Imagine being on a plane and everyone decides to take their shoes off at the same time—and half the flight is wearing sweaty gym socks. That stench isn't far from what passengers experienced on Monday's Sriwijaya Air flight from Bengkulu to Jakarta, Indonesia, when they boarded a plane loaded with more than two tons of durian. If you're not familiar with the spiky Southeast Asian fruit, know that it was apparently pungent enough to ground the flight. Yes, really. Some passengers refused to enter the plane cabin, while others fled, reports CNN, forcing the plane to delay takeoff by an hour while the fruit was removed from cargo. Although it's not illegal to bring durian on board, so long as it's properly wrapped, we'd say leave it at home on your next trip—lest you want a revolt on your hands.
Durian isn't the only food you should leave at home. Traveler editors past and present have some pretty strong feels about what can and can't pass as an in-flight snack. Here are our worst offenders.
Leave Cheetos at Home
"The crunch is incessant, and it’s like there are a thousand garage doors closing right by my eardrum. And while licking your fingers clean and placing them on our shared armrest is one way to mark your territory, it’s also making me nauseous. Cheetos are for the couch, not coach."—Sebastian Modak
No Nicoise, Please
"This comes from personal experience—I had just boarded a flight when the woman sitting next to me pulled out a Nicoise salad, which she somehow found at LaGuardia. How? No idea. The only options are Auntie Anne's pretzels, Au Bon Pain, and those packaged turkey sandwich fridges. But boy, did she go to town on that salad (before takeoff, mind you), and every smell assaulted my already queasy stomach: tuna, hard-boiled eggs, olives, anchovies, and a vinaigrette that made everything extra unctuous and un-delicious. I still feel dizzy thinking about it."—Laura Dannen Redman
We're Not Loving It
"If you want to down McDonald's before the flight, no judgment. But once, on a red-eye to London, a guy sat next to me with a bag of burgers and fries, which he held onto for three hours before opening. The smell lingered for the entire flight, both in the air and off of him. Grease sticks; there's not enough hand sanitizer in the world to mask it."—Caitlin Moscatello
Keep Your Gum Where it Belongs
"I have no problem with gum on planes in theory—ear popping is real, and it’s a scourge. But what I hate is bad gum etiquette. There is nothing more disgusting than opening up your tray table and realizing that you can’t because someone mistook it for a sidewalk and now it’s fused to the back of the chair. Use the barf bags for your gum disposal, people. That’s why they exist. Well, except for that other thing."—Lilit Marcus
Skip the PB&J
"It might be tasty, and it might be convenient, but way too many people have peanut allergies these days, and it's not worth the risk of making someone else feel less-than-stellar. The TSA prohibits any peanut butter more than 3.4 ounces, anyway, which is hardly even worth it. In fact, skip the peanuts altogether."—Katherine LaGrave