I-Phone passenger knows all.

[Gandalf]

Ninja,

"Passengers aren't the dumb cattle they once were."

Again, this shows your inexperience in this industry.

Just this last week I had to "not so politely" make a PA after a 2+ hour flow delay, after 3 PAs by me, after 2 PAs from the FA, we still had 2 people on their IPODs and phones.

A little PA from "up front" goes a long way. For some reason PAs from the FA tend not to be complied with, but once they hear the "voice from upfront" it seems to help. That and some nasty stares from other passengers when they hear of another 2-3 hour delay, cuz' they lack the common decency to comply with instructions.

 

[Gandalf]

Oh Ninja Ninja Ninja... you armchair quarterbacking the captain in question is no different then that pax armchair quarterbacking him.

I'll bet a stack of high-society (sorry, couldn't resist the "Rounders" slang) that the crew was on the last turn of a 4 day, possibly extended to the 5th or 6th day, trip. At that point, the crew is tired and doing their damndest to keep a smiling face on. Believe me, it is not at all amusing to get some pax who thinks he is the representative for all the pax on that plane and decides to challenge your authority and knowledge.

Would you walk into your stock broker's office the moment your fund lost 3% and you think he should've seen it coming because you "did some research on your own"? I doubt you would, and why? Because you know he knows more. I'll admit, there are other ways to get the point across to that passenger that could have been better, but if he were on my plane, he will get the point one way or the other. Perhaps something like this:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I realize some of you have the ability to view realtime weather on your PDA's and such, but you need to understand that just because you don't see anything or the forecast says neh to rain/storms, keep in mind that there are a lot more dynamics to weather than meets the eye and those reports you are seeing do not reflect that. Additionally, there is a long list of hoops such as ATC, dispatch, alternate planning and more that we need to jump through and in a certain order and we are no special then the aircraft or passengers sitting on our right there. Please be patient with us and trust that we are doing what is safest for you and for us and not misleading you in anyway. We are always thankful for your patronage and never wish to inconvenience you, but sometimes these things happen. And if it makes you feel better, we are all in the same boat with you, so please do not take out any frustrations on cabin crew. Please note that the seatbelt sign is off if you need to stand up and we will warn you when it is about time to move, and we will do our best to keep the cabin comfortable. Thank you".

"Oh yes... Free drinks all around!!!!" (just kidding)

Totally agree 100%, but how about...

"Ladies and gents, until any one of you have gone thru the training and acquired the knowledge, skills, and hours to fly this airplane today, with these conditions, accounting for all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations, making sure that you still have a job tomorrow, oh and yes making sure everyone is going to get off this aircraft alive, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fact that we up here HAVE indeed done all of those things and are happy to do our jobs and take you XYZ."

 

[COOPERVANE]

Or....the day after the Comair crash have some a$$ stick his head in and say..."Make sure your on the right runway guys, ha,ha,ha"....

Until YOU have had to make decisions about your airplane, passengers, crew, cargo, company....

Until YOU have had the RESPONSIBILITY of all of those things resting on YOUR ATP certificate, meanwhile the consequences of making a mistake can mean the worst possible of things(loss of life) or losing your career let alone a job....

Please let the flight crew do their jobs and not be so quick to judge.

Do YOU tell your doctor how to treat other patients? Do YOU tell your lawyer how to litigate other clients?
Do YOU tell your banker how to manage other peoples accounts?

GREAT post and right on!!!

 

[JPAustin]

Totally agree 100%, but how about...

"Ladies and gents, until any one of you have gone thru the training and acquired the knowledge, skills, and hours to fly this airplane today, with these conditions, accounting for all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations, making sure that you still have a job tomorrow, oh and yes making sure everyone is going to get off this aircraft alive, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fact that we up here HAVE indeed done all of those things and are happy to do our jobs and take you XYZ."

But you forgot the part about the free drinks for EVERYBODY (us included). Ooops, sorry, that would be unprofessional now wouldn't it. Seriously though, it is purely a joke, so no one get upset about drinking on duty.

 

[twighead]

Passengers nowadays are dumb cattle, not like the sophisticated traveller they once were.

There, I fixed your quote for you.

 

[pipejockey]

Why can't the truth just be told? Unless there is a snowstorm at your point of origin or destination or a TS directly over the airport, hurricane, trop dep, etc then weather is not to blame...the real reason is the incompetence of the FAA and the ATC system they run! It's a system better off being in a pre 1990 era. Ground stops and ground delay programs when it's VFR at your destination is absolutely unconscionable. It's about time more people told the truth like me and quit blaming a little wind and turbulence, 3000 ft cigs and 5 miles vis...come on!!

There is very little weather we can't fly through or around, or depart or land in. It is ATC's inability to move the traffic necessary. 20 to 30 mile enroute spacing? Come on!! The other day they shut down a departure gate for "turbulence" WHAT!!!! I sat on the ground for 30 minutes because of that BS. And it doesn't help when some of you wimps are constantly pestering an archaic ATC system for different altitudes further hindering the airspace being used. ATC is not going to allow all these aircraft to launch when they know everyone is going to be crying the blues about the ride and demanding different altitudes. So I end up sitting for a half an hour. Do your passengers want to get where they're going on time or put up with 15 minutes or so of rough air?

Holding when it's clear and a million enroute and at your destination is a crime against humanity!! 90% of the airspace unusable due to an antiquated ATC system is a crime against humanity!!

I'm finished with this BS!!

 

[flyf15]

Passengers aren't the dumb cattle they once were.

Uh, yeah umm... you haven't encountered many lately, have you?

 

[flynryan15]

Passengers aren't the dumb cattle they once were.

Wrong they are the same dumb cattle. Now Bessy just comes with a fancy phone.

 

[AKAAB]

Look, all you have to do is send the iPhone fanboys to www.flightaware.com or www.faa.gov to shut them up. It works every time for me when we're stuck waiting out a GDP or ground stop.

I love the irony of politely using their own gadgets to get the point across.

 

[ehaecker]

Making a smart @$$ PA that singled out a specific pax was one of the most rewarding things I have done so far...

 

[Capn Lucky]

Look, all you have to do is send the iPhone fanboys to www.flightaware.com or www.faa.gov to shut them up. It works every time for me when we're stuck waiting out a GDP or ground stop.

I love the irony of politely using their own gadgets to get the point across.

The added benefit to this approach is that it will take them at least a half hour to look at both with that blazing fast speed.

Getting into a pissing contest with a passenger is always a bad idea. That said, I've had a disgruntled passenger start a disturbance over bad information from dubious sources. Sometimes the rebellion must be put down before it turns into a real problem.

 

[Mickey]

I have a question for you, Ninja. Why have all the low time CAPT pilots been getting hired and you haven't been. How is that CAPT's fault.
Very curious.

 

[NEDude]

The captain could have easily smiled and said, "thank you, we'll do the best we can to get going." and leave it at that.

And let the all of the rest of the passengers think the crew and airline were lying to them. Better to lose one dumb passenger than an entire plane full.

 

[PositionandHold]

cant embed videos here? nm.

 

[SkyNation]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIRtOkUgww

 

[SpoilerFault]

Sadly, public humiliation is the ONLY thing some classless, arogant, all knowing people in our society can understand! The public as a whole has lost any sense of patience and think that they're always right and feel that what they want comes before anything. Even if that anything is the good judgement of the crew. This same ignorant type of person who wears flip-flops and pajamas to travel in also thinks that their "$99 fun-fare" ticket that they bought on priceline entitles them to champagne in first class. I'm a fairly young guy (28) and I don't think that the horrible behavior of most in today's society is based upon age but rather blind selfishness and lack of proper upbringing. The bottom line is people have lost touch with courtesy, class, and most of all........knowing when to shut your damn mouth and let professionals do their job. Sorry for the rant but I'm incresingly dissgusted not only when I travel but almost any time I have to deal with the public in general.

 

[GearUpLightsIn]

http://http://www.break.com/index/the-real-iphone-flight-delay-ad.html

Anyone post this yet?

 

[siucavflight]

Awesome!

 

[GearUpLightsIn]

bump..

 

[Speedtape]

No Oakum Boy, that wasn't part of my CAPT training. You can't learn professionalism from a flight school that doesn't know what it means. But getting back to the conversation at hand, it's called being a professional in a professional environment. I'm not calling the captain a liar since I don't have the weather reports for the situation to assess it myself. My point was he should have handled the situation in a professional manner. Passengers are always going to bitch and moan. It's how you handle the situation that distinguishes you. And IMHO, this captain decided it was perfectly okay to publicly humiliate this iPhone passenger.

And with millions of iPhones out there, I'm sure this isn't going to be the only incident. After sitting on the ramp/tarmack for hours not going anywhere fast, that iPhone just might be tempting to find out what exactly is going on...with the Internet so available and all on that device. Passengers aren't the dumb cattle they once were.

DX Rick & Vetrider, I don't know about other people but when I fly, I have my list of preferred airlines that I'd rather fly on and a list of airlines I will never fly on. Sure, the cost of the ticket is a key consideration but if it's within $50 difference, I'll go with the preferred carrier. This goes for hotels, cars, restaurants, anything. Why would I tolerate your bullsh!t when I can give my money to your competitor and ruin your reputation in the process?

Just ask CAPT. They know all about how poor service to their clients has caused a detrimental effect on their student enrollment in the United States.

Passengers are never wrong!?? My question is did the passenger have his phone on while taxiing out? Nonetheless, don't try to start a mutiny on an airplane with an I-phone or a blackberry by trying to make the flight crew look like they don't know what they are doing! We have to work within an ATC system--we are not out there freelancing. Weather at destination may be great, but the enroute hiways may be impacted by areas of weather that greatly affect available airspace, especially in the Northeast. In addition, although weather may look great at a destination at a given point, maybe the weather was sitting over the field earlier and is still impacting the arrivals that extend several hundred miles out. As a result, if there are too many delayed planes in the air, then ATC will give out ground delays to "meter" traffic that has not taken off yet.

The last thing a flight crew needs is an armchair quarterback trying to start a riot in the back of a plane. FYI, the last thing we want is a long delay. Our duty days are regulated by "scheduled flying limits." However, with such things as weather, something outside the carrier's control, our duty time can be extended, in some cases to 16 hours.

It would not be my intent to ever insult a passenger. However, if somone tries to usurp me and make it look like I don't know what I am doing, I will assert my professional knowledge and communicate it to the rest of the passengers. I might even address the issue with the passenger, preferrably in private if possible. By the way, there are FAR's that address "interferring with crewmembers attempting to perform their duties." But, in worst case scenario, if this makes someone else look bad, then so be it. I am charged with the duty to get all my passengers to their destination SAFELY! Weather can be a threat, but so can unruly passengers!

The next time you go to your doctor with medical problems and he gives you a diagnosis and treatment, whip out your I-phone and go to WEBMD.com and challenge his findings with it! My guess is he will escort you to the front door, tell you to self medicate, get your Medical Degree, or find another Doctor!