Unpleasant passengers led Shawn Kathleen, a flight attendant for seven years, to start a blog she called Rants of a Sassy Stew.

Among the features was a section she called Passenger Shaming, which highlighted the ridiculous and repugnant things airline passengers did, usually involving sockless feet.

Shawn Kathleen (who doesn't use her last name in her blogging life) said she was fired from the airline that she worked for – which she also declined to name – and suspects it was because of the blog.

Yet Passenger Shaming, now spun off into its own entity ( passengershaming.com, plus a Facebook page and Twitter and Instagram feeds), has become an internet sensation.

She talks about the frustrations of being a flight attendant, the rise of Passenger Shaming and the state of flying.

Q: Why did you start blogging about your experiences as a flight attendant?

A: There was a lot of frustration. That's where the blog was born – the crazy things that happened and the crazy things that people did. I would be professional and courteous to their face, but then I would walk to the back galley and grab my journal and start writing: "Oh my God this guy just asked me for black coffee for the 10th time, and he said, 'Where's my cream and sugar?' " and things like that. Or they would ask if they would make their connection, and they would want me to call the captain and ask him to fly faster.

Q: Seriously?

A: Absolutely! I'd get asked all sorts of ridiculous things. One time a woman rang her call button. I said, "Can I help you?" She said, "Are we moving?" We were at 35,000 feet. I didn't know what to say. I had never been asked that before. I put it on the website, and all these flight attendants said, "Oh my God, that's happened to me!"

Q: Judging by the state of the airline industry, I'm going to guess it got worse as time went on.

A: Absolutely. Behaviours got progressively worse. The sense of entitlement was really gross. "Get me there quicker." "I want this and this and this and this." The main thing with the entitlement – or what I feel is narcissism – is they act like there aren't 200 other people on the aircraft. It's their world. There's one flight attendant for every 50 passengers. We can't be 50 places at once.

Q: What are some of the bad behaviours you've seen that are on display on Passenger Shaming?

A: A lot of bare feet. That's my thing I can't stand. I don't get it. I don't get how it's possible that someone would take off their shoes and socks – shoes are OK; we want you to be comfy – but I don't understand how a person thinks bare feet are OK. Passengers clipping their nails. Drinking too much. Putting dirty nappies in seat-back pockets.

Q: Ewwww. That happened?

A: All the time. Changing your baby's nappy on a tray table that the next person is going to eat off of – it's unbelievable. People looking at porn magazines with kids around. That happened. It took three attempts, but I finally got them to put them away. One thing I like about Passenger Shaming is that you can see I'm not exaggerating. There's no exaggeration about how awful people can be in a public place. When Passenger Shaming started, I got all these photos from crew members. Almost everything I got was from crew members. Now it's 75 per cent from passengers.

Q: I wonder if part of the reason is that flying has become less pleasant – more bodies crammed into planes, fewer perks like meals and an increasingly combative experience, such as the battle for overhead space.

A: I think that's part of it. And the accessibility has become greater. People who might normally drive, they can afford a plane ticket now. At this point flying is like a bus with wings. Well, maybe a little better.

Q: When did you realise Passenger Shaming was taking off?

A: I think it was September 16. I had maybe 18,000 followers on Facebook, and after Good Morning America and the Today show, it went up to like 250,000. I wrote a BuzzFeed article called "If You Do Any of This on a Plane – Everyone Hates You". Someone wrote an article about it, and then there was another article. And suddenly I got a text saying, "Hey – your website is on 'Good Morning America' right now!"