A flight attendant is putting the rumors about airline ice to bed with a thorough TikTok demonstration.
TikTok user Lauren (@lauren__tully) is a flight attendant and mom of two who posts about her profession on the social media platform. In a video posted on Aug. 5 with 274,000 views, she addresses rumors that you should avoid airplane ice due to sanitary concerns. According to Lauren, this simply isn’t the case, and she is prepared to present evidence to back her claim up.
In the video, Lauren is clearly on an airplane with a few trays of ice in front of her. “Setting the airplane ice rumors straight,” she writes in the text overlay. “It always comes fresh in bags and clean.” Lauren is wearing gloves and using specific tools to open the ice bags in preparation for drink service.
This video appears to be in response to a video posted by another TikToker on July 25. In that video, influencer Kit Neenan (@kitkeenan) shows herself looking unamused on a flight. The on-screen caption reads: “Drinking my lukewarm water and Coke knowing what I know now about airplane ice.”
In the caption of her response video, Lauren writes, “@Kit Keenan following up on your post so everyone gets a visual of the ice process… I’m not sure who started the internet rumor that airplane ice is gross and dirty but rest assured it’s one of the cleaning things on the plane.”
@lauren__tully @Kit Keenan following up on your post so everyone gets a visual of the ice process… I’m not sure who started the internet rumor that airplane ice is gross and dirty but rest assured it’s one of the cleaning things on the plane ✈️ #airplane #airplanes #aviation #flightattendant #flightattendantlife #flightattendanttraining ♬ whos afraid of little old me – overlays 💐
Viewers are grateful for the demonstration
In the comments, several users thanked Lauren for the reassurance. They can now go back to enjoying cold beverages on flights without fear of germs.
“Not even airplane ice could’ve kept me away from a Diet Coke-but this video does help my husband! Thank you!” wrote one user.
A second user wrote, “I avoided ice all this time for nothing!?” Lauren replied, “So silly! The ice is the same you’d get at the gas station for a party.”
However, that’s not to say that every place on an airplane is pristine. One user asked, “Ok next I need to know about the coffee machines/coffee!!” In this case, Lauren replied, “Girl. Do you really wanna know?”
How safe is airplane ice?
Neenan isn’t the only person skeptical about airplane ice. It’s not clear what airline Lauren works for, but it could be that different airlines, or even different flight crews, may have different sanitation standards. Last year, another flight attendant discouraged viewers from consuming ice on planes, saying that sometimes flight attendants are not as fastidious as Lauren is when opening the bags.
The Daily Dot reached out to Lauren via TikTok comment and direct message for comment.
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