American Airlines offers advice to former Panther Steve Smith on his stinky dilemma

American Airlines on Wednesday offered a tip to passengers on what to do if they encounter what former Carolina Panther Steve Smith said he did on a plane at Charlotte’s airport.

What do you do, Smith asked in a tweet, if the “dude” beside you does something that makes you wish you’d packed a gas mask in your carry-on?

Smith’s tweet included a selfie with a bewildered look. His tweet had drawn 668 likes and nearly 100 retweets by 11:30 p.m.

“Why you not flying private!” tweeted DJ “The Suit” Stout in response.

“Tell him ‘go ice up son,’ ” Lord Manny Targaryen said.

Another tweeter, @doe_ching, included a video of a man frantically spraying air freshener.

Amid the deluge of amateur advice came this tip from the airline: “May we humbly suggest a slow stroll through the cabin.”

At least Smith wasn’t on the Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Seattle on Saturday that was forced to divert hundreds of miles for an emergency bathroom break in Billings, Mont. The plane’s toilets had problems, forcing increasingly desperate passengers to hold it in, The Washington Post reported.

Once they landed, relief was still nowhere in sight, as no gates were available for the plane, according to the New York Daily News. The plane was taken to a cargo area to unload several “passengers that needed to find a lavatory very urgently,” according to a Delta incident report obtained by the Billings Gazette, the Daily News said.

Ground crews had to bring a rolling stairway to the plane so passengers could rush to the nearest restroom and “find relief of built-up pressures,” the report said.

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 12:29 AM with the headline "American Airlines offers advice to former Panther Steve Smith on his stinky dilemma."