Let’s explore a little more under the theme of “Oh no you didn’t…”
I didn’t always fly on the large, modern aircraft. This will really date me, but I began my career on 727s, DC9s and DC8s. At the bottom of the seniority list I got really familiar with the DC9. One endearing quality of that piece of equipment was the location of the aft double (?) jumpseat. It accommodated one comfortably. It was, however, designated as a double jumpseat, but I digress… It was attached to the aft door, adjacent to the aft lav. Quarters were so tight back there that when folks would come and go from the aft lav when you were seated on the jumpseat, you had to swing your legs to the side to avoid being hit by the door.
Now that you have the picture, I had been working in the aft cabin with my flying partner during the Spring when storms pop up and it got bumpy. We had to return to our jumpseat and strap in for turbulence. We sat there for an uncomfortable few minutes, then my flying partner finally declared that she could no longer take the smell coming from the lav. This could be the case towards the end of a flight, but this was ripe.
We kept a can of disinfectant spray next to the jumpseat for just this purpose. She grabbed the spray, cracked the door and sprayed and then slammed the door as was SOP in this situation. Ahhhhh, relief! After a few seconds we could hear someone coughing in the lav who had apparently forgotten to lock the door. Our eyes grew as big as saucers and we literally scooted up that aisle and squeezed onto the front jumpseat with our third flight attendant. Mortified does not begin to describe how we felt.
If that gentleman is reading this, we really are sorry. That is not SOP with people IN the lav.
Our bad…
Whitefish Dog and Home 