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Ceiling pipes at airports in London and Atlanta break and spew raw sewage (Photo: Michael Coghlan / Flickr)
I remember reporting on a nasty incident at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 in 2012 where a sewage pipe broke in the ceiling of the baggage claim, contaminating a few hundred suitcases in the Terminal 5.
“The smell was absolutely foul, as was the mood of the passengers who had to leave without their bags,” one passenger told The Sun.
The airport had to send the bags out for professional cleaning before returning them to passengers.
Passengers with bags damaged or soiled beyond repair were paid up to $1600 per bag. Yuck! Imagine getting off a plane after a 12 hour journey and ready for a big meeting only to be told that you would not be getting your bag because it had been sprayed with sewage? Yikes!
That was in 2012.
This week yet another airport sewage-spewing incident emerged in a lawsuit.. this time it took place underneath the A Concourse at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport… at about the same time in 2012.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
Delta Air Lines flight attendant Tina Brock was dozing in a sleep room in the flight attendants’ layover lounge at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport one morning when she and her colleagues heard a loud gushing sound and saw a cascade of liquid suddenly pouring through the ceiling tiles onto the floor.
As Brock got out of a recliner and scrambled to move her suitcase and other personal items from the area she realized it wasn’t water that was flowing down.
It was raw sewage, Brock says in a new lawsuit — urine and feces — and it wasn’t just soaking her things; it was getting all over her, too, splashing on her hair, face and mouth, and then completely dousing her.
Yikes! But it gets even worse…. The AJC reports that the flight attendants were stuck in the room where the sewage soon became about a foot deep. They reportedly hid in a closet where they began to gag and vomit due to the stench. They escaped by wrapping themselves in plastic bags.
Brock is now suing Atlanta Airlines Terminal Corporation, the body responsible for airport maintenance, for damages from the incident. In the days following the incident, the AJC reports that she became depressed and had the feeling of “bugs eating away at her skin” and is claiming severe psychological damage, PTSD and fear of crowded spaces at airports.
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disqust101 says
May 5, 2015 at 9:28 pmJust what you’d expect – “depression” – to try and win a few easy dollars. Surprised there wasn’t emotional trauma, neck and back injuries too!
simplyfantabulous says
May 5, 2015 at 8:31 pmYou never pay extra for this kind of treatment on Spirit Air.
Greg says
May 5, 2015 at 6:59 pmThis sounds like a terrible episode of Rescue 911 for that flight attendant.
Small room – with a foot of rising sewage.
That is terrifying.
Dan Leifker says
May 5, 2015 at 6:11 pmThank you, Chris. I’m sure I speak for all TravelSkills readers when I say how enriched I feel to have this useful information about ceilings that gush urine and feces. 🙂
I have a terrible phobia about baggage carousels, and this story isn’t helping. I once knew someone (a coworker of a friend) who had a cheap, overpacked suitcase that burst open on the conveyor belt just before it got to the carousel. As she watched other people’s luggage emerge onto the carousel, she was horrified to see individual items from her own suitcase (dresses, pajamas, brassieres, etc) coming down the conveyor belt as well and then slowly circle before a crowd of very bewildered people.