A man headed to Toronto on Air France stepped into a pool of blood and diarrhea on his flight from Paris.
According to CNN, Habib Battah noticed a wet portion of the plane's carpet under his seats when he and his wife took off from France.
"It smelled like manure," Battah told CNN.
The couple had brought their cats with them and initially thought they had made a mess in their respective cages.
“It was our first time travelling with the cats, and I was thinking, ‘Oh god, they’ve had an accident, I’m so embarrassed,’" he continued. “Then I thought, maybe it’s someone’s body odour. I was sniffing and sniffing, then said, let me get the cats out.”
After Battah checked on the cats, he noticed that they were fine but a stench came from the carpet after finding a massive stain.
“I said it smells like merde – s**t," Battah explained. "She handed me wet wipes. I started wiping and it was red – blood red. And it kept coming up red. I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’ I just wanted to see what it was. After a while, one of the flight attendants said, ‘You’d better go wash your hands, and here are some gloves.’”
Battah began cleaning before noticing the wipes were turning red as he took them off the floor. The flight attendant then turned to the pilot who asked Air France HQ why there was a blood stain on the flight.
Air France HQ confirmed it was human blood after a male passenger from a previous flight suffered a "hemorrhage."
Naturally, Battah grew frustrated with the situation, as did one of the flight attendants. The flight was full so the couple couldn't get moved, forcing them to intake the smell the entire flight.
“I’ve been covering Beirut for 20 years as a journalist," Battah said. "I’ve lived through wars, airstrikes, seen assassinations, car bombs, and narrowly survived the port explosion. I thought I’d seen it all. I didn’t expect to find more blood than I’ve seen in Beirut on an Air France plane.”
Air France confirmed to CNN that the liquid the couple found included blood and feces.
Battah is currently in talks with his lawyers and posted photos of the situation on Twitter.
The airline offered to cover the costs to clean the cats and suggested a voucher worth $500, but Battah declined.
“I don’t think it’s right, I think it’s a serious biohazard and should be investigated thoroughly. I don’t want to be shushed with some change. Our airfare cost $2,500 – is a 20% discount worth sitting in blood and feces for? I think it was gross negligence and someone should be held accountable. Incidents happen – we’re human, we bleed – but once that plane lands, you’ve got to clean the aircraft. It’s egregious that it didn’t happen,” Battah concluded.
