U.S. Airlines Serve Unsafe Water, Study Says — This One Scores Worst

A cold snap surprised European countries this month, leading to flight cancellations in the Netherlands, the U.K., and France. This week, Finland is shivering under freezing conditions, with temperatures below -37 C (-34.6 F), and flights have been canceled at Kittilä Airport, in the far northern Lapland region of the country. Thousands of tourists have been stranded as a result.

Finnish Lapland is no stranger to extreme cold, but frosty conditions make it hard to de-ice airplanes and run airport operations. The deep freeze is expected to continue, and temperatures could drop as low as -40 C (-40 F) in the coming days.

After three years of testing water samples from 11 regional and 10 major airlines, the nonprofit Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity released alarming results last week. It found that airlines are offering unsafe drinking water to passengers, with American Airlines among those receiving the lowest scores. Almost all regional airlines scored poorly, apart from GoJet Airlines. Meanwhile, Delta and Frontier offer the safest water quality in the air.

The study recommended passengers avoid drinking coffee and tea onboard and stick to sealed bottles. In fact, it also suggested that people should avoid washing their hands when flying and use alcohol-based sanitizers instead.

Related: I’m a Wheelchair User, and I’ll Never Fly Southwest Again

A train worker at London North Eastern Railway was fired after he served first-class passengers sausage rolls that were taken from the trash.

The incident happened in 2023 when Peter Duffy retrieved sausage rolls from the trash and heated them, and a colleague then served them to first-class passengers. The event was reported by another colleague who overheard two workers laughing in the kitchen. They also found that the waste bin had no sausage rolls, despite being told they were thrown away. After CCTV footage showed him taking food out of the trash, Duffy was let go from his job.

The railway company operates trains between London and destinations such as Leeds, York, and Edinburgh.

A 56-year-old woman from Minnesota lost her life in the U.S. Virgin Islands after a shark bit her. Arlene Lillis was swimming in the waters of Dorsch Beach on St. Croix when a shark attacked. She lost her arm, but she was still conscious when helped onshore by a nurse and a former lifeguard, who rushed to save her after hearing her screams. Unfortunately, she died at the hospital.

A 22-year-old French tourist fell to his death while visiting a waterfall in Koh Samui, Thailand. Identified as Alexis, he was traveling with his girlfriend, and both were taking photographs together at the Na Muang 2 waterfall when he slipped on a rock and plunged to his death. Authorities recovered his body after three hours of rescue operations from the second tier of the waterfall.