‘She’s watching Bridgerton’: Airplane experience goes awry when a mysterious fluid starts leaking from one seat ahead

A video has gone viral on TikTok showing a pair of airplane passengers’ journies being interrupted by a mysterious liquid dripping — nay pouring — from a seat in the row in front of them. It’s ironically captioned, “perfect start to a 5 hour flight,” and suffice it to say it’s not the kind of thing you want happening to you on a lengthy journey.

In the 17-second clip, posted by @phoebeluci9 (who is presumably doing the filming), the camera shows the unknown fluid creating a hefty damp patch on the floor before panning to show the hooded person in the leaky seat. Then it shows @phoebeluci9’s flight companion — the poor guy sat directly behind the mini waterfall — awkwardly laughing at his unfortunate predicament.

We all know how inconsiderate some people can be on public transport, so although there’s every chance the “culprit” was completely unaware of the leak behind them, the video has predicably sent TikTok wild, with users wondering what’s happening and suggesting their own various (and often rather naughty and disgusting) explanations.

How did TikTok react?

One user wrote, “She’s watching bridgerton,” cheekily suggesting that the passenger in the leaky seat was getting slightly overexcited while watching the famously sexy romantic period drama. Many people agreed, with responses to the comment including someone replying, “Reasonable reaction tbf,” another saying, “Comment of the year” and another exclaiming, “HAHA LITWRALLY TOO RELATABLE!”

Many users hoped the passenger wasn’t doing the unthinkable and urinating in their seat. Comments suggesting that might be the case included, “IS HE/SHE PEEING,” “Omgggg PSA: *If you’re incontinent, PLEASE wear diapers!!!” and “I’d get up and scream “hey everyone this guy’s pi**in”

Several users simply hoped it was water, desperately wanting someone to “PLEASE TELL ME ITS JUST WATER” and fervently praying that it was just a poor water bottle leaking. One user was adamant about this explanation and said “It’s for sure a water bottle that is leaking through a straw due to the pressure change. This happened to me with a bottle of milk.”

Another user suggested @phoebeluci9 and her travel companion should consider themselves lucky compared to what happened to her, writing, “that’s alright I woke up to a girl throwing up on me….still had 6 hours left of flight. traumatised.”

Wow.

A survey of 2,002 travelers conducted by Solitaire Bliss in June 2024 suggests that some American states are worse than others for poor traveling etiquette. Iowa, Illinois, and Virginia residents are most likely to commit naughty travel behaviors, with “naughty scores” of 92.49, 89.81, and 88.85 out of 100, respectively. Arkansas, Alabama, and Florida residents are the best-behaved airline passengers, scoring 54.58, 55.85, and 60.77, respectively. In other words, if the passenger whose seat was leaking is from any of the latter three states, the incident in the TikTok was probably just due to a leaking water bottle. If they’re from any of the former three, there’s every chance they were relieving themselves in their seat. Some people are just awful, after all.