14 insider facts most airline workers know — and you probably don't

Flight attendant drink service

No one has more insider knowledge about flying than airline workers.

To unearth 14 lesser-known facts about flying, Business Insider surveyed more than 80 airline workers including flight attendants, gate agents, ticket agents, and other airport customer service reps and scoured the web including Reddit and Quora for more.

Whether you want more attentive service or to avoid getting kicked off your flight, read on for the inside scoop:

You can't physically open a door mid-flight — though trying could get you kicked off the plane

Annette Long, a flight attendant with 13 years of experience, tells Business Insider that, though opening a door mid-flight is impossible to do, trying it will still get you into trouble. As we've seen in previous incidents, passengers who try to make a jump for it while the plane is in the air usually wind up restrained mid-flight and in handcuffs once the plane lands. In some cases, pilots will make an emergency landing to get the passenger off the flight.

"I don't make those decisions," Long says. "I convey the information to the cockpit and the chief flight attendant, and they make the decision about whether or not we're going to land and get someone off the plane.

"Most of the pilots say to us, 'If you've got a problem with them, I've got a problem with them,' and they will back us up 100%," Long says.

Airplanes aren't nearly as clean as they might look

As Business Insider previously reported, microbiologists have found tray tables to be the least hygienic surface on an airplane.

As one flight attendant writes on Reddit, people change their babies' diapers on their tray tables all the time. And then, not every tray table gets wiped thoroughly between each flight.

What's more, "remember, they're using a rag to start row one, and when they end up in row 35, that rag has wiped a lot of tables," Long says.

The flight attendant writing on Reddit also says that many unsanitary incidents occur on the plane that passengers rarely see or consider, like accidents in the lavatory or a passenger's seat. "Just so you know, when you go to the bathroom and you're barefoot or you're in your socks, that's not water on the floor," Long says.

"It's just not the cleanest environment," she says.

You can bring your e-cigs, but the plane won't take off with a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on board

A few exploding items have been banned from airplanes in recent years, though some not in their entirety.

Last March, a Delta Air Lines flight was delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after an e-cigarette belonging to a passenger ignited on board the flight.

But while the lithium ion batteries in e-cigarettes have shown a propensity to ignite if they are damaged, battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices are permitted on planes as long as they're not checked or being used.

Your exploding Galaxy Note 7, however, is a different story. These smartphone devices are completely banned by the Department of Transportation from air transportation to, from, or in the US.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider