A LONDONER has revealed how he unwittingly sparked terror fears on a United Airlines flight to Denver, Colorado, after spending ten minutes freshening up in the bathroom.
Rob Allam, 33, who works as a media strategist, is of Greek and Lebanese descent but is from London.
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He was flying to the US city last May to meet some potential investors in a project he was launching and as they were meeting him at the airport, he decided to use the quiet time on the plane when everyone was sleeping to make himself look presentable.
He told Sun Online Travel: “It’s a nine-hour flight and people were asleep so I thought it would be the perfect time to change – I would never hog a bathroom if there was a queue of people.
“I brought my backpack with me, which contained my toiletry bag and my clothes to change into.
“So I was just freshening up, combing my hair, putting on deodorant, brushing teeth, giving myself a shave, getting changed and just grooming myself.”
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While inside, he decided to shave his two-week-old beard off, to make himself look a bit more presentable for the meeting.
But after about five minutes there was a knock on the door and not thinking much of it, Rob said: “Hi, I’ll be out in a minute,” then carried on with his routine.
He continued: “After a few minutes there was another knock on the door and so I opened it to check what was up and there were three cabin crew there – two women and one guy, who all looked a bit concerned.
“At that moment, I just thought it was funny that they looked concerned while I was just grooming myself.
“When I asked what was up, they explained that some passengers were concerned as they had seen a guy going into the bathroom with a backpack – but I obviously still hadn’t clocked what was going on, so I just laughed at that.
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“I mean, they said the passenger had noticed that I had been in there for a while but some people poop for half an hour.”
He added: “But I checked with the staff and all of the other bathrooms were free and when they approached me, they were really kind, so I didn’t feel like I was doing anything wrong.
“I just laughed and said cool, thank you and I’m sorry if I’m hogging the bathroom.”
Rob then went back inside and took around another five minutes to finish up, now that he was aware that the other bathrooms were free.
But just as he was getting his bag together, there was a third knock on the door, so he opened it and said: “Ok what’s up now.”
According to Rob, the cabin crew were extremely apologetic to be disturbing him again.
He said: “I asked them, please just explain to me what I’m doing wrong and the male flight attendant, who was an older man in his fifties was so kind and polite.
“The guy said, ‘I don’t want to annoy you but they are worried because you are someone who looks a bit like you are of Arabic descent and their concern is that when someone is going to commit an act of terror, they clean up – so they wash, they shave and they clean all over their body and they wear better clothes.'”
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Rob met the news with a combination of shock and incredulous laughter.
He said: “I was like holy s***, alright I understand now – I did a bit of shocked laughter but also it is a bit hard to take in that you were profiled as a bomber.
“At that point I showed them my mobile phone – the calendar invite for the meeting I had with the investors, the emails back and forth to show they were expecting me and texts from my girlfriend who lives in Colorado showing how excited she was that we were going to see each other soon.
“I should have just shown them my bag to prove that I didn’t have a bomb in there but it didn’t occur to me because I was quite shocked and by that point I just wanted to get back to my seat, watch a movie and drink some more free wine.
“When I came out of the bathroom, the crew were in the galley having a laugh and they said, ‘we’re really sorry if you are annoyed, we want to apologise.’ I was thankful that they were so polite about it as they were just doing their job.”
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Rob, who has the username @thegallowboob, shared his story with friends following the flight and while he largely sees the incident as a funny situation, he is also very thankful that it didn’t turn into something more serious.
He said: “When I told my friends they asked if I got tasered and I laughed, but it’s true though, it could have ended very badly as situations escalate.
“Given my background, I do try and make an effort to keep my beard trimmed and well kept so I don’t stand out too much – my dad has always told me don’t stand out, don’t be an idiot.
“I just didn’t think that using the bathroom would worry anyone. People who travel a lot for work like myself use the bathrooms to freshen up and as long as you are considerate, don’t keep people waiting and clean up after yourself, it isn’t a problem.”
Despite this, he certainly won’t ever use a plane toilet to shave again.
He laughed: “Hell no, never again. If anything I’ll leave the door open and will go in with a shirt saying ‘Long live democracy.’
“I don’t want to put anyone in that situation again.”
