Sick after a flight? Don't blame the plane air

It's almost as inevitable as the tossing and turning you'll do on an overnight flight - the mystery sniffles that attack as soon as you arrive back home.

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While it's all too easy to blame the recycled air on the plane - and not the late nights and endless cocktails you enjoyed on holiday - a new science video has debunked the idea planes are a hotbed of disease.

Youtube channel Scishow claims planes aren't the "giant germ incubators" we think they are.

Although about half of the air on most planes is filtered and recirculated, fresh air does come in through engine compressors, which is then mixed in with the recirculated air.

Don't think of the recirculated air as carrying germs all around the plane though.

Most aircraft use HEPA filters, or the ones that hospitals use in operating rooms to keep air free of bacteria and viruses.

This means that although being in close confines does expose you to germs and bacteria, you're more likely to pick up something from people in your immediate vicinity, rather than a person sitting rows behind you.

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