British Airways passenger claims he was forced to sit in a urine-soaked seat for 11 hours

Advertisement

British Airways Boeing 747 400

Flickr/Josh Hallett

British Airways Boeing 747-400.

Airplane seats aren't cleaned as often as most of us would like them to be, but one passenger claims his experience took it to the extreme.

Advertisement

Andrew Wilkinson, a 39-year-old IT consultant, told the Sun he was forced to sit in a damp, urine-stained seat on a British Airways flight from London to South Africa.

Wilkinson told the Sun that when he alerted BA cabin crew, he was given wet wipes and asked to clean it up himself.

However, the wet wipes weren't enough to overcome the urine, Wilkinson said. Wilkinson then asked to be moved to business class, but the cabin crew could not accommodate his request, according to the report.

As a result, Wilkinson said he was forced to spend the 11-hour flight sitting on a blanket that he claims also got soaked in urine.

Advertisement

"So I was left to sit in a urine-soaked seat for over 11 hours when I paid £1,242 ($1,549) for a return flight with BA," Wilkinson told the Sun. "It was awful. By the end of the flight, I could feel it seeping into my jeans."

In a statement to Business Insider, British Airways wrote:

"We were very concerned to hear about this and have been in touch with our customer to apologize and make amends. We would always try to move a customer in this situation, but unfortunately, on this occasion, the flight was completely full and there were no spare seats to move the customer to. The cleanliness of our aircraft is of the utmost importance to us and our planes are cleaned thoroughly after every flight. We're investigating what happened on this occasion."

Wilkinson, who on his way to Cape Town, South Africa, said he received 5,000 frequent flyer miles for the airline.