Passenger sits in blood-soaked area on flight from Paris to Toronto, investigation underway

globalnews.ca:

TORONTO — Canada’s public health agency is investigating after a passenger on an Air France flight from Paris to Toronto said he sat amid the uncleaned remnants of a previous passenger’s hemorrhage.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it is aware of what happened on the June 30 flight and cited its mandate to ensure that anything brought into the country on a conveyance does not threaten public health.

“Millions of travellers travel to, from, and within Canada each year. Given the close quarters travellers share for extended periods, environmental sanitation practices are especially important to reduce the risk of spreading communicable diseases,” the agency wrote in a statement.

Passenger Habib Battah said he was travelling with his wife and two cats on the eight-hour flight to Toronto when he noticed a strong manure-like odour and a large stain on the floor in front of his seat.

Initially thinking the smell was coming from his cats, which were in carriers, he got out of his middle seat and went on his hands and knees to check, he said. He realized one of the carriers was wet and noticed a large stain on the carpet.

Battah alerted cabin crew and said he was given cleaning supplies. After wiping the floor beneath his seat, the cloth came out “blood red,” he said.

“It all made sense to me because I know the smell of blood does smell almost like feces when it’s rotten,” he said.

Battah said cabin crew later told him someone had suffered a hemorrhage in his seat on a previous flight and that he could not change seats as the flight was full — instead they gave him latex gloves and more wet wipes.

“My instinct was I can’t sit with this. I can’t smell this. I have to get it off and no one was helping me do it. So, I just