Thinking of having your usual cuppa on a plane? Here's why you should reconsider, according to a flight attendant
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We can all agree that flying isn't always easy. After long hours in the air, often the only thing that can perk us up and make us feel rejuvenated is a hot cup of tea or coffee.
You may want to reconsider before ordering the English breakfast blend, though, because a former airline worker has revealed there is a 'disgusting' reason why she has never accepted any offers for a hot beverage made on a flight.
Drinking a cup of tea or coffee in flight could be dangerous. Credit: YakobchukOlena/Getty Images.
In a TikTok video, flight attendant Kat Kamalani revealed that the majority of flight attendants and other airline staff members don't drink beverages prepared with water from the plane.
'Rule number one: Never drink anything that isn't in a can or a bottle,' she said in the clip.
If you're wondering why, she said that it's not the coffee beans or the tea leaves that flight attendants are avoiding – rather, it's the water that comes out of the tap.
Kat claims that the water storage tanks are 'never cleaned' and are therefore often unsanitary. You can imagine how much filth and particles have settled inside the tanks over the years… Yuck!
'When you drink that coffee or tea, it comes from that hot water, and it's just disgusting,' she added.
The coffee makers, she added, should also be avoided because they are infrequently cleaned unless they are broken. Thankfully, the kettles are cleaned in between each trip, which is a huge relief.
Even if the quality of the water onboard a flight may vary from one airline to the next, the widespread belief that flight attendants never drink the water on an aeroplane is enough to make any passenger rethink accepting the complimentary cuppa.
But is this true in Australia, or is it just an urban myth?
According to an Aussie flight attendant who was interviewed by the lifestyle network website 9Honey, it is true that they rarely drink tea or coffee prepared on flights.
Why? The same reason you would not want to use the coffee pots in hotel rooms – you don't know how often they get cleaned. And by cleaned, we mean 'properly' cleaned.
'It's just more like, you know how you do your dishes at home, and you know that they're clean. When things aren't necessarily done the way you would do them, they might not be as clean to your liking. That's how we see it,' said the flight attendant.
When questioned regarding the quality of the water brought into the aeroplane, the airline employee claimed that the water isn't being drained every time it is refilled.
This means that airlines just put more water on top of the water that is already there, basically mixing the clean and the… not-so-clean water.
Crew members have mixed feelings about the water that is loaded into planes. Credit: iStock.
'This means that a typical trip consisting of three different stops—for example, Adelaide to Darwin, Darwin to Denpasar—would see the tanks filled up, mixing all the different water together, which can be quite gross because they all taste different,' the Aussie flight attendant went on to say.
They also admitted that crew members are supplied by the airline with alternative drinking water, so they don't really need to drink from the loaded supply.
We've been flying for a while now, but this is news to us, folks! Who knew that aside from getting motion sickness on a plane, you might also get ill by simply drinking a cup of coffee or tea?
Did you know this already? Or is this something you've just learned as well? Please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section!
You may want to reconsider before ordering the English breakfast blend, though, because a former airline worker has revealed there is a 'disgusting' reason why she has never accepted any offers for a hot beverage made on a flight.
Drinking a cup of tea or coffee in flight could be dangerous. Credit: YakobchukOlena/Getty Images.
In a TikTok video, flight attendant Kat Kamalani revealed that the majority of flight attendants and other airline staff members don't drink beverages prepared with water from the plane.
'Rule number one: Never drink anything that isn't in a can or a bottle,' she said in the clip.
If you're wondering why, she said that it's not the coffee beans or the tea leaves that flight attendants are avoiding – rather, it's the water that comes out of the tap.
Kat claims that the water storage tanks are 'never cleaned' and are therefore often unsanitary. You can imagine how much filth and particles have settled inside the tanks over the years… Yuck!
'When you drink that coffee or tea, it comes from that hot water, and it's just disgusting,' she added.
The coffee makers, she added, should also be avoided because they are infrequently cleaned unless they are broken. Thankfully, the kettles are cleaned in between each trip, which is a huge relief.
Even if the quality of the water onboard a flight may vary from one airline to the next, the widespread belief that flight attendants never drink the water on an aeroplane is enough to make any passenger rethink accepting the complimentary cuppa.
But is this true in Australia, or is it just an urban myth?
According to an Aussie flight attendant who was interviewed by the lifestyle network website 9Honey, it is true that they rarely drink tea or coffee prepared on flights.
Why? The same reason you would not want to use the coffee pots in hotel rooms – you don't know how often they get cleaned. And by cleaned, we mean 'properly' cleaned.
'It's just more like, you know how you do your dishes at home, and you know that they're clean. When things aren't necessarily done the way you would do them, they might not be as clean to your liking. That's how we see it,' said the flight attendant.
When questioned regarding the quality of the water brought into the aeroplane, the airline employee claimed that the water isn't being drained every time it is refilled.
This means that airlines just put more water on top of the water that is already there, basically mixing the clean and the… not-so-clean water.
Crew members have mixed feelings about the water that is loaded into planes. Credit: iStock.
'This means that a typical trip consisting of three different stops—for example, Adelaide to Darwin, Darwin to Denpasar—would see the tanks filled up, mixing all the different water together, which can be quite gross because they all taste different,' the Aussie flight attendant went on to say.
They also admitted that crew members are supplied by the airline with alternative drinking water, so they don't really need to drink from the loaded supply.
We've been flying for a while now, but this is news to us, folks! Who knew that aside from getting motion sickness on a plane, you might also get ill by simply drinking a cup of coffee or tea?
Did you know this already? Or is this something you've just learned as well? Please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section!
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