What is a well known 'public secret' in the industry you work in that the majority of outsiders are unaware of?

NotSpez@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 629 points –
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False. I briefly worked on a crew that cleaned commercial airliners between flights. We cleaned every single seat, deep cleaned the lavatories etc. We were required to inspect every single seat to make sure nothing was left behind that someone could use as a weapon or could endanger the next passengers.

In other words, the answer to the question "Is my plane clean?" is maybe.

You would absolutely know if it was cleaned properly.

That's more of an overnight thing. The crew will absolutely pick up and wipe things down between flights, but no one's going in to do a full clean when the plane is just turning around.

Oh I'm sure that's true. On the other hand, at the MRO I work for we have very specifically removed plane cleaning from our contract. We don't do it. And further, whether the plane gets a wipe down between flights depends entirely on the turn around (I'm friends with several flight attendants from multiple airlines). That nightly thing sounds nice but tell me, how many planes have down time overnight?

We used to have a contract to do deep cleaning of everything. There's anywhere from 6 inches to a foot of dust behind every panel I have ever removed on a plane. We gut aircraft regularly for maintenance covered in all manner of things. Sticky floors, sticky and or dirty windows and wall panels, lavatories where it is clear there have been multiple spills that have not been properly cleaned, just wiped up between flights. Galleys where drinks or coffee have been spilled repeatedly. You can say false if you'd like but I am well aware of the standard of cleaning on Southwest, Frontier, Jet Blue, American, Alaska, and Virgin Atalantic planes.

Maybe it depends on the airliner?

A few days ago there was this thing about aircanada (of course) where people were kicked off a flight because they didn't wanted to sit in vomited chairs that were only wiped clean and sprayed over with some perfume