Fired Flight Attendant Exposes Gross Passenger Behavior On Social Media

What started just as a blog about bad flight behavior, "Passenger Shaming" has transformed into a huge social media success with 525,000 followers on Instagram, 481,000 followers on Facebook, 25,000 followers on Twitter.

Shawn Kathleen (last name undisclosed due to safety concerns), who started the blog that documented the gross passenger behavior, believes she was fired from an airline where she worked as a flight attendant because of the blog. But that did not stop her from turning her blog into a social media gold mine when she started the Instagram page, “Passenger Shaming.”

Posts poured in from air travelers and flight staff worldwide as “Passenger Shaming" captured moments like passengers making out in their seats, sleeping naked, littering the floor, cutting their nails, watching porn on their mobiles and laptop. It did not take long for Shawn to realize that she had accidentally started an online movement.

"It's kind of nice to put it out there for people to see it's not OK to do this,” said Kathleen, who has also previously worked as a police officer as well as a paramedic, CDC reported. "It's totally grown organically. It's like a movement."

Bizarre Incidents

During her stint as a flight attendant, she came across a number of bizarre incidents. One of the most bizarre incidents was when the smoke detector went off in a plane’s washroom and she went in to check. She found a guy with half of his hair singed off, smoking cocaine. After being caught red-handed, the passenger’s biggest concern was if he would be able to take the connecting flight.

Another incident she recalled was a passenger asking for soda when Kathleen was rushing with a bottle of oxygen to help another passenger who was having a heart attack.

Food Trays

Passengers can often be seen 'abusing' food trays, according to Kathleen. The ex-flight attendant said she witnessed people casually resting their smelly and hairy feet on these trays that are typically used to serve lunch or dinner. She said she has also seen trays being used as baby changing tables by many parents.

Odd Handouts

Passengers would also hand over random weird items to the flight attendants without warning. Kathleen has been handed dirty baby diapers on several inThe flights. Flight crew also has to clean up after the passengers leave gross things behind such as chewed gum, bottle full of urine, dentures and used condoms. “The other fun thing is, when you're going through the cabin, they'll try to hand them to you," she said. "I'm like, 'Let me get some gloves. No I'm not going to just take that, I'm sorry'," Kathleen said.

Kathleen added that updating the social media pages are not that difficult since she now receives almost 50 submissions on a daily basis. However, managing to keep the sites up have definitely posed a challenge for her as she has often run into trouble with the anonymous trolls who have even threatened her life on occasions. “I've had people say, 'I'm going to cut your head off.' I've had death threats.” Her platform has also featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.