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British Airways business class passenger forced to sit surrounded by dried vomit on 10-hour flight

Cabin crew offered him a blanket to cover it up rather than changing his seat

Helen Coffey
Thursday 06 June 2019 16:42 BST
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British Airways business class passenger forced to sit surrounded by dried vomit on 10-hour flight

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A British Airways business class passenger spent his 10-hour flight surrounded by dried vomit after cabin crew failed to offer him an alternative seat.

Dave Gildea, the CEO of a software firm in San Francisco, was flying from London Heathrow to Seattle when he pulled down his seat’s footstall, only to discover it was covered in dried sick from a previous flight.

The 38-year-old uploaded a picture to Twitter with the caption: “This was my seat from London to Seattle yesterday, covered in dried in vomit, no offer to move seats, just insinuation from the attendant that I had done it even though it was dried in for days.”

He told the Sun that the vomit was also splashed on the wall behind and floor below the footstool.

Gildea claimed that, upon alerting the flight attendant, he was offered neither an alternative seat nor an apology. Instead, at his request the crew member gave Gildea a blanket to cover the mess so he could put his feet up and sleep.

“Of course as I slept, I moved around on the blanket so I woke up with dried vomit on my feet,” he said. “It was pretty disgusting. With the price I paid for the ticket, I was shocked.”

British Airways told The Independent: “We pride ourselves on delivering a high standard of service and an enjoyable experience on board our flights, and we are sorry that on this occasion this fell short of our customers’ expectations.

“We are investigating and are in contact with the customer to apologise and resolve this matter.”

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