I used to clean airplane interior during turnarounds. The flight would arrive, after the last passengers gets off we get on and start doing a quick clean. Picking up trash from seats, vacuuming, replacing trash bins, looking inside seat pockets for trash. Make sure all lavatories where clean and stocked with toiletries. All this under 5 minutes. Many times a flight would arrive where someone vomited in the seat or a kid would make a huge mess, spilled drinks, crumbs everywhere. The worst was one when an elderly person missed the toilet and went all over the floor.

10:28 Love that guy's sense of humor. "Sometimes we eat them, sometimes we vacuum them, so, depends how hungry we are" 🤣

Used to be even filthier behind the panels when smoking was allowed. All that smoke built up a nasty, sticky, tar laden, gunk on the insulation, back of the panels, air vents, external outlet valves, etc. So when airlines were told to ban smoking, they saw the maintenance saving it would give them and were only too happy to follow the new rules and ban smoking in flight.

Thank you to all the people who take part in keeping an airplane clean.

I get worn out spending two to three hours a week cleaning the house. My hat's off to these guys.

I never knew how labor intensive cleaning the fuselage actually was. It's all done by hand. I always presumed they would be using high pressure washers.

I started working on 747's at Boeing in the 80's with a plan to go to the airlines after getting a few years of experience. After hearing the horror stories from other employees who had previously worked in the airlines I decided to stay at Boeing and keep working on brand new clean airplanes. One of my better life choices. :)

Incredible dedication from these service teams. A real treat to see how thorough they are. Hats off to them.

One of my coworkers used to work for an airline. A few days ago she told me about that one time a plane was transporting human remains. As you may know, recently deceased people are regularly transported by plane back to their country for burial. This one however had been buried for some time before he/she was transported by plane. Normally the gasket is supposed to be airtight, but for some reason it started leaking during the flight. Let's just say the smell didn't go away quite as easily as the dust seen in this video 🙄

Random fact about this specific A321, it was sold to Ural Airlines in 2018 and re-registered as RA-73844 and is now operating in Russia

Good old Henry

As someone that worked as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician for 9 years this reminds me of one of the main reasons I left last year and that was the impact of working on aircraft to your health.

These people are the backbones of society

Really respect these hard working people and airlines should NOT cut back on cleaning

As an aircraft engineer - I can say - Joe Public had no idea of the absolute hidden filth that lurks under seats, seat cushions, aircraft galleys , and inside airconditioning ducting. To be fair though, passenger aircraft go for heavy maintenance about every 3 years, and they get a thorough clean then , and usually new carpets and seat covers too..

Now imagine the same job on airbus a380 😅

I worked in the hanger for a major airline in the late 80's, before smoking was banned on airplanes. All the grime and filth shown here was still there, plus it was glued together with tar from all the tobacco smoke. Literally the nastiest thing you have ever seen! There was no possible way to simply vacuum it up, it had to be liquefied with solvent and wiped up from every square inch of the internal structure. And I was a smoker at the time.

With all this maintenance and fuel costs it's a wonder how Airliners make a profit.

As someone who works in military cargo aircraft maintenance, this was an interesting look at my counterparts on the commercial side. Great video! Spent the whole time contrasting the processes to how we handle our planes.

I hv been with the aircraft maintenance industry for more than 37 years and now fully retired. These cleaning personnel are considered as the unsung heroes of the industry. They work on areas that most people will go puke or turn green. The situation is made worse whenever there is an outbreak of illneses or contamination of the whole aircrafts due to some irresponsible people or organization in failing to declare the content of the package that they were transporting. There has been fatal cases of personnel being overcame by chemical contamination because some dickhead decided to carry a poisonous substance in a glass jam jar. The jar was in the cargo hold, and it shattered due to the pressure difference. Upon arrival when the crew opened the cargo hold, the fumes overcame them.

Some of this internal dust is dander (skin) but some of it is fibers and dirt from clothing and luggage or even from outdoor air at the airport that gets in through doors and hatches while the craft is on the ground.

The most disgusting thing on an aircraft? The passengers

Good ol Monarch, I was supposed to start with them a week after they folded.

The importance of getting this job done perfectly is a big responsibility, thousands of lives will depend on it.

When i worked as a private jet detailer it slowly transition into large aircraft, we had a 737 for a full deep clean and that took a team of around 20 of us around a month to complete. got laid off when covid hit and damn glad!

Wow, Monarch Airlines, never thought I would see one of their Airbus A321's again...

Used to love flying Monarch when they were around

I trully appreciate all the effort to keep these beautiful machines nice to look at. 👌

This aircraft is now flying in Russia for Ural airlines. Reg RA-73844

Airbus A321-231, G-OZBG msn 1941. Operated for Monarch Airlines from 2003-2017. On 11 December 2018 it joined Ural Airlines and was registered VQ-BGX and RA-73844.

I love that they give a bonus to whoever draws the short straw for toilet duty. Or is it doody? 😄 40 years ago, I bought a house that was in bad repair. For many years, the toilet drain had been detached, so the toilet simply emptied into the crawlspace beneath the house. When the plumber came to install a new drain, nobody wanted to crawl under the house. He offered a bonus to his helpers if they would do the job, and a bidding war began. I don't remember the amount, but at some price point one of the guys agreed to crawl about 30 feet through an 18" crawl space filled with years of raw sewage, some of it from that very day. He then had to lay there for some time while performing the repair. When he emerged, completely covered in excrement, he stripped naked in my back yard and they sprayed him down with the garden hose. I gave him a change of clothes, and he got the rest of the day off. I never saw the guy after that day, but I always wanted to ask him if he would do it again. As a wise many once said, "price overcomes all obstacles!"

Dust being composed of human skin is largely a myth. While some of dust is human skin, the vast vast majority of it is clothing fibers.

Guessing it must have a fresh/"new-car" smell when the job's all done 😉...... must be nice being the first passengers on a newly cleaned aircraft!

Interesting video! That's all the stuff and fluff you normally don't see. Most videos only show things like engine replacement etc. but seeing how much work it is to clean an airplane gets forgotten.

As a private air charter detailer myself. This was absolutely mind boggling. Didn’t know how in-depth these planes really get detailed. Out of curiosity, what product was used on the exterior? The grime came off like butter !

A big THANKS to all doing this job

never thought it would be done by hand wiping.

This is one of the best KZfaq videos out there that show a commercial aircraft overhaul looks like. Retired aircraft technician Pan American World Airways / D-check Hangar 19 JFK. My first day on the job I remember with crew chief and supervisor showing my group of new mechanics 🧰 a overhauled Pratt and Whitney JT9-D : Supervisor pointed to it and said with pride “ a clean engine is a efficient engine”. “A efficient engine is a reliable engine”. “A reliable engine is a SAFE engine” !

I wonder how much all of that human skin weighs at the end of the cleanup.

Thank You For All Your Hardwork

Surely some fabric fibers binding the dander together as well? But that toilet tank.........OMG!

I am a retired Flight Attendant.. NEVER EVER use the sink water on a aircraft. Don’t even brush your teeth with it. Ask the Flight Attendant for a glass or cup of bottled water if you need to brush your teeth. Or use your own bottled water

I interned for a month at a major aircraft hangar. Nice to see work I did for a bit showcased. It was definitely a pain in the ass to clean inside the landing gear compartment.

That’s so old that Monarch was still flying

Theres being thorough and theres being thorough,but this is incredible

Great video! I was hoping that cleaning the potable water tanks would be included though. Still great vid! Subscribed and liked!

I cleaned out a Helio today for a 100hr inspection and while vacuuming out all the peanuts and raisins, I found a York Peppermint patty. Good stuff!

This video absolutely was interesting. Thanks for the post, no joke seriously.

Aircraft Engineers are the highest paid cleaners I think 🤔

G-OZBG, this aircraft, was re-registered to VQ-BGX (Bermuda) and leased out to Russia's Ural airlines. In March 2022 the aircraft was illegaly re-registered to RA-73844 and is still flying for Ural, essentially stolen.

Now, we need an episode on housekeeping for the Galt House in Louisville, KY. A friend used to tell me gross or creepy stories when they were there.

I worked in pest control and we often had callouts to spray seats for fleas 😊

Never thought that the inside of a jet would be cleaned with a Henry ahahah

Ive always seen planes be clean, never realized this would even exist till now.

3:30 I find it pretty funny and interesting that you can hear the hydraulic pumps in the background 😂

2:25 This guy looks and sounds like GradeAUnderA lool

I imagine the fuel economy of the aircraft improves by 10% from all those weight LMAO

Maybe I should order these guys to clean my house, lol! But as a pilot by myself I must say thank you so much for this service which is so important and valuable for us all together who are flying as pilots and passenger's in such aircraft's!

I used to fly these planes for Monarch, now I fly them somewhere else. Nice upload!

Damn they really scrimp on the cleaning budget 🤣 I laughed my ass of when the guy was cleaning the interior with a Henry hover.

All these men put so much effort

Ewwww. Never thought that the dust in the sidewalls and in all over the interior was skin flakes. Now I regret working in and around that nastiness. I assumed it was just free air dust and lint from clothing. When they take the seats out is neat to slip in there and scan with a torch for dropped coins and diamond ring settings and other shiny things concealed.

Wow! Absolutely incredible!

The fact he could clean that tank without a mask. Good lord I would need something 😂

Once a year this is done? I'd change that to every 4 months.

Monarch? Haven't seen them since 2017 :P This video must be old

The video's so old Monarch was still in business

I can't imagine how hard is cleaning the bigger one, the Airbus A380. The amount of people you need for that one probably go over 50.

Wonder if they re-tune the radio to head banging teeny-bop dance garbage, like my car service. 😂

I used to work for this airline’s mro, at 2 other stations they had. Was a really good company to work for. Shame it went down.

Why people would think it would be any cleaner than a city bus or trolley? Peoples bad habits exist everywhere.

no matter at what level you clean . Henry is always on you side.

They should be on some sort of mechanics’ creeper with some scaffolding instead of hurting their neck. It’s vital to their productivity too, other than workers’ health

Rag and a bucket? You'd think there would be something more high tech to clean a giant plane. Even a hose.

7:31 the good ol' trusty Henry vac. Good enough to deep clean aeroplanes, it's good enough for my home.

When we strip the cabins at work for heavy checks, we call it seat track casserole because there's always bits of food stuck in it. We also find a decent amount of coins. As we truck seats out, we pocket whatever we find, and whoever finds the least amount in change has to buy pizza for the crew that Friday. Sometimes, we get into disputes over who saw a quarter first, and we settle it with a best 3 out of 5 rock, paper, scissors match. We've pretty much turned it into the worlds worst extreme sport, but the stakes are high.

As a 22 year Captain, the inside of the planes are filthy beyond belief. The airlines don’t want to spend the money to actually clean, they wait till the carpet and seats are so filthy they replace them, for anything under a 1000 miles I will drive. The air filtration systems are the worst, had a mechanic tell me that they don’t replace the filters until the plane “smells like ass”. A ramper overfill the lav tank, the airplane was back in service in 12 hours, they only cleaned the patently obvious filth. Budget airlines, this is your cheap ticket.

The problem is the passengers. They have no consideration for those who come after them. I suspect the UK is one of the worst offenders.

Dont forget the exhaust from the older jet engines. These are v2500s so no big deal.

Jets always have a weird chemical cleaner smell inside. I always just thought it was the interior- aviation type plastics and what not. Once I began wrenching at a jet center, I discovered the smell is the blue toilet chemical. Now, instead of getting that "Oh, the jet smell... can't wait to fly in this thing!" it's more like "Oh, the toilet chemical smell....we're smelling the toilet chemical the whole flight..."

I worked on aircraft for 20 years, 10 in the RAF and another 10 as a contractor in Europe and the Middle East. I always preferred to work on military fast jet and helicopters than airliners. I've done lots of work in fuel tanks and on toilet systems but one job that stands out as the smelliest, was stripping out the galley floor of a BAe ATP. Absolutely disgusting! I left 17 years ago for work offshore and I've never looked back. I still get job offers from some aircraft agencies. The pay seems to have improved recently, but no thanks.

I love the inside look of an airplane to every inch. It is ashamed the airline featured in the video has already gone busted.

Thank you for sharing this video about the aircraft cleaning of this aircraft... Nice...

2:31 mans called the brake and strut tubing wires?😂

Never take your socks or shoes off on a plane

I wonder why the vacuum suction pipe doesn’t have a brush attachment on it? Would seem better to get the dust up off of plastic instead of making a suction connection against the plastics

And they seemingly do this mostly without any air filters. Wonder how much that impacts their health, short and long term.

Monarch, blast from the past!

That's a small plane too. Imagine a 747-800 or a380. Sheesh.

I salute you guys. Good job 💪💪💪💪

lmao dudes just hoovering with a henry and billing probably 20k

I was expecting a dozen pressure washers and foaming water wands galore. Somebody call Blue Beacon.

RIP Monarch Airlines

I've done this to my station wagon inside and out with a roll of paper towels and vinegar-based Windex. With a little patience it has great results.

Fantastic watch 🙏🏿

Glad the how it's made narrator is still in business

love the henry there 7:30

Didn't know the operation was that massive!

I’d have thought they’d have used a “jet wash” to clean the outside 😆

A lot of these areas they were cleaning are classed as confined spaces due to their size, access/egress limitations and the chemicals used during cleaning. Yet no sight of the correct PPE or escape equipment for a confined space and no sign of a gas monitor.