Who’s to blame for these peeing-on-plane incidents?

We’ve had two public urination incidents on planes within the last week.

That’s not quite a trend, but all we need is for one more copycat drunkard to relieve himself on a flight for my good friends at USA Today to put this issue on the front page.

Last week, Robert “Sandy” Vietze, a member of the US skiing team, was accused of urinating on a 12-year-old girl while on a red-eye flight from Portland, Ore., to JFK. Vietze reportedly consumed “five or six” beers, and claims to have passed out in his seat and woken up to find himself being yelled at by the girl’s father. He faces a federal misdemeanour charge of indecent exposure, according to the US attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

And this morning, a passenger on a Paris-to-Dublin flight, unable to control his bladder, relieved himself on the floor of the aircraft. Reports say the inebriated passenger announced “I need to piss, I need to piss,” before doing the deed.

The man’s name? Gerard Depardieu. As in, the French actor.

Peeing-on-plane incidents are not unheard of. But they rarely happen this close together.

We had one in June on a flight from Auckland to Singapore. The passenger, who was reportedly drunk, urinated in a plane aisle during the flight, spraying other passengers. Remarkably, he was let off with a warning.

The last major public urination incident in the United States happened in 2009, when Jerome Kenneth Kingzio was sentenced to three weeks in prison for urinating on a 66-year-old woman during a Continental Airlines from Los Angeles to Honolulu. The victim was reportedly headed to Hawaii on for a scuba diving vacation and was watching an in-flight movie when Kingzio stood up next to her aisle seat and began urinating on her midway through the flight.

What’s going on? For all I know, these could be three random incidents where passengers boarded the plane after having one drink too many.

But my nine-year-old son would beg to differ.

On a recent international flight, he woke up and had to go badly. Since we were in the first row of economy class, and he could practically see the business class restroom beyond the drawn curtain, he made a mad dash for it before I could stop him.

A flight attendant blocked his way, forcing him to march all the way to the back of the aircraft. He might have wet himself, had the aisle been obstructed by a meal cart.

I think most flight attendants know that the rule about using the restrooms in your class of service must be flexible. But I wonder how many of these public urination stories wouldn’t have been stories if a restroom — any restroom — had been available.

(Photo by cheu kiecfu/Flickr)

← Older Comments
  • Sadie Cee

    Why should other people be exposed to one conducting one’s intimate bodily functions?  How long have there been long distance flights?  Why is this just now becoming an issue?  Does this indicate that there has been a breakdown in society’s standards of public behaviour?

    Let’s face it.  Adult incontinence is becoming more and more widespread.  On terra firma people who have had certain surgeries (I will not be more explicit here but I believe you get my drift) wear protective garments as a matter of course.   

    Rather than males or females using air sickness bags to relieve themselves in public (repulsive to most people), I recommend wearing protective garments.  TSA will need to get on board with this because wearing them should not give rise to more assaultive searches on their part.  Sobriety in flight would not do any harm either.

  • Linda

    Larry, I don’t know how old you are but wait until you are of an age when prostate problems start and then say adults should manage their bladders!  We women also after child-bearing years have problems and need to go and NOW!!  Yes, the airlines need to watch out and not serve drunks or even not let them on the plane to solve that problem but there is money in those drinks and as such that won’t happen any time soon.

  • Linda

    The drunk in your case was the one at fault but this was my experience on a SW flight.  We were waiting in the PHX airport to board the flight to SEA.  There was a 9(?) year-old boy waiting to board also.  Just before boarding this kid vomits all over himself and the area we had to pass through to board.  Now I don’t know if it was the flu or something he ate but they cleaned him up and let him board.  We barely got in the air and he stood up to go to the bathroom and vomited in the aisle next to his seat in the front of the plane!  I asked the FA why they let the kid board and why they didn’t show him how to use the barf bag.  All I got was that they got it cleaned up and some kind of disinffectant stuff put over the area.  The kid and his parent should have been made to rebook their flight to make sure he wasn’t going to infect the full flight of people if it was the flu.  So it can be the airlines/FA fault if they don’t use good judgement.

  • Fishplate

    On a recent (delayed) flight from LHR to BOS, I noticed no end of people getting up to use the lav, despite the illumination of the seatbelt sign.  None of the FAs seemed to have any problem with that.

    Upon landing, we were given permission to use the restroom while waiting on the tarmac for an arrival gate to open up.  We were told that everyone would have to be seated before we could move again.  And it all went smoothly, because there was cooperation.

  • Sylviaguarino

    I understand your point but have a small disagreement with the conclusion.  If it were my child, I would not want him/her flying in the event the vomiting was an indication of a more serious illness.  But in this case, the airline staff did have some responsibility as well as culpability.  Guess with all this peeing, puking, spreading germs and worse I will fly even less…. and I already prefer to drive (when possible), or take the boat or train……

  • Kara Jones

    I think Spirit Air was considering that.  I hope they have washable carpets…

  • Weebee1

    The FA’s and Pilot And Airlines are all responsible. There was no turbulance, the seat belt light on and FA’S selling drinks off a cart. Big money now, because they charged for soda also. It’s convenient for the FA’s to keep people sitting. Just flew Alleigiant and this was the case. A mad dash to the restroom after they finished serving. Could have went in my seat, it was so bad.

  • Kara Jones

    –

  • Beerpressure

    They Shouldn’t have been so inebriated that they lost control.

  • http://profiles.google.com/avivabrandt Aviva Brandt

    Grrr on the flight attendant who required a child to use the “proper” bathroom rather than the nearest one. I’m glad he was able to make it to the one in the rear of the plane in time.

  • Steviemagid

    I was sitting in a bulkhead seat on a Southwest Airline flight in June, when an elderly man went into the restroom. Next thing I saw was a urine running out from under the bathroom door and heading for the aisle. The flight attendant saw what was happening and started throwing down paper toweling to stop the flow before it got to the seats. After she gloved up and sopped up the mess, she then liberally sprayed a disinfectant all over the carpeted floor where the mess had been. She was definitely uncomfortable with her job, but she did it. I certainly wouldn’t want to have done that job!

  • Chris in NC

    Late to this discussion and briefly scanned through the comments, so I may be echoing what others have said…

    There’s nothing random about the 3 situations as all 3 passengers were DRUNK. There is no excuse for being inebriated on a airplane.

    However, I have been on flights where the captain has kept the seat belt sign on for extended periods of a time (over 2-3 hour spans). Compounding the problem, every time a passenger attempts to use a restroom, the FAs tell the passenger to return to the seat and make a public PA announcement. When the seat belt sign goes off, there is a mad dash to the bathroom. Then passengers are in the aisles, and another PA announcement mentions that no one can congregate around the front bathroom due to security concerns. I’ve witnessed some near accidents with the above situations.

    There are passengers with medical problems that may not be able to hold it for that long. Are we getting to a point where you may need to insert a Foley catheter just to make it through a long flight?

  • Geoff

    1. You are not permitted to be boarded if intoxicated.
    2. A flight attendant is not permitted to serve an intoxicated person.
    3. You are not permitted to bring liquor for personal consumption aboard the aircraft.
    4. The flight attendants in both cases should be severly disciplined.

  • flutiefan

    who is to say the F/A served them at all?  consider this scenario: while waiting in the airport bar, the passenger downs 3 shots in quick succession, chugs 2 beers, whatever.  the alcohol does not take effect immediately.  the passenger boards, acting totally normal. the plane takes off, the altitude contributes to the alcohol metabolizing differently, and now the passenger is completely sloshed. he stands up and pees like a sprinkler on his neighbor.

    so who is to blame?  the only person responsible: the passenger.

  • flutiefan

    furthermore, if the passenger was visibly intoxicated at boarding time, why haven’t you placed any culpability on the boarding agent who let him on in the 1st place? why is that the flight attendants’ fault?

  • Disillusioned

    As an f/a I can tell you that the “bathroom in your class of service” is an Homeland Security directive and we do make allowances wheaten situation warrants. As for drunk passengers I do cut them off and then get cursed out, threatened and told I’m a bitch. Of my last3 medical emergencies 2 were for people who took sleeping pills and then consumed alcohol. If you are intoxicated I can detect that hopefully but there is no way I can tell what meds you have ingested beforehand. One of those passengers was a doctor who passed out at my feet! Another man gave his 18 son his own Ambien midway over theAtlantic. luckily the doctor who came to out assistance was a neurologist… Sincetne boy started having convulsions. I have seen the service industry – not just airlines – go to He’ll in a hand basket over the years. Common courtesy and friendliness has morphed into a sense of entitlement and belief that a purchase means you can abuse workers without limit. When I am the customer I will be damned if I shit all over the people who are being paid to provide me with a service…. Not to take my abuse. And before you ask…. I think my time to quit has come and find a nice job where I work with inanimate objects…. I’m still trying to forget the vile language that was heaped upon me some 10 hours ago.

← Older Comments