A British model has claimed she was asked to put on a stranger’s used and dirty facemask after Ryanair flight crew said her reusable fabric face covering was unsuitable.
Bluebell Wooi had to comply with the uncomfortable request as she was boarding her flight back to London from Italy on Tuesday.
“I was stopped by staff and told I must take it off as I could only travel with a disposable one,” Wooi told the Daily Mail. When she explained that she didn’t have one, the model was told to ask other passengers for a “spare.”
The model said she complied, despite feeling the request made no sense, and eventually took a disposable facemask offered by the man in front of her – but he had already worn it and it was not clean.
“It was dirty and I really didn’t want to,” Wooi said, adding that when she showed it to the flight staff, she was told to wear it “over” her own.
“I just think it’s completely bonkers,” Wooi said of the whole incident. At the same time, adding insult to injury, she said all the flight crew were wearing reusable masks themselves.
“I don’t know if there was some kind of memo I missed about wearing a disposable mask over a reusable one, but if there was one, I didn’t receive it,” the model quipped after the bizarre situation.
Ryanair issued a statement, saying that its staff were complying with an Italian decree, which mandates the use of “surgical masks” on all flights to, from and within Italy, according to the Daily Mail.
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