Cabin crew lift lid on unsettling 'crop dusting' trend - and people are horrified

While farting on a plane may be something short of a nightmare - according to plane crew, they are advised to do it, especially pilots. Sitting next to someone on a flight while they let rip really wouldn’t be the ideal start to your holiday, so spare a thought for the cockpit if either pilot needs to let one out.

According to one Argentinian flight attendant, she revealed to her almost 2.65 million YouTube followers that pilots are "prohibited" from holding in their gas because the discomfort it causes can distract them from their crucially important role.

Now fellow cabin crew members, includingflight attendants have come forward to confess their wind admissions while serving onboard - and revealed the habit is called ‘crop dusting’.

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Taking to Facebook, one former crew member said: “I’m cabin crew and I walk down that cabin farting to my heart's (and bowel's) content. I also share the love in the flight deck.” While another chimed: “My friend is an air steward and they are advised to let rip, they are told that if they are in Business Class or First they should make an excuse to go to economy to release the pressure then return to Business class.”

A third said: “Cabin crew slang is "crop dusting" when you walk the length of the aisle slowly letting it out as you go.” The Argentinian air steward, who goes by the name Barbie Bac explained that flatulence is heightened when the plane reaches an altitude of 30,000 feet and said: "At high altitudes, atmospheric pressure is lower, which increases the volume of internal gases.

"This can cause discomfort and distraction in the cockpit when the pilots should be focused on doing their job, not in pain from being full of gas. That's why it's always recommended that pilots, if they have to, just release them."

To try and minimise the chances of passing wind, Barbie Bac said the pilots eat different meals to each other - so they don't both suffer another unfortunate bowel incident. "The commander and the copilot choose different meal options. One will choose chicken and the other will choose pasta," she says.

Her claims are even backed up by a 2013 study by Danish and British gastroenterologists. Hans Christian Pommergaard, Jakob Burcharth, Anders Fischer, William Thomas and Professor Rosenberg told the New Zealand Medical Journal that holding your farts in may seem preferential but they suggested that for the sake of their health and comfort, passengers and crew should set them free.

However the medics did recognise that air cabin quality may be diminished for other passengers though.

The gassy dilemma also applied to the cockpit and pilots, the specialists found. "If the pilot restrains a fart, all the drawbacks previously mentioned, including diminished concentration, may affect his abilities to control the airplane. If he lets go of the fart his co-pilot may be affected by its odour, which again reduces safety on board the flight."

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