I was standing next to one of our Mx crew when I heard a mid 40’s women with a high maintenance appearance smartly state to my FO who was doing the walk around: “is this motor (LOL!) going to hold together because it has a lot of holes in it.” The FO, who was female, looked at her and with an absolutely professional demeanor stated, “Well, we haven’t had any problems with it sense we took all that surface to air small arms fire out of FAT from the insurgents but we’ll have our Mx men take a look at it.” The two military men behind her just busted out laughing and both the Mx men and myself almost joined in. Afterwards I confronted her and said I know that they can say some really stupid things but just remember that we are professionals and we need to act that way; but that was pretty clever.

 

When I was an FO I had a captain that went to quite extreme actions when a pax said one of our nose tires looked flat. On the CRJ200 the low-profile nature of the tires can make it look flat, if looked at from the right angle and location. Upon hearing this, the captain stated that we were not departing until MX came out with a pressure gauge and checked the air level of the tires. We were at an outstation without even contract Mx available. I went outside and for about 5 minutes gave the tires a throrough lookover, felt them with my hands, kicked 'em, they were totally fine! Captain wouldn't budge though, and so we waited for 5 hours for the next flight to arrive with a mechanic and a pressure gauge, and it ended up meaning the cancellation of 4 flights later in the day. I mean I understand "covering your ass" in today's litigous environment we live in, but this is a bit ridiculous, in my opinion. Kind of undermined me as well, basically trusting a passenger's preflight over mine.

 

Wonderful contribution...

 

I don't mind answering whatever questions they have. Usually I explain how redundant everything is and how the pilots are notified of anything critical then explain what the noise they heard was. I find once they understand, or at least get in the mindset that things happen for a reason and that they are in good hands, they tend to not worry anymore.

I've commuted since day one and honestly don't have people ask me very often. The only complaint I keep hearing about is the smelling of farts passing through the cabin and people wondering if there's anything I can do about it. I always say no esp. if it's me

 

This thread just proves to me that I am a genius for changing my shirt before deadheading/commuting.

 

Yes you are. Some of us don't have the luxury. I usually land around 8:15pm and have to haul it over to the SWA terminal to catch the 8:40pm home. Wish I had time to pull over and change. You can also sip on a drink at that point lol.

 

One time a F/A relayed a message from a "little old lady" in back: "Tell the pilot he needs to raise the cabin pressure." (??) I sent back word that we had checked everything and it was all normal. When I was saying goodbye to the pax, here she came, scowling fiercely. She snapped: "TWA always fixes the cabin pressure for me!"

 

I fly the Dash and while we single engine taxi (me sitting in the back in uniform), ppl usually will ask if we know that number 1 isn't turning and if we will start it before we depart. It's funny to see them sweating bullets while I'm just reading or trying to sleep. I tell them we do it to save fuel and that the jets do it too, you just don't see the blades turning. Some of them totally think I'm still "BS" ing them.

 

I'm not deadheading or anything but I have calmed a young boy and his mother about the exact same thing once

USMCFLYR

 

Keep in mind that I was not a part of the crew.

We had a PAX on the EMB that was flying from West Yellowstone to SLC. He started to freak out saying that the aircraft was flying at 4K which was way too low and well below the mountains in that area. The FA called the CA and made him aware of the developing problem. The CA told the FA that they were safely at FL220 and well above the terrain. The passenger didn’t believe the FA and continued to cause problems. Once on the ground the CA had the GSC and security meet the aircraft. Come to find out he had a pressure sensing dive watch that was telling him the aircrafts cabin altitude.

HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! Ignorance is bliss.