A flight attendant has issued a warning about the dangers of wearing shorts when flying. Shorts may appear to be the ideal choice for starting off your beach holiday, but Tommy Cimato, a steward with years of flying experience, argues that choosing knee-baring clothing is a habit that’s best avoided so you don’t pick up a mountain of germs.

The cabin crew member didn’t hold back in sharing the gritty truth about cleanliness on commercial flights, equating putting your head against the plane window with wearing shorts onboard. Tommy said: “Do not fall asleep or lean your head on the window. You are not the only one that has done that and you don’t know how many people or children have wiped their hands or other things all over the window.

“It’s the same thing as the window, you never know how clean it’s going to be, so if you have pants, you’re going to have less germs.”

Tommy suggested long trousers as a better choice for travellers wanting to minimise direct contact with potentially grimy seats, thus optimising their defences against the array of bacteria festering on planes.

While our skin is generally quite effective at barricading against bacteria, this doesn’t stop the threat entirely – particularly if pathogens find a path from unsanitary areas to our mouths, reports MirrorOnline.

A cabin crew member has issued a stark warning about the germ-ridden flush button in aircraft lavatories, urging passengers to never touch it with bare hands. He said: “Do not ever touch the flush button with your bare hands. It’s honestly just super unsanitary and pretty gross, so when you flush, use a napkin or tissue that’s in the lavatory.”

Passengers who aren’t feeling their best on flights should alert the cabin crew rather than keeping quiet. The crew member advised: “Don’t feel afraid. So if you need food, water or an air sickness bag, please feel free to let us know,” he said.

Meanwhile, American flight attendant Jamila Hardwick revealed on Inside Edition the shocking lack of cleaning for certain areas on planes, such as tray tables. She said: “Oh my gosh, this is disgusting. When cleaners come on they don’t have time to wipe down every individual tray.”

A disturbing study by Insurancequotes.com in 2019 found that tray tables can be riddled with an average of 11.595 germ colony-forming units, making them a hotspot for bacteria. However, during the Covid pandemic, airlines stepped up their game with rigorous sanitising measures to ensure the cleanliness of their aircraft before and after each flight.

Passengers are being urged to disinfect their tray tables before tucking into an in-flight meal, after photos went viral showing flyers resting their bare feet on them.

One Instagrammer claiming to be a crew member commented on such a photo, asserting: “As a flight attendant, I always tell people to take their feet off the table. I say it very nicely. Most comply.”

They added: “I say it breaks the table, etc but really I think it’s so disgusting and tacky. What are they going to do? Write a letter about me saying she made me take my feet off the table? Never. Some flight attendants don’t care but I try to keep some kind of civility at work, but it’s a tiresome battle.”