On average, 2.9 million passengers fly every day in and out of U.S. airports. But even though air travel has become so prevalent, it remains much more mysticized than, say, driving a car or riding a train.
I guess going 550 miles per hour (885 km/h) over 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) above ground comes with its fair share of mystery.
To dispel it, Reddit user BluPillow made a post on the platform, asking: “People who work in the airline industry, what are some things you think everyone should know about flying?”
Immediately, pilots, flight attendants, and other professionals started sending in their answers. Here’s what they wrote.
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#1
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 aquaplaning.
Flight attendant here. I think everyone should know or at least keep in mind that airline travel is difficult.
You and your fellow passenger can expect to have: Stress, An altered food schedule, Lack of sleep, Swelling, Dehydration, Discomfort, Confusion trying to figure out new things, Social anxiety, Changing ambient pressure, Loud noises, Nausea, Being hot or cold, Boredom.
Please remember your fellow passengers are traveling for various reasons. Hopefully it’s vacation but very frequently I run into people going to funerals, going to get medical treatments and commuting to work away from their families.
Everyone has a different story and many of us are having a rough day onboard we all have the same goal. Get there quickly and safely. Including the staff. Have patience with each other and us.
#3
Former pilot here — turbulence will break your nose or your neck before it knocks the plane out of the sky. Buckle up when the light is on and take comfort in the fact that turbulence hasn’t crashed a plane since the 1970s.
#4
Before being a prick to a flight attendant, keep in mind that their actual job is to save your life in an emergency. If I’m flying and know that there are 2 people who will make it a priority to keep me alive even if I’m unconscious, I’m going to make sure I’m on their good side. Just sayin..
#5
I learned that flight attendants don’t get paid for the time before and after flights when doing a s**t ton of work to clean up and get people on/off, and frankly, I think that’s s**tty. We would never work before clocking in, why is it okay for them?
#6
No one is physically capable of opening the cabin door while in flight because of the aircraft pressurization. So take comfort in knowing that if a crazy person gets up and starts frantically trying to open the door in the middle of a flight, they’re not going to be able to do it at all. You could sit in your seat and watch them work on it for hours and it still won’t happen.
#7
If you checked your Dog there’s about a 30% chance it’s terrified before it even gets on the plane, who knows how scared it gets during the actual flight. Bag room agents will usually try to comfort a scared animal, but all we can really do is talk to it, so if you write your pet’s name on their carrier it usually helps a lot.
I’ve never seen a cat who was scared in the bag room, cats don’t give a f**k.
#8
When you are seated, buckle your damn seatbelt. I don’t want you to be paralyzed because we hit turbulence and you smacked your head on the ceiling. So much paperwork.
#9
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.
#10
Not every landing is going to be smooth. Sometimes we purposefully land a little firmer. Just know that if it was a rough landing, the other pilot is making fun of the one who made the landing.
#11
The reason you are supposed to open your life vest outside the aircraft in case of an emergency ditching is so that you don’t float upwards while still inside the plane. This will trap you and increase your risk of drowning.
Always open them outside or immediately before you leave the aircraft, should you need to evacuate on water.
#12
It is NOT a right. It is a privilege.
Be kind, behave, or be gone.
#13
We fly with broken s**t on the airplane all the time. We have a list that tells us what can be broken and still be able to fly safely and legally.
#14
Both pilots are equally qualified — the captain just has more responsibility and more experience (usually). We trade off who is flying and who is monitoring the radios every other flight (sometimes every two flights).
#15
My husband was a plane mechanic for years and he says that flying is hands down safer than driving.
#16
Everything is expensive as hell! If you want your flights to be cheaper, take care of the aircraft while flying. The seat is rented by you, NOT owned! Just a simple tray table fix can cost $1000. The airline industry just passes the cost to the customer. Simple computers can cost tens of thousands of dollars. The FAA sticker of approval can triple, quadruple, or exponentially raise costs of things, hence the $6000 coffee maker.
#17
A flight attendant told me that in the event of a situation where passengers have to cover their heads you do not ‘lock’ your fingers overhead but place one hand on top of the other. If something falls on your hand/head, you’ll still have one good hand to use.
#18
Not an airline worker, but when I sit down, during the safety lecture, I count the number of rows to an exit. If an evacuation is necessary, it’s a good number to know.
#19
Interfering with the air crew is a felony. If you have grievances you can address them with the airline after you disembark.
#20
Bring an unopened bag or box of chocolates for the flight crew, especially on long flights…they’ll treat you like a king for the whole flight.
#21
There are no parachutes on commercial flights, so please stop asking. If the plane is going down there is nothing you can do but pray and ask forgiveness for your sins.
#22
The captain has almost limitless authority when the doors are closed. He is allowed to arrest people, write fines, and even take the will of a dying passenger.
#23
Don’t show up to the airport late, give airport staff and security your bulls**t attitude because you couldn’t be bothered to get there on time, and then get all offended when they give you your attitude right back to you. Seriously. F**k off with the entitlement.
#24
As pilots, we are just darn lazy. We focus our attention on finding ways to avoid anything becoming busy, rushed, or any time our capacity might be stretched.
We do everything for a simple life. Sometimes that means using the autopilot as much as we can. Sometimes it means manual flying and looking out the window.
Whilst some of us might secretly relish the opportunity to go off-piste and demonstrate our prowess as great aviators in adverse circumstances, no one wants a sweaty day. The imagery of seasoned sky gods wrestling with the controls are all well and good in the movies, but that’s exactly the sort of stuff we are determined to avoid. In fact, most of us are just plain boring.
Come say hi – either before after. Small kids and big ‘kids’ alike.
#25
Electronics do absolutely nothing to a plane. Your phone or iPad or laptop isn’t going to make the plane magically drop out of the sky. It’s not going to suddenly make the navigation system go offline. Planes have triple redundancy in EVERY system. Also, all of the sensitive electronics are so heavily shielded against the radiation that the atmosphere produces (which is several factors stronger than your iPhone) so you don’t have to worry.
Source: I’m an aerospace engineer and also the a**hole that texts from 35000 feet.
#26
Your tastebuds are reduced by 30-60% on flights. So more salt and seasoning are added to the food so it doesn’t seem bland. Might also be the reason so many crave tomato juice or bloody mary mix ONLY on planes.
The air in flight is drier than most of the deserts in the world, this impacts the taste of the food as well as your need to hydrate. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water on the long trans-oceanic or even transcontinental flights.
Flight attendant jumpseats are waaaaaay more uncomfortable than anything you are sitting on and are usually right by a stinky lav. So keep that in mind when you complain to a crew member about your seat. Jumpseats are about as comfy as those old plastic fold-up lawn chairs.
#27
Alcohol has a greater effect on people at higher altitudes so know your limits and don’t push them. Even if you have had a drink in the airport it can still affect you during the flight. As flight crew, we do not care that it’s your holiday, birthday, stag party, hen party or that you are nervous, if you are drunk and behaving like a prick it will not be tolerated and you can be arrested get a ban from the airline. And because airlines share their ban passenger list you could find yourself banned from a few airlines.
#28
Don’t make jokes about the pilot drinking. “Oh, didn’t I see you at the bar late last night hur hur hur”. We then (for safety and to make sure there is no doubt) will take a BAC test to show we are stone sober. It makes s**t unnecessarily difficult.
#29
Almost every commercial flight you ride-on has a dead body on board. Possibly 2 if you’re on a wide-body (large) aircraft.
#30
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.