A former Virgin Atlantic flight attendant has called out the baffling influencer trends she’s witnessed, particularly on TikTok, that have left her appalled.
With 16 years of experience under her belt, Skye Taylor expressed her concerns to Express.co.uk about the reckless behaviour influencers promote to their followers.
She shared: “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.”
She added that a particularly worrying incident occurred in April 2010 when a Continental Express flight from Houston to Washington was forced to land after a passenger scrawled ‘bomb’ on the lavatory mirror. Thankfully, after an exhaustive search, no explosives were discovered on the plane.
And the behaviour doesn’t stop there. “The amount of people that show their babies sleeping on the floor is absolutely crazy,” she remarked. “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? ”
Skye also criticised the lack of restrictions on social media content that can lead to unsafe practices, saying: “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.”
She emphasised the importance of safety awareness, which she feels is often lacking due to infrequent flying by passengers.
The flight attendant added: “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.”
Additionally, she pointed out other concerning behaviours such as taking selfies dangerously close to aircraft engines and bringing bulky, unsafe car seats on board that could obstruct aisles during evacuations.
Skye also pointed out that influencers often go to social media to vent about traumatic or unpleasant flights, directing their ire at the crew without grasping that staff decisions are invariably linked to passenger safety.
Giving an example, she said: “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.”
Skye further noted that with the reduced number of crew members post-Covid, finding the opportunity to assist a passenger by holding a baby has become virtually impossible given the increased workload.
She continued: “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.”
She highlighted that crew members undergo six weeks of safety training compared to just two days of service training, showing where the focus lies. Skye, who is passionate about sharing accurate information online, especially regarding children’s travel, expressed frustration with misleading posts by influencers, stating it drives her “nuts”.
Despite recently leaving the industry due to long hours causing insomnia, she laughed off her continued concern: “I suppose I shouldn’t really care any more but I don’t think that will ever leave me.”