Fliers expect germs, take care on flights: Your Say

With Ebola in the news and flu season ramping up, Paste BN's article "5 myths about germs on aircraft" prompted a discussion. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

Aircraft are, for the most part, quite clean and in a very satisfactory condition when they are boarded. The cleaners do mostly a good job, and I don't worry about hygiene when I fly. However, I do think the toilets have a tendency to get dirty after a while on long-haul flights.

— Suhail Shafi

I spent 16 years in the airline industry, and I can tell you that the larger aircraft do not get cleaned like you think they do. There is not enough time.

— Stu Templeman

I already clean our area when we fly. People think I am crazy, but my husband has a chronic form of leukemia, and those nasty bugs will kill him. I always travel with alcohol based antibacterial wipes and lots of hand cleaner. I won't trust my husband's health to an airline.

— Vicki Ballinger

Letter to the editor:

Specific to the idea that a flight attendant is supposed to help passengers stow carry-on bags, with all due respect, "little old lady" or not, if one cannot place his or her bag in the overhead compartment, then the individual shouldn't bring it on ("5 myths about flight attendants").

People with carry-on luggage have a responsibility to be able to manage it; otherwise the bag should be checked. If passengers would stick to that simple guideline, the boarding process would be much smoother and faster.

Randy Rogers; Scottsdale, Ariz.