The Secret Lives of Airline Blankets

I had heard speculative musings that airline blankets do not get washed, only repackaged. However, I always disregarded this tidbit as myth or fluff.
Nevertheless, I recently happened to have an airline blanket in my possession. It was actually given to me by an airline carrier, as padding for my dog in her crate.
As I would never simply toss a perfectly good blanket away, I proceeded to throw it in the wash like I would any other acrylic blanket.
This is when the ugly truth revealed itself. This was no ordinary blanket, but an impostor. Although it looked and felt snugly soft before washing, the aforementioned item proceeded to fall apart in my gentle cycle. Not only did weird blue blobs of cloth & lint fill the rinse cycle, but when I took the former "blanket" out of the machine it looked like some sort of nasty oil rag. The formerly soft surface had now become a rough, lint ball covered, raggedy mess.
Now, unless the airlines are actually dry cleaning these things, I can certainly vouch that those dark blue blankets can not survive an ordinary washing. Which leaves one to wonder how many lovely folks are we sharing them with???