If anything goes wrong in flight, act worried.

[A Squared]

Apparently, seeming cool and collected when something's not quite right can get you in trouble. From Avweb's latest Newswire:

Well, so much for the image of the unflappable, cool-under-fire, steely-nerved pilot. Chances are, others will just think you're drunk. That's what happened to the crew of a British Airways flight from Lyon, France, to Manchester, England, on Jan. 16. The pilots got a warning light when they lowered the gear on the RJ100, so the plane went around. It made another pass to allow tower controllers to check that the gear was down. The plane subsequently landed safely and the light was discovered to be faulty. But one of the passengers thought the pilots' demeanor didn't match the gravity of the situation and suggested they must have been drinking. Authorities took that threat seriously. Manchester Airport police ordered the pilots to take breath tests, both of which were negative. "It's very disappointing that a passenger would assume just because a pilot was carrying out a normal safety procedure that he had been drinking when he had not been drinking at all," said BA spokeswoman Sue Redmond. The airline and the pilots' union have both complained to the police.

 

[bafanguy]

AxA,

I guess that's where the freighter pilots have the advantage. A friend of mine had a FA accuse the crew of drinking because they were laughing in the cockpit !!! Nice, huh ? It was quickly resolved but the accusation was made nonetheless. There have to be tons of stories like this.

Of course, we're all too familiar with the few actual cases that get everyone painted with the same broad brush.

I remember talking to a guy in the crew lounge who'd just come from the CP's office to answer a pax letter accusing him of wreckless flying because, "...he landed on one wheel...". He explained that 25kts of direct Xwind might have had something to do with it. But, all pax are experts, right ?

 

[FN FAL]

All pilots ARE drunk!

Drunk with the love of flying, aviation and their brother aviators...heck, I bet I could blow a .08 just thinking about aviation.

REAAAAALY?

No...not really.

But these stories point out how stupid people are. In England, they have as many police cameras as they do people...and their crime rate is climbing at an appalling rate.

I could imagine the public thinking that two well trained pilots would be drunk, because of the socialist mindset of the European public.

I mean really? When you have to line your streets with digital facial recognition cameras to the ratio of one per person, where the hell do these two British Airways pilots in the original story get off thinking that they can fly a plane without a government monitored breathalyser blocking the master switch and two government controlled security cameras watching them the whole time?

Shame on those two British Airways pilots...they must have been drunk with the idea that during the flight they weren't being watched by the government 24/7, like the rest of the Queen's subjects.

 

[Vik]

Aren't all pilots a bunch'a drunks anyway ... speaking of which, where's my beer .. oh there it is in my mini-cooler in my luggage.

 

[Spooky 1]

I remember years ago we had a passenger on a B727 flight into SFO that had been giving the flight attendents a lot of trouble over nothing in particular. It started getting pretty ughly about the time we landed and the flight attendent wanted to point this guy out as he deplaned. Well after waiting until just about everyone was off, here comes this guy still bitching about everything and anything he could think of as he passed myself and the S/O standing in the doorway to get a good look at this character. As he passed by me he said in a loud voice that the "approach was flown to fast". With that the S/O remarked in a loud voice so the passenger would be sure to here it, that we should wite up the airspeed indicator at row 26! Almost wet my pants it was so funny at the time.

 

[avbug]

I guess I have the natural advantage. My hands shake pretty much all the time, and my pinpoint pupils dance like they've seen a ghost.

The real clincher is the chattering teeth. After a real emergency, they help hide my dry throat and knocking knees.

 

[Iflewjetz]

Passengers can be such idiots. I remember one time I was flying the F100 and we had a little roll in the autopilot, maybe .5 degree left and right occasionaly. When we deplaned I was in the waiting area stretching my legs and this guy comes over and said our autopilot was malfunctioning and we should write it up. I said it was ok. He then said it was rolling about 10 degrees left and right and he should know because he was a private pilot. I then looked him in the eye and said you must not be a good pilot because if it rolled 10 degrees left and right the whole flight, everybody in the back would be sick. Then I walked off. A$$hole.

I had a buddy who was eating at the restaurant in Huntsville and in the bar area because the dining area was closed. He came out and some pax said to him, I think you have been drinking because I saw you in the bar. He said to him, repeat that to me and let me know if you are serious, If you are accusing me of drinking, your flight just got cancelled and I am going to wait for a breath test. He then said hey, I was just kidding.

 

[VampyreGTX]

Next time, they should run out of the cockpit screaming "We're all gonna die!" I bet that passenger would much rather prefer the calm, collected pilots from that point on!

 

[Swede]

Most private pilots who come forward to visit are totally cool and fun to talk to. Occasionally we get Chuck Yeager Jr., who we KNOW is just itching for the PA to squawk "Err, ladies and gentleman, do we have any passengers with piloting experience to come save us all, as the Capt and Copilot are both comatose from the fish? We will worship and glorify you, and you will be the hero of the ages."

I'll never forget one geek who had a laptop and a GPS. Halfway through the flight, up comes a note on a napkin from the #1. "The passenger in 23E is concerned because his laptop shows us on a 310 heading, when Seattle is 290 degrees." We thought about jerking him around, but finally wrote back "Look up 'Great Circle Routes' and the theory behind them."

 

[XTW]

I'll never forget one geek who had a laptop and a GPS. Halfway through the flight, up comes a note on a napkin from the #1. "The passenger in 23E is concerned because his laptop shows us on a 310 heading, when Seattle is 290 degrees." We thought about jerking him around, but finally wrote back "Look up 'Great Circle Routes' and the theory behind them."

Did you tell him to remain seated after the rest of the passengers deplane so that the "authorities" could speak to him about using unauthorized PEDs inflight?


XTW

 

[qmaster3]

I'll never forget one geek who had a laptop and a GPS. Halfway through the flight, up comes a note on a napkin from the #1. "The passenger in 23E is concerned because his laptop shows us on a 310 heading, when Seattle is 290 degrees." We thought about jerking him around, but finally wrote back "Look up 'Great Circle Routes' and the theory behind them."

Wouldn’t bringing a GPS onboard be a great way to get on the TSA list?

 

[Swede]

Wouldn’t bringing a GPS onboard be a great way to get on the TSA list?

I'm guessing this was around 1996, when stuff like personal GPS recievers were so new that no one knew what to make of them. Nowadays, he'd probably be beaten to death by the other passengers.

 

[urflyingme?!]

hahaha