Last time, we showed you the many important but most often trivialized pieces of information that could save your life while you are on a plane trip (check here if you missed it). But since air travel is an inherently convoluted science, one article about these details isn’t enough.
Here are nine more facts lurking in the recesses of air navigation that will help you in one way or another on your next trip.
We always think airline companies dive in cash at the expense of its passengers shouldering pricey tickets and enormous fees. But this cannot be any really closer to the truth. Airline business is one of the top money-losing industries out there. Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic, once famously said, ““If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” His airline company has reportedly lost money consistently despite the many awards and praises from the consumers.
Most of the time, that flight of yours is overbooked. Airlines need to make sure there isn’t a single empty seat in the plane because someone got stuck in the traffic, overslept, or changed their minds. They only earn something once all the seats has been filed.
Flight attendants are probably one of the biggest victims of stereotypes. Gorgeous women in tight dresses whose function are limited only to looking pretty and pour the occasional whiskey. But behind those warm smiles is a repertoire of badass skills this side of 007.
They are trained to do CPR, use defibrillators, AED’s and epipens, initiate evacuation protocols, engage emergency landing procedures, guard the plane from intruders, and apply martial arts and self-defense techniques whenever necessary. So the next time you go sleazy on them, remember that they could go Batman on you.
You probably heard about the hulking passenger who tried to open an airplane’s back door in the middle of a flight to Seattle (he was restrained expectedly, because see item above). While the guy looked he like he spent a good amount of time training (for this momentous instance, probably) there’s no way he can open that door.
Because of the tremendous cabin pressure to balance the equally humungous pressure outside, you need to put more than 1,100 pounds of force per square-inch of the door to pry it open. That’s weight of a wild boar or a bull shark. Have you tried wrestling a wild boar before? No? Then you should let go of that door.
You’ve heard it a dozen times. The flight attendant rattling that you should keep the window open during the takeoff and landing despite you trying to get a nap by blocking the outside light. It is not done so that you can see how the pilot is so rad for slowly making a 100-ton hunk of metal leave the ground.
It is required so that the attendants and the passengers won’t miss any signs of trouble during these dangerous moments, say, if there’s fire or smoke on the wings, or there are bird strikes disrupting the engines, or Thor trying to get a free ride.
On the same note…
It was a long haul from L.A. to Sydney and the plane is descending five past ten in the evening. You are ready to take an Instagram-worthy selfie (“Sydney-bound! #blessed“) but the attendant instructed to turn down all lights during landing. What a bummer.
As with everything about air travel, there is a science for this. Keeping the lights dim during takeoff and landing makes your eyes well-adjusted to darkness in case of crashes. In these situations, cabin lights might not work, and eyes ready for a darkened environment can look for exit quicker than, say someone suddenly blinded by darkness.
Along with crying toddlers and guys trying to open doors inside the plane, getting your flight canceled or delayed is one of the few mishaps we never wanted to cross roads with. But staying in queue at the gate or ticket counter swinging your fists madly won’t really help much. Call the airline customer service hotline immediately to get you re-booked. There might be five empty seats on a different plane going to same destination and if you call as soon as possible, you can be transferred quickly. Just be prepared with information such as your record locator to get the transaction immediately done. Remember that you are not the only person doing this.
You might be comfy on your window seat with re-runs of Friends plugged on your ears, but your pet isn’t going through the same relief. Instead, animals are being stored in the cargo hold of commercial planes, where the noise can be too much to bear even for human ears and the temperature can shift uncontrollably. In 2012 alone, 29 pets perished, 26 were harmed, and one was lost in US commercial flights. Rethink before flying your pooch.
Yes you can turn that lever or push that button to “lock” the lavatory, but the cabin flight crew can always unlock that by accessing a hidden latch somewhere in the door (we cannot tell where) for safety reasons.
We sincerely hope you haven’t been in an airplane turbulence and will never be on one. You can imagine what it feels like. It’s like a Six Flag roller coaster, but with falling luggage, spilling coffees, and more barfing people on top of the sudden rise and drop of the ride.
But no matter how scary it is, there shouldn't be any fear, as progressing technology have already improved airplane designs and made them crash-proof during this tempest-induced inconvenience. It fact, turbulences are quite normal, and it’s been decades since the last airplane went down due to one. So while every passenger in the cabin are in the fit of panic during these trying times, for the pilots, it is just their usual Thursday annoyance. They got this.