Taking shoes off on a flight is plane yuck

Lisa Mayoh is putting her foot down and demanding that aeroplane passengers not invade each other’s personal space with their ugly, smelly feet. It’s plane yuck.

Can we talk about feet for a minute?

I know, not very appetising over your Sunday morning coffee, but it’s important, so settle in.

Last week I was on a flight to WA’s magnificent Kimberleys to see two of our best friends get married after 25 years and three kids together (yes it was magic and yes, for anyone who read this column a few weeks ago about my chronic overpacking disorder, I did in fact need the three jackets and gumboots I crammed into my overweight suitcase because it rained for the first time in 100 years out of the wet season – so there).

But back to the plane – and feet. Someone else’s feet. A stranger’s feet.

So as we sat and buckled our seatbelts, my husband at the window and me in the middle, a man sat next to us in the aisle. Cue pleasantries – he was on holidays too, had a handful of kids and admired my handbag, as a leathergoods manufacturer. Pleasant.

Keeping your feet to yourself on flights is a win for everyone. Picture: Alamy

Until we took off, and safely above the clouds as the seatbelt light turned off, our new friend made himself at home, taking off his shoes.

But not just tucked out of sight under the chair in front. He crossed his legs out wide, so his dark brown woolly sock was pretty much resting on my knee. It was so close I could see his toes stretching underneath the thickness of the Aussie wool. They may as well have been in my lap.

It was distressing, to say the least.

I didn’t know what to do – I couldn’t say anything – I had to sit next to this guy for the next two hours. I cosied up to my husband, pretending to be mesmerised by what I saw out the window – which at that height, was a whole lot of white, and not much else – and tried to distance myself from the offending feet as far as I could.

The cabin of an aeroplane packed in like sardines is not the pace to air your feet.

Can we all be clear that this is not OK? We are on a plane. It’s tight quarters. We need to respect people’s personal space and exercise proper etiquette that would not repulse the person sitting next to you. Please.

For me, that was up there with cutting toenails. Plucking eyebrows. Coughing, sneezing and spluttering into open air. Kids kicking the seat in front or blaring an iPad with no headphones, their parents so desperate to keep them entertained, anything goes.

Well, no people. Anything does not go. Please keep your shoes on. And if you must break your feet free of the constraints of footwear, do it nicely. Keep them tucked under your chair so no one can see, feel or smell whatever’s happening down there. Don’t point them at anyone or anything. Be discreet. Because if the shoe fits … for all our sakes – wear it.