A former flight attendant has exposed the influencer trends that she finds the most baffling – like letting babies sleep on the floor of planes.
Skye Taylor, from Southampton, has been left appalled by some of the things she’s seen on TikTok recently, and from her 16 years experience working for Virgin Atlantic.
She said influencers were the most problematic passengers and she spoke to Express.co.uk about the unsafe behaviour they blissfully broadcast to their thousands of followers.
“The amount of people that show their babies sleeping on the floor is absolutely crazy,” she said. “It is like, you certainly wouldn’t go and put your child in the footwell of a car.
“Why would you put them on the floor of an aircraft that could potentially drop 10,000ft within minutes and your child is laying on the floor under metal?
“It is crazy there are no restrictions on uploading stuff like that or making it look a certain way on social media because then it gives people ideas.
“It is just about being safety aware which a lot of people aren’t and I totally understand that because they don’t do it everyday. But some of it is a little common sense, which seems to be lost sometimes on social media.”
Other worrying flight trends Skye has noticed include people standing on the apron by the aircraft and taking selfies dangerously close to the engine.
She also flagged influencers bringing on bulky and unsafe car seats that end up blocking the aisle – an obvious problem in an evacuation.
Listing another concern, she told us: “There was one TikTok and there was writing all over the aircraft mirror.
“I get that normal people wouldn’t understand that, but there have been quite a lot of occasions in terrorist attacks where writing on a bathroom mirror was quite a horrible thing.”
A more sinister example happened in April 2010 when a Continental Express flight from Houston to Washington was diverted after a passenger wrote “bomb” on a bathroom mirror. The plane was searched after landing and no explosives were found.
Skye, meanwhile, said another common gripe was for influencers to complain on social media after a traumatic or bad flight.
She said their anger was often directed at crew members without realising that the decisions staff make are always to do with safety.
When asked for an example, she explained: “I saw somebody else saying the crew member refused to hold her baby while she went to the bathroom.
“But we are not allowed to hold babies any more, that is a safety thing that was changed. If we do want to hold a baby, we have to find a secure seat, strap ourselves in, and put that baby on our lap.
“Nowadays with the amount of crew that have gone after Covid, the chance to actually do that with somebody when you are working is probably nil because you are so busy.
“You do what you can to help parents and we are not being rude if we say we can’t do something, there normally is a reason behind that. The public rightly don’t understand, so my way when I was working was to be honest.”
Skye, who raises awareness on her own TikTok page, went on to explain that crew members get six weeks of safety training and just two days of service training – demonstrating what the priority is.
She said the majority of airline workers were helpful and kind, and this was a significant reason why they got the job in the first place.
And she now hopes to get correct information shared because what she sees influencers upload online – particularly when it comes to children – drives her “nuts”.
Skye, who recently quit the industry after long hours left her with insomnia, laughed: “I suppose I shouldn’t really care any more but I don’t think that will ever leave me.”
