40 Things Pilots, Flight Attendants And Airport Workers Know About Air Travel That Passengers Don’t

Passengers have no idea how complicated a flight is from a pilots perspective. Let me walk you through it.

We show up around an hour before the flight and get the paperwork. Is the weather ok? Is the forecast for the destination going to be above our minimums? Is it above minimums, but requires an alternate airport to be listed in case the weather doesn't go quite as planned? What equipment is broken at the airport that might affect these minimums? How about the departure airport? Do we need to plan for an airport to go to if we take off and have a problem, but can't get back into our departure airport due to weather, slippery runways, etc.?

How about the airplane? Is everything working? Certain systems are allowed to be broken. Are there any of those on this flight? How will it affect us? Will it change the weather minimums we checked out earlier?

Where is my first officer? And the flight attendants? I guess they must be at the airplane. I'll go there.

Nope, they're not at the airplane. It's getting close to boarding, I'd better find them. Called scheduling, they said that they are on an inbound flight that just arrived, but on the opposite side of the airport. It'll be 10 minutes for them to swim their way through the terminal.

I'll do the walk around while I wait. What's that on the belly? Must be hydraulic fluid, that's about all that is around there. Better call maintenance.

First officer and flight attendants are here now, that's good. But we're 10 minutes past boarding now.

Maintenance shows up and checks out the mystery fluid. It's hydraulic fluid they say, but it's old. They wipe it off. If you see any more when you get to your destination, let us know. Probably just spillage from when they serviced the hydraulics last.

Tell the gate agent we're ready to board. It's 10 minutes to departure time now.

5 minutes pass. No passengers get on.

A passenger is being wheeled down the jetway in an aisle chair (a narrow wheelchair designed to fit in the aisle of the airplane.) Takes 5 minutes or so to get him situated. The rest of the passengers file on.

Meanwhile, the first officer is getting our clearance. Bad news, there is a ground stop at our destination. We can't leave, and we don't expect any more information for 30 minutes. Not that we can leave in 30 minutes, just that we will get an update in 30 minutes.

The passengers have all filed on at this point. I make an announcement apologizing for the slight delay in boarding, we needed to have maintenance come out to check something, but we're all good in that regard. Unfortunately, ATC is telling us that we can't depart yet due to weather and traffic, and we will know more in 30 minutes.

You can hear the grumbles from the cockpit.

30 minutes pass, during which the first officer and I get the checklists done as far as we can, and get to know each other a bit. After all, I've never seen this guy before in my life. There are thousands of pilots at this airline, we don't all know each other.

The first officer calls to find out about the update. Good news, you can leave, but you have to be airborne in 5 minutes. S**t. We're still at the gate with no engines running. Can we get them both started, run the checklists, and taxi to the runway in 5 minutes? Better have a go at it, otherwise we might miss our slot.

We scramble and get it done. We take off 40 minutes late. Not too bad considering the situation.

Halfway through the flight, we see a group of thunderstorms on the radar right along our route, blocking it and any options to the left of it. We as ATC for a deviation to the right to get around that line.

"Unable due to traffic" is the reply.

Great. Now what?

"Center, we can take higher or lower if needed, but we need a deviation to the right."

"Spudmunkey 17, uh, descend and maintain 14,000, passing 16,000, deviations to the right up to 20 degrees approved. Advise when direct to wherever."

S**t, we're still 2 hours from our destination. If we descend to 14,000 feet, are we going to have enough fuel?

A quick punch in the flight management system, and we do, but barely. If anything else happens, we're going to have to go to plan B.

Luckily, nothing else goes wrong, and we land, although the extra weather deviations and lower altitude result in another 10 minutes added to the flight. We land 50 minutes late.

We park at the gate and open the cockpit door. Various comments come in from the passengers ranging from the most common: an apathetic "thanks," to the occasional "this is why I don't fly your airline" or any other variation of it.

The plane is empty, and we have to start the process all over again for the next flight.

The problem now is that we didn't start it all 1 hour before departure. It's departure time now, and the gate agent is asking if you are ready to board. You haven't even looked at the paperwork yet.

So, you want to be a pilot?

EDIT:

I'm not looking for sympathy. I merely meant to answer the "what's something people don't know..." part of OP's question. People tend to think that pilots just roll in at leisure and hit the autopilot button. I meant to educate those people a bit.

My situation is hypothetical, the numbers are arbitrary, but the point still stands. This is not an abnormal day for a pilot. It's not a good day, but it's not a bad day either. Throw in a diversion or a ramp with no gates approaching the "passenger bill of rights" times for being "held hostage" on an airplane, and things get a LOT more interesting. Like we want to keep you on the airplane. Because we're evil like that.

And thank you for the gold, random stranger. I genuinely appreciate you supporting this fine web site on my behalf. It needs the support. And I'm proud to have inspired it.

When a plane is landing at night, they dim the interior lights **incase you need to evacuate** upon landing... your eyes are already adjusted to the darkness so you'll be able to see better once outside the plane.

Will probley get buried but i am an aircraft fueler.

One thing i can not stress enough is how your pets are treated.

While your airline will take the best possible actions, some things cannot be avoided, like the noise on the ramp.

I can not stand out there without ear protection, and imagine your pet sitting out there on the ramp waiting to be loaded onto the plane being exposed to the same amount of noise i am.

Please people, think twice before flying your pets.
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Edit: Ahhhh so much karma, was not expecting this.
So many questions too, so ill try and just hit some main points.

- Flying with pets is sometimes unavoidable, I am in no way saying that flying your pet makes you a bad owner, Just bare in mind the conditions that they will be experiencing. (They might need some extra cuddles when they get back)

- A lot of baggage handlers I have seen are really good about pets, but not everything. The people that are moving your pets onto the plane are not very well paid, at least what they deserve.

- Every airline is different, check with your airline and see what their pet policy is, and ask about any VIP or in cabin options, while not the best, it may be more comfortable for your pet.

- The people who I have seen that look after your pet before they are loaded onto plane are really great guys, and love what they do. Again, results may very from airport to airport.

Pilot here. Late to the party as usual. But, sometimes the passengers may be having a nice quiet flight in the back while the pilots are upfront dodging thunderstorms and yelling their heads off.

We transport live transplants, like hearts and lungs. I particularly like the live transplants because we get to cut to the front of the line for takeoff and we get all the short cuts to our destination.

Tip for those who get motion sickness: try not to move your head around. Pilots move their eyes instead of their heads to look at the instruments in the flight deck. Also try to sit in a seat over the wing. This area of the plane doesn't rotate as much during climbs and decents.

Flight attendants can't do pilot's job, but pilots can't do flight attendant's jobs for sure. We aren't hired for our people skills.

Don't take off your shoes to go to the bathroom. People pee on the floor all the time.

The tail rotor diameter of a Robinson R22 helicopter is 3' 6". This is because that was as wide as Frank Robinson's kitchen oven would go, where he had to bake the first rotor. It hasn't been changed.

Flight attendant.

Pilots don't fix the plane. They fly it. If it's major, they call maintenance. Stop asking the pilots to just fix the plane. Sometimes it takes awhile. I'm sorry. Deal with it.

My day is long. So long. Please be nice. I see hundreds of people in a day. If I'm abrupt with you in any way, I apologize. I'm trying to 1) expedite the boarding process so we can leave on time 2) I'm running on very little sleep and I'm cranky 3) I've dealt with too many jerks and/or delays that day and my spirit is utterly crushed. You'll rarely see me upset, but many other FAs are jerks. I am sorry. They don't love their job like I do.

We only get paid when the main cabin door is closed. I make less than 20K a year. This is common.

I know that you know how to put on a seatbelt. I still have to do a safety demo. It's a liability issue.

Don't treat me like a waitress. I'm not. I get paid less and my hours are longer, and the job involves MUCH more than serving you a drink and some peanuts.

I personally don't care if you use your electronic devices. HOWEVER, don't be talking on your phone during taxi. If I can't see your phone I don't care if you're playing angry birds. We're not going to crash. Many airlines have changed their rules but mine has not and I have to enforce the rules.


People vent their frustrations about flying to me. It's hard being complained at knowing you caused none of the problems. Believe me, it's in our best interest to keep you happy. Why would we want otherwise? The FAA makes the rules, not your flight crew. We're just the crew. Every decision comes from above. Remember that.

BE NICE.

I used to be an Operations Control Center manager for a regional airline. (about 900 flights a day) Ultimately, I was the guy that decided if your flight was going to cancel. Most people don't know I exist. When passengers hear "cancelled due to ATC or WX or MX", its really just a small team of people deciding if your flight is going to make it and often its not even your plane or flight that has the problem.

In the case of ATC and weather, we will be allowed X number of arrivals and hour. We decide which ones are going and which ones will stay or re-position to another city. Passengers are usually one of the last items of consideration. Safety is always first, we won't send it if there is reason to believe it is unsafe and if we can blame it on weather we will. It's much cheaper for the airline if it is blamed on WX since they don't have as many benefits for the customer, (food vouchers, hotels etc.) Next most important is which crews will time out, and how critical it is that they get to their next stop. The way crews are routed we often have to cancel something today to save 3 flights that would need to cancel tomorrow if the AC and crew don't get to the right place by the right time.

Next is where the AC is routed since they are often carrying mx items that expire at a certain date and can only be fixed in specific bases.

After that is cargo and bags. Bags cost a LOT more to get re-routed than passengers. (the reason for this is that passengers can go on the next plane, but if their bags dont make it we deliver them to you. Not the airport that you were going to. Couriers can get expensive quick so its better business to have your bags waiting for you rather than the other way around, even if that means kicking you off the plane and taking your bags.)

Last is passengers, sometimes based on a "priority list" of VIPs and sometimes based on doing the most good for the largest number of people.

Ultimately, regional airlines only have one customer. The major airline they serve. They are paid based on a number of metrics to summarize their performance and there are tiers for "penalty" and "bonus". The airline knows EXACTLY (to the minute) where they are in relation to these goals, and we will often sacrifice one for the other. Example: if we are near penalty for on-time departures within 0 min of scheduled departure time but have a good cushion on completion factor, we will cancel a flight just to make one go on time.

**TL;DR** I got a D in ethics, but I'm really good at math.

The air inside the jet engine of an airplane is hotter than the melting point of any component of the engine.

cvtopher12:

The components in the hot section of the engine have cooling systems which bleed off air from the compressor and direct it through holes in the part surface, creating a film of cool air that protects them from the high temperature of the combustion gases.

Some airlines don't pay pilots or flight attendants for flights that cancel. Which doesn't sound so bad until you start thinking about the safety implications of it.

A little short on the rent this month? Then I don't see that hydraulic leak, I can't afford to have the flight cancel.

Child needs to see the doctor? Maybe I don't report the torn up carpet that you might trip on in an evacuation, because carpet takes too long to replace--so the flight would cancel.

...not saying this happens all the time, because most crews are true professionals and can put their job ahead of their paycheck, but it happens enough to give you the goosebumps. Throw in some seriously low pay (sub $20K a year for many first year pilots) and you've got a subtle incentive to overlook safety issues.

This will get buried, but there are cracks all over the turbine blades. Crack growth is a pretty well-characterized science, and part of the point of inspections every X flights is to make sure the cracks haven't grown to a point where they're actually concerning. They'll take a look at them, measure them, and if they think they still have say... 2000 hours until failure, they'll send the plane back out and check it in a few hundred hours of use.

My dad's been an airline pilot for almost 20 years, and apparently planes get struck by lightning all the time. Also if a passenger is causing a scene in the jetway he can refuse to let them on and take off without them.

- When you experience a hard landing in bad weather it wasn't because of a lack of pilot skills but it is in fact intentional.
If the runway is covered in water the airplane has to touch down hard in order to puncture the water layer and prevent aqua planing.

- Mobile electronic devices won't really bring an airplane down but they can be really annoying to pilots. Just imagine sitting in the flightdeck descending to your destination and hearing the interference of a 100+ cellphones picking up a signal. I have missed a clearance or 2 that way.

- The air you breathe on an airplane is actually compressed air taken from the engines. A large portion (25% to 50%) is blown in the flightdeck, the rest is for the passengers. The air leaves the airplane via a small hole in the back of the fuselage.

- The captain has almost limitless authority when the doors are closed. He is allowed to arrest people, write fines

- At most airlines the only difference between the captain and the co-pilot is their rank. They divide the workload fairly and switch the roles of pilot flying and pilot non-flying each flight.

I'm a flight attendant. Not really any secrets that haven't already been said... But when we are in the aisles serving drinks, you should *reaaalllyy* try to wait until we are out of the aisles to get up and go to the lav or whatever. Also, if we are in our jumpseats because of the turbulence I would suggest you be in your seats as well.

As an Air Traffic Controller we are constantly swearing and yelling at pilots when we’re not on the frequency and then when we key up we use our nice guy voices.

One of my all time favorites is the Captain accidentally broadcasting his passenger briefing (welcome aboard, weather in chicago and so on) on frequency instead of the aircraft PA system, blocking up ground, ramp, tower, etc. for a solid 15 seconds. You automatically become the laughing stock of the airport.

Your bags are thrown and dropped very frequently. Then they are put in tiny cargo compartments, where 50-150 other bags are set on top of them. Then they slide around until you land. Then they are dropped and thrown and finally, you retrieve them.

Posted this in a similar thread a while back.

I have a friend who's a commercial pilot. Around five years ago he was doing a flight from LA to Tokyo when an anonymous caller phoned in a threat while they were over the middle of the Pacific. Apparently they have procedures for this kind of thing, but there was nothing anyone could do in this situation except stay calm and not alert the passengers (obviously). He said for the rest of the flight every bump of turbulence made his adrenaline spike. They took this case especially seriously because there was a group of foreign dignitaries sitting in the first class cabin.

Bring an unopened bag of or box of chocolates for the flight crew, especially long flights...they'll treat you like a king for the whole flight.

That if the cabin were to depressurise, there is only 12min of oxygen available from the masks, this needs to last for the descent from the depressurisation (usually flying at just under 40k feet altitude) to a 'safe' altitude of 10k feet, this time includes a hold at 14k feet of around 7 and a half minutes.

EDIT: Also, the reason why they tell you to put your oxygen masks first and then assist children is because at an altitude of 40k feet you will only have 12-20 seconds of breathing normal air before you become unconscious. There is no problem if a child becomes unconscious for a few seconds as they will regain consciousness when the oxygen mask is put on.

Not really a secret, but as a baggage handler if you don't use a regular suitcase with handles on the top and bottom, I absolutely hate you

Edit: Also, those of you who travel the world with your body sized backpacks are the spawn of the devil. I can't decide which is the worst piece of luggage to try and stack in an orderly manner, those huge backpacks, car seats, or golf bags.