Q – OK, I’ve become a traveltruth addict, I just can’t handle the news sites these days. But I read something last night that kind of upset me as much on this site last night – you are saying flyers should not consume coffee in flight. Please explain as my life pretty much consists of morning UA flights out of O’Hare on business and I need coffee before landing in Omaha or Detroit to do biz. So why are you so against drinking coffee on an aircraft?
A – Here is the problem: Airplanes have water storage tanks. This water is rarely tested and when it is samples have indicated extremely high bacteria counts. Tank water is potentially toxic. When you are served coffee in flight, the coffee-makers used do not boil the water. Flight attendants do not use bottled water to make the coffee – that would cost a great deal of money over the course of a year. So flyers are, without their knowledge, being served heated but not boiled, water from the aircraft’s tank reserve. We suspect that some of the stomach maladies that affect flyers are caused by parasitic tank water. This happens in the front of the plane as well as in back. Bottled water is rarely used to make coffee and it is almost never properly boiled. That would cause burns and lawsuits.
