I went house visiting quite a bit this Chinese New Year. In one of the houses I visited, I bumped into a visiting uncle who hails from Canada. After some small talk over pineapple tarts and chee gu, I learned something that would be the talk of the next few hours. He used to work in an airline. Air Canada specifically.
I love talking to people who had at one point work in airlines because I always have a lot of questions. Don’t you? I mean when we fly we’re asked to follow rules that we sometimes don’t even know why they’re there but just do it anyway. So I’ve always wanted to learn why these rules were there…. like why do you need to open all the windows when we’re landing and taking off? Etc etc.
This uncle is not the first though. I have a few friends who’re now air stewardesses with Malaysian Airlines, Air Asia or even Singapore Airlines and whenever I see them the conversation always goes the same way. So here are some things I’ve learned about flying. Please note however that whatever I’m sharing here is in its rawest form. I didn’t cross check any of these facts online to see if they’re 100% true. They’re just based on what my friends who work in airlines tell me.
1) Why do we need to open all the windows during takeoff and landing?
I’ve heard a lot of reasons for this in the past. Some people say it’s so that if the plane crashes *touch wood*, the emergency crew on the outside will be able to look in and see what’s going on inside. What I learned though is that it works both ways. Having the window open allows a passenger to see what’s going on outside in a split second and it’s not only because the window is opened. Say imagine if the plane crashes and the windows then just automatically open on its own leading way to a ray of bright sunlight coming into the passenger cabin. For a few seconds, all the passengers inside won’t be able to see anything outside until their eyes adjust to the bright sunlight outside. That few seconds in the case of an emergency is crucial.
2) Why do we have to dim the cabin lights every time we do night landings?
The reason for this is exactly the same as the first reason. During night landings the outside of the aircraft is dark. So they want to make the inside dark too so that it doesn’t take any time for your eyes to adjust when you’re looking outside.
3) Why do we have to turn off mobile phones and all electronic devices during a flight?
This is a funny one which I’m not sure how true it is. Well basically everyone I talk to tells me that this is bullshit. There is no real evidence that your mobile phone or your iPod interferes with the aircraft systems. In fact a pilot friend mentioned that the pilots always have their mobile phones turned on in the cockpit throughout the flight anyway.
Then why is this rule there? Well because the only electronic devices that can really interfere with the airplane systems are like satellite phones or long range walkie-talkies or something. They don’t want to be able to specify each of these equipment every time the plane takes off and land so they just do a blanket “Turn off all electronic devices”.
Of course there are probably some other reasons. Like if an emergency happens during take-off or landing, they want you to be able to listen to any instructions the cabin crew have to give rather than having it blocked out by your iPod.
4) Smoking on the airplane
A lot of smokers I know always have this way of smoking on the airplane. Many claim that they were taught this method from the cabin crew themselves. What they do is they go into the airplane toilet and take one of those small paper cups and use it to cover the smoke detector in the toilet. Then smoke and blow the smoke into the sink because there is a suction there.
What I’ve learned is that in most airplanes, they don’t have smoke detectors in the toilet. They’re heat detectors instead because smoke detectors can be too sensitive and cause some false alarms here and there. The real deterrent though isn’t setting off any detectors. It’s because it’s DANGEROUS to all the other passengers on the plane. Also it’s illegal and if you do get caught you can get in big trouble. So don’t smoke on the plane!
5) Do airplanes run out of food?
Yes. Some airlines intentionally stock food for less passengers that its carrying to reduce weight of the aircraft and in turn save costs. This is especially so in night flights. So say there are 300 people on a night flight to London, the airlines take a bet that maybe… 10% of the passengers will choose not to have a meal and instead sleep through.
So the aircraft only carries food enough for 270 people instead of 300. If however everyone chooses to eat on one particular flight then they have to go find biscuits or all sorts of different things.
6) Do people shag on flights?
YES…. and you know how I know? All my friends who are cabin crew tell me so. So when you’re thinking of joining the mile-high club by shagging on flights, know that all the cabin crew will know haha. One of my friends told me that she even saw a girl going down on her boyfriend at their seat while trying to hide underneath a blanket. It was the talk of the entire cabin crew the whole flight.
There’s so much more that I’ve learned but I think putting it all in here would make this post much more lengthy than it already is so I’ll stop here. Just happy to share whatever I’ve learned. If there’s anything you guys know that I don’t, please feel free to share in the comments 🙂
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space