Never order cocktails with ice on the plane: the flight attendant named the reason
No matter how strong the temptation may be, when you are on board an airplane, do not use ice in your drink, avoid consuming coffee, tea, or hot water served there, and refrain from touching anything in the restroom.
This warning was given by a Reddit user who claimed to be a flight attendant in her viral video. "Ice is handled with a scoop and the trays are not cleaned very often. Every surface on the plane is touched by hundreds of people every day, and it is not frequently disinfected. We don't have the opportunity to wash our hands while serving drinks," she explained, as reported by Travel + Leisure.
The fact is that airplanes rarely have ice machines on board; they obtain ice from third-party services. And, according to a 2017 peer-reviewed study published in the Annals of Microbiology, the ice on board is, frankly, not of the best quality.
Researchers collected samples from 60 ice cubes from both domestic and industrial facilities, finding more than 50 different strains of bacteria.
"A significant percentage of the microorganisms found on the ice are known agents of human infections, and their presence indicates environmental contamination," the scientists stated in their report.
This suggests that the ice cubes are likely picking up contaminants somewhere along the way from the ice factory to your cup, which leads us to the next point - the ice trays on board an airplane are likely highly contaminated.