Passenger Says Flight Attendants ‘Did Nothing’ While A ‘Mysterious Liquid’ Dripped On Her From An Overhead Bin
She was shocked that they left her to deal with it by herself.
Alena Ozerova / CanvaPro It’s unlikely that every flight you’ve ever been on has gone smoothly, that’s just the nature of the beast. However, some people are stuck dealing with a lot more than just a cramped middle seat or a crying baby, such as Sophie Shaw, who shared her flight misfortune in a TikTok.
Not long after takeoff, she noticed her seat had begun to accumulate water — or at least what she thought was water. When she looked up, she was shocked and terrified to see an “unidentified” liquid dropping down on her from the overhead compartment, and the events that followed were equally disturbing.
This passenger had ‘mystery liquid’ falling onto her for the entirety of a flight and flight attendants ‘did nothing’.
For most passengers on this Southwest flight, everything was relatively normal. The quick trip from San Jose to Santa Ana was slated to be just over an hour. Everyone boarded without any significant problems, stowing away their luggage in carry-on bins and getting to know their seatmates for the short flight.
One of those passengers was Shaw. She boarded and sat down as normal, however, what initially seemed normal turned out to be “the worst experience” she’s ever had on a plane — a recorded turn of events that amassed almost 4.5 million views on TikTok.
Shaw showed the liquid falling from a bag in the overhead compartment onto her window seat.
Although she thought nothing of it at the time, Shaw remembered seeing flight attendants attempting to clean up something in the overhead compartment prior to take-off.
“They put some paper towels in the locker,” Shaw told Kennedy News per NY Post, "So I guess they’d tried to fix something but they couldn’t."
It didn’t initially seem like a big deal until she felt her seat get wet. Thinking that her seatmate had spilled some water, she anxiously turned sideways, trying to clean it up without making a scene.
Photo: Leung Cho Pan / Canva Pro
However, what seemed like a quick fix turned sour when she realized the liquid was not only something different than water but falling on her quickly from a bag in the overhead bin.
Despite her pleas, flight attendants said they couldn’t ‘move her seat’ or ‘move the bag.’
Trying to catch a flight attendant’s attention, she quickly tried to clean up the pool of liquid growing larger and larger on her seat. With paper towels from the people in her row, she realized that the problem was going to be larger than she could quietly deal with. However, once the flight attendants came over, she was shocked to realize that nobody could help her.
“I pressed the button and told the flight attendant,” Shaw admitted. “She looked at me as if I was a nuisance,” she recalled. “I think it should have been her job to make a bigger deal out of it, but she just said the flight was too full and she couldn’t move the luggage.”
Photo: Hispanolistic / Canva Pro
While many airlines strongly suggest flight attendants do not move overhead luggage, the rule is generally applied to over-exertion restrictions, meaning exceptions are common for situations where staff is needed.
However, Shaw wasn’t granted an exception. So, instead of garnering the help of the flight crew, she was left to sit with the liquid continuously falling from her for the rest of the flight.
“I tried to shove myself to one end of the seat to avoid the dripping, but my pants were completely soaked and I was sitting in a puddle,’ she added.
Following the viral video, the airline supposedly offered apologies to the woman and a ‘free flight voucher’ from her online claim.
What was meant to be a quick flight turned out to be unmistakably long and uncomfortable for Shaw. When she arrived at the Santa Ana airport, drenched in the mystery liquid, she immediately went to the customer service desk where they told her to file an online claim.
“They responded immediately,” Shaw updated in the comments of TikTok, “and gave me a voucher that will cover a free flight.”
Ultimately, the event didn’t turn out to be catastrophic but people in the comments were still disgusted and outraged with what she had to endure for the entirety of her flight especially since it could have been a major health risk.
One thing is certainly clear, the crew and passengers on this flight were very lucky such a calm and level-headed woman was seated under the leak or it could have been a much different video.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango focusing on pop culture analysis and human interest stories.