Family forced to sit beside pool of sick on Jet2 flight

Jet2 claimed cleaning vomit from plane would cause 12-hour delay

A group of 11 family and friends were forced to sit beside a pool of sick on a Jet2 flight (AFP/Getty Images)

A family from Rotheram were left sickened after being forced to sit next to a pool of vomit during a four-hour Jet2 flight from Paphos, Cyprus.

Keeley Casewell, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, told The Sun the sick – from a previous flight – was beneath her daughter's seat, but claims staff wouldn't let her move. Casewell was travelling with 11 relatives and friends, and complained to the airline shortly after returning from the Mediterranean holiday in July 2017. She was surprised when Jet2 said it wouldn't offer compensation for the £8,000 holiday, sending general guidance of what to do if there is sick on a plane instead.

Since then, however, Jet2 has issued an apology, telling Casewell that it was an "isolated incident" and stressing the crew had been trying to ensure "the flight was not delayed".

Jet2 says it refused to move sick to avoid delays (PA WIRE)

Flight delays incur great costs to both airlines and passengers, with airline crew often bearing the brunt of pressures to avoid hold-ups.

Keeley said: "My family were on row 19 and the sick had spread to under my six-year-old daughter's seat. The sick was just covered with tissue and they were piled quite high over it. I couldn't see any clear attempts to clean it up properly. I asked the air hostess if she could move our seats but she just said no. I do understand that there may have been nowhere to move me to but she could have explained that."

"All together my family spent around £8,000 on the whole holiday so you'd think that we would receive better service. You wouldn't expect there to be sick underneath your seat on any flight. My kids were completely put off their food, they were crying because of the smell and because they were so hungry.They had to hold their noses throughout the flight. We had to leave our hotel at seven in the morning and the breakfast there didn't start until half an hour later so we told the kids we would get something at the airport."

"The food at the airport wasn't great so I thought we'd buy something on the plane but the kids couldn't stomach eating anything. We were on the plane for four hours and the smell was just getting worse… I know that passengers can't control it if they feel sick but surely the staff should have the facilities they need to clean it up.

"The attendants said that they had tried to clean it up with the salts but you could tell they hadn't. There were huge clumps of it on the floor still. My partner even offered to clean it up for them but they wouldn't let him. I was told that if they had to clean it up there would have been a 12-hour delay, to be honest I'd rather have had the delay.

"It was really unpleasant to have to sit next to and it was making me feel sick. I just think it's absolutely disgusting. Surely the staff on board should have the correct equipment with them to clean it up.

Casewell also argued that the sick could easily made others ill, had the perpetrator had a stomach bug.

Jet2 had an embarrassing incident earlier this year when it was claimed a pilot was seen with a can of Stella Artois in the cockpit (Mercury Press & Media)

"It could have been a sickness bug so someone on the plane could have become ill from it. It's a very closed environment on the plane so there could have been all sorts of germs floating around. The air hostess told me that it wasn't a sickness bug as she had been told by the person who was sick.

But how does the person who was sick know it wasn't a stomach bug? During the flight an attendant did approach me and apologise but it was too late. Really you would think that they would have the facilities to clean sick up.

Since the event on the return leg of their family holiday, the airline has apologised to the family for the "isolated incident", telling them that staff had made every effort to clean it up. A spokesperson said: "We would like to apologise for this isolated incident. Our cabin crew did their best to clean the affected area during the time the aircraft was on the ground in Paphos, ensuring that the flight was not delayed, for the convenience of all customers on board."

The embarrassing episode follows an incident in August when a Jet2 aircraft was shadowed by a French fighter jet, in addition to a claim last month from a Jet2 passenger that he saw a can of Stella Artois sat beside a pilot in the cockpit after landing in the UK from Alicante. A sobering thought.