Airline Forced Passenger To Sit In Dog Feces During Flight, Later Apologized

A Delta Air Lines passenger said he was forced to sit in feces left behind by a service dog during a flight last week. Michigan man Matthew Meehan had already sat down on his flight from Atlanta to Miami on Nov. 1 when he realized that feces was all over his seat and the surrounding floor.

“I realised the person next to me also had their nose covered, and then I went to take my charger out, bent down to charge my phone and realised it’s not just a smell, it’s actually faeces and it’s all over the back of my legs, it’s all over the floor, all over the wall of the plane. And I sat in it,” Meehan said.

After sitting in the mess, Meehan said the crew gave him two paper towels and a bottle of gin to wipe it off him in the lavatory. The passenger told Yahoo Lifestyle that when he emerged from the bathroom — expecting the seat to be disinfected — the flight was still boarding as normal.

“That’s not our responsibility, someone from the gate needs to take care of that. We are in the middle of an active boarding. We’re busy. If you want, you can get off the plane and talk to somebody,” he said he was told.

Meehan told ABC Action News he was forced to remain seated and place a blanket over the mess.

After landing, the passenger published photos of his feces-covered shoes on Facebook and slammed the airline.

“Is this even legal?” he wrote in the post. “This is a health code violation! Delta was made aware of the feces from the prior flight before my flight boarded and no one checked to see if it was clean, I was allowed to board unknowingly and sat in it covering myself in sickness and disease. No apology, no care, and was told to deal with it by Atlanta Red Coat. I’m shaking. I’m disgusted.”

In a statement, a Delta Air Lines' representative apologized.

“On Nov 1, an aircraft operating flight 1949 from Atlanta to Miami was boarded before cleaning was completed following an incident from a previous flight with an ill service animal," the statement read. “Delta apologizes to customers impacted by the incident and has reached out to make it right, offering a refund and additional compensation. The safety and health of our customers and employees is our top priority, and we are conducting a full investigation while following up with the right teams to prevent this from happening again. Upon landing in Miami, the aircraft was taken out of service to be deep cleaned and disinfected.”

Meehan said he was offered 50,000 miles in compensation, but may take legal action instead.

“I’m a diamond medallion and a million miler,” he told Yahoo Lifestyle. “If this is how they treat their top tier, I can’t imagine how they treat people who aren’t part of the SkyMiles program.”