The small item of clothing that can affect whether a flight lands on time

YOU might not realise it, but a pair of flight socks could be the difference between you making it to your destination, or ending up in a random hospital.

That may sound dramatic, but it happens more than you might realise.

It's happened on a flight I've been on before and I know other cabin crew members who've had to reroute their journeys for similar reasons.

So, in this week's blog for Sun Online Travel, I'm going to talk about why you should always be wearing flight socks, especially on mid or long haul routes.

If we suspect a passenger has developed a blood clot in the body, or a DVT (deep vein thrombosis), we have to make an emergency diversion for urgent medical assistance.

That's exactly what happened on one of my flights just a few years after starting my job as a flight attendant.

A passenger on a long haul route started getting these throbbing cramps in their leg.

Their ankle swelled up and felt warm - it was all the classic signs of a DVT.

Given that we were eight hours into a 13 hour journey, we decided it needed proper medical examination and the plane had to be rerouted.

That passenger wasn't wearing flight socks, nor had they got up for a walk around the aircraft or kept active, so we were pretty certain that was the problem.

However, their lack of preparedness had a huge knock-on effect for the rest of the plane's passengers, not to mention it meant they had to go to hospital in a country they certainly weren't expecting to visit.

We then had to wait for hours to get a new takeoff time from the airport we'd landed at and a lot of people missed out on connections or transfers they'd booked in advance.

Passenger safety is always our priority, but we also had to deal with a lot of angry people that day as well.

So, unless you want to end up having to make an unexpected pit-stop in a hospital at whichever country is closest to us when we're mid-flight, while annoying every other passenger, I'd wear the socks.

My mantra in life is that prevention is the best form of defence.

Even if there's no family history of blood clots or DVT, why chance being the first, just for the price of some flight socks?

This is especially good advice for those of you who know you're not an active person on plane journeys.

When flying as a passenger, I like to switch off, relax and just binge watch movies with some snacks.

So I wear a pair of compression socks, which can have benefits as little as reducing swelling to huge benefits like you keeping both your legs, or even avoiding death.

I would strongly urge you to do the same if you're planning on having a relaxing flight.

Although you should also get up every now and then and have a stroll down the aisle, just to make sure the blood is moving through your legs.

Such a small effort can make a huge difference - to you and sometimes to everyone else on your flight.

Meanwhile, this woman revealed a very clever item that makes long haul flights much more bearable.

And these socks not only claim to keep you healthy on flights, they can also stop jet lag.