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Plane passenger hits out at woman's unhygienic act

A man has publicly shamed a female passenger he sat next to on a flight after he took offence to her unhygienic way of sitting.

Frederick Joseph, from New York, US, took to Twitter in a series of tweets on March 13 to criticise the woman who had placed both her shoeless feet on the fold out table in front of her during their United Airlines flight.

"This woman next to me took her shoes off and placed both feet on the table. So I’m waiting for flight staff to say something..," Mr Joseph wrote accompanied by a picture of one of the woman's feet.

Frederick Joseph updated an image of a woman's feet perched on a fold down tray. Source: Twitter/ Frederick Jospeh
Frederick Joseph updated an image of a woman's feet perched on a fold down tray. Source: Twitter/ Frederick Jospeh

But to his amazement, the woman failed to see the issue with her feet claiming she had no choice due to a lack of space.

Mr Joseph says the woman proceeded to flag down a flight attendant, telling her that he was the passenger being disruptive.

"She says to the flight attendant 'this man is disrupting my flight, I’m just trying to be comfortable'," Mr Jospeh tweeted.

Mr Joseph claims the woman was then offered a $1000 voucher in compensation after she reluctantly agreed to take one foot down while Mr Joseph ate his meal.

Mr Joseph (pictured) believed the woman was allowed to get away with having her feet up because of
Mr Joseph (pictured) believed the woman was allowed to get away with having her feet up because of

A stunned Mr Joseph says he asked where his compensation was for his "suffering" to which the flight attendant allegedly said there was nothing more she could do.

Mr Joseph claimed the whole saga came down to "white privilege" and suggested if the roles were reversed where a black person had their feet on the table, they would be told to remove them.

"The audacity of white privilege... I’m irate, because no black person would ever get away with this s***," he wrote online.

Thousands of Twitter users joined the debate, with many siding with Mr Joseph that the woman's actions were unacceptable.

"WHO DOES THIS. Sweaty travel feet on the table? Omg. There should be a rule, but I would never have thought it would be necessary," one user wrote.

Some however played down the situation saying it was a minor irritation.

"It's not so bad. I've had to put up with worse," another tweet read.

Many users also disputed Mr Joseph's claims that the incident involved racial discrimination.

A United Airlines spokeswoman denied to Yahoo7 News that a customer was offered compensation on the flight.

"At no point was any customer offered compensation for this issue, and we’ve talked with our customer to clarify this with him, and address his concerns," they said.

"We want all of our customers to be treated with respect, and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind."