys where the most basic food hygiene can be applied. But wait, that's not possible, it will affect profits. But wait again, the seat pitch debate is showing signs of pax being willing to pay a bit more for more room, so perhaps they might pay a bit more for hygiene.
Some more that come to mind:
10. Cabin crew asking the captain to misuse the seatbelt sign to prevent pax from using the loo and walking round to avoid DVT, for the benefit of the cabin crew: SEEN frequently.
11. Cabin crew blocking off serviceable lavatories to keep things in: SEEN frequently. I haven't seen dead bodies being put in the lavatory compartment, but I'm fairly sure that at least one operator would do this if it were to occur. Having said that, it's probably quite a sensible thing to do with a body, especially if there's a possibility of infection, so I disagree with the programme presenting this as a 'shock-horror' item.
12. An aircraft cleaner using a dirty rag to wipe all parts of the lavatory and then using the same rag to wipe the galley worktops: SEEN.
As to non-qualified persons (cabin crew, pax, ground engineers, flight engineers etc) flying the aircraft, I have seen or heard no evidence of this for many (10+) years, but in the past I have had enough independent reliable first hand accounts to convince me that it has gone on. In the absence of anything more recent, perhaps this particular item should be put down to history.
Yes, some of it's down to making the best of a bad job, and the bad job should be rectified by better design and training, but serving food that's been on the floor, putting fingers in food, using the pot spout to lift the seat, not washing hands?
Last edited by Hew Jampton; 30th Apr 2002 at 12:24.