Sir, – I refer to Paula Gahan’s article “An Irish flight attendant on the top five most annoying things people do”' (Abroad, July 18th).
There is nothing quite like an assault on your senses when you are stuck in a confined space with an imperfect stranger beside you.
Your tray table may be in the upright position and your baggage may well be secured beneath your seat, but the person who is sitting two inches away from you, and is your elbow nudging companion for the duration of your flight, may well have other ideas about what they are going to do.
My husband and I have sat beside a variety of people who seem to have forgotten that they are on a plane at all. One lady kicked her shoes off just as the plane was taxiing. She took out a nail file and polish and proceeded to give herself a mini-pedicure as the air hostesses were showing us how to apply the oxygen masks. It took a lot for me not to put my own mask on there and then.
Another woman pulled three hard-boiled eggs out of her rucksack and started tapping them furiously off the table top; when they were peeled she ate them like apples as if she were Granny Smith herself.
Nothing, however, can beat the man on a long-haul flight who took a hot facecloth from the air hostess, and gave his armpits a good old scrub. And then cleaned his face straight after.
However, none of them disgraced themselves any further by clapping when the plane landed. – Yours, etc,
MELANIE HUNTER,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.