Flight attendants advise against drinking anything randomly on the plane—only sealed water is safest.

▲ Flight attendants recommend only drinking sealed water on the plane (illustration / photo by Peng Huaiyu)

By Rita

Everyone knows that the air inside a plane is dry, so it’s essential to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. But what you might not realize is that you should be especially cautious about any beverages on board. The UK’s Independent compiled“things flight attendants advise against drinking on planes,”which is well worth a read. In truth, we often don’t think too deeply about many of these things.

According to this report,，flight attendants advise never drinking water from the plane’s taps.This is common knowledge for people in Taiwan, but for those from certain other countries—especially where tap water is safe to drink straight from the cold faucet—it’s a hard habit to break. Why shouldn’t you drink tap water? Most can imagine that the water in the cabin isn’t recycled, and it’s genuinely hard to know how clean it really is.

Also, many flight attendants generally avoid drinking coffee or tea on the plane. Why? Mainly because there’s no guarantee how clean the hot water containers are—or even how often they’re cleaned. That’s why they advise passengers not to drink either the cold or hot water on board, unless it comes in a bottle.

Fifteen years ago, a flight attendants’ association set regulations for cabin cleanliness, but how strictly these are actually enforced is something passengers can hardly predict.