Fiction!
No, airplane air doesn’t make you sick! In fact the air on a plane is cleaner than in your office or at the mall in a department store! Shocking, I know! Just because you get sick after flying in an airplane – doesn’t mean you got sick from the re-circulated air.
Prove it!!
So the air is safe because it is required to pass through the same kind of high-efficiency particulate filters used in operating rooms – which remove almost 100% of all bacteria and viruses (according to Patrick Smith, author of Ask the Pilot). If you do get sick after flying, the odds are you are run-down; having a low-immune systems from traveling. When you are run-down you can easily pick up a germ from the tray table, bathroom or arm rest! Germs are everywhere! So wash those hands on the plane!
(As a flight attendant – I see way too many folks come out of the bathroom without washing their hands… we can hear the sink people! We know if you don’t wash, you nasty, nasty passenger!!! Eww…)