Jake Wheeler

That's what I tell them. I've had a few times when the flight was delayed for a mechanical and passengers would ask the question "Is it safe?". My answer is "M'am (or Sir), if it wasn't safe then the pilots would be the first ones off the airplane. Just follow us." This usually results in a smile.

A good reason to take the extra minute to start and taxi out on #1 instead.

Once at night while cruising in and out of clouds the flight attendant notified me a passenger thought wing was on fire.

"What part?"

"The left wing tip."

"Tell her it's just the lights reflecting off the clouds".

A minute later the flight attendant calls up again to say the lady, an older woman, was very concerned that the wing was on fire. I said, "Tell her to watch the wing. Thirty seconds after you hang up I'm going to turn off the lights for 30 seconds, then turn them on for 10 seconds, off for 5 and back on." I did this and the flight attendant reported the lady was now a believer.

Sure it was a bit of a pain in the tuckus, but this passenger's concerns probably caught the attention of another passenger or two. By calming her, it made the flight attendant's job a little easier and, maybe, convinced a few more white-knuckle fliers that airline flying was, indeed, the safety way to travel.

Besides, it was too dark to work on my USA Today Sudoku. Can they make those puzzles any smaller?

Jake Wheeler

A few years ago I was deadheading in uniform when we were struck by lightning. For those who haven't had the pleasure, it sounds like a cannon went off in the cabin. Lightning flashes were seen all the way through the climb and the turbulence had been moderate for several minutes so it wasn't totally unexpected. I'd tried to appear calm during all of this by reading my newspaper. Burying my face in a newspaper was always a good way to avoid talking to passengers.

When the lightning bolt struck I almost dropped my newspaper, but managed to hang on to it. About a half dozen sets of eyeballs locked on to me. I read the same paragraph about 5 or 6 times before moving on, but hopefully I gave the outward appearance of nonchalance.

A little fantasy of mine is to have dropped the newspaper and screamed "Oh MY GAWD!!!" at the top of my lungs to see how many passengers I could panic.

Evil, yes, but funny to think about.

Bond

Seriously, it all depends on the circumstances, taxing on #2 is a perfectly acceptable practice.

Jake Wheeler

Yes it is, but besides the passenger comfort issue, nosewheel steering is on #1. If the electric pump fails with #1 engine offline, it could be a problem.....well, at the speed I taxi it would be. Perfectly acceptable if you are taxiing slower.

Bond

You do have a point about the nosewheel steering, that actually happened to a buddy of mine, although a very unlikely scenario....what the heck, we get paid by the minute.

JetJock16

Passengers I can handle and I react the same as Saab2000. The way I look at it the PAX are going to judge every response I give whenever something doesn’t seem quite right. If something’s wrong then you as a professional pilot should help the FLT crew by remaining calm and collected; on the outside…………ignore it. This way everyone who is paying attention to you thinks that it must not be that bad sense you’re not panicking. Remember that you're in the back; you don't have any authority on that FLT unless the CA calls for you and delegates a task. Until then leave the problem solving to them, that is if there is even a problem. If you think the FLT crew may be unaware of the potential problem then get up and calmly bring it to their attention but out of the way of any passenger ears.

Now when a FA over reacts it’s a completely different problem. I was on a 757 from ATL to LAX when I received a tap on the shoulder from a FA telling me that I am needed in the aft galley. I calmly stood up and walked to the back, he then overreact to the smell of something near his jumpseat. OK, I worked as a Professional Coatings and Industrial Marine sales rep for Sherwin-Williams for 5 years………………it’s safe to say that I know a lot about paint and its related products; to me the smell was obviously caused by a Xylene (R2K4) based product. I told him that Mx was probably back here cleaning up something and they commonly use products like “Goof Off”. I added that I'm very familiar with what torched Packs, Electrical fires and many other aircraft problems smell like and other than a canister of R2K4 being below in the cargo hold (hmmmmm not on a Pax jet) there is no reason to be alarmed. The FA then called the CA and demanded that we land. The CA asked to speak to me and I explained the smell plus my history, he made his way back and agreed with me, we then pressed on to LAX.

After a while I noticed the FA was back at it. He was now turning off the in-flight entertainment systems and sniffing around the cabin in a suspicious manor. About 20 minutes later he tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to return to the aft galley. Once in the back he stated that he now smells something else and he can’t quite place it. It was coming out of one vent and one vent only. I sniffed around and told him it smelled like extremely burnt coffee. About that time another FA heard me and stated that she had a coffee maker over flow. Case solved again, the coffee maker was near the vent and once I approached the maker I knew immediately that was the culprit. After about an hour two FA’s approached me and said that he’s the “boy who cried wolf.” The scary part is someday he might actually be right and no one will listen.

After we had landed in LA and everyone was off the CA said that he had gotten a hold of Company who tracked down the mechanic who was working on the aircraft. Come to find out the 75 had just been painted in the new DAL livery and he was using a low key reducer to remove some adhesive residue that was left behind.

Disclaimer: Not all FA’s are crazy but they don’t understand the a/c like we do. Their input on what’s going on in the back is extremely valuable but in the end we must use their information plus the information gathered from other sources, to make the decision….ourselves.

andy171773

It does get quite annoying, my favorite is in the cabin of the A320...the Hydraulic pumps make noises almost like a hand saw. I have fun with that one...."yea, they have to put a padlock on the cargo compartment, i guess the combination never got forwarded"

Just tell em it's normal, but never just brush it off..passengers can be a pretty good eye if something is really outta whack about 1% of the time..and it's that 1% that'll really save your butt. So always pay attention.

Or just feed em some "We won't depart unless your safety and the integrity of the airplane is assured"

FlyJSH

Xylene..... the first time I ever got the pleasure of Codine was after a Xylene burn. MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm Codine.

FlyJSH

I would have said, "With YOUR mx budget, it is."

teamdothis

When im on a deadhead and pax start asking why im not up front i like to tell them that im in the back to "test the new remote landing system"