WHACKMASTER

Why feel bad? You weren’t being an ass. She asked a stupid question and was lucky enough to get a fairly considerate answer. People....

GogglesPisano

Define “safe.”

Safer than the drive, shower, stairs you used this morning? Yes, by a mile. Safer than walking while texting? Absolutely.

Safer than staying home and watching MeTV? Not so much.

Omniscient

Should have said “don’t worry; the law required this plane to have a check 3 days ago, not counting the day it was done, probably done at night, while trying to get the next flight on time....l bet they almost fixed everything; but rest assured, the things that aren’t fixed, are noted on bright little stickers showing they are broke”

TransWorld

When asked if a wing may fall off, I usually say that is why we have two of them. One for a spare. That usually satisfies that type of passenger, they ask no further questions.

Omniscient

My favorite comeback I’ve heard for when a passengers says “how small” the RJ is:

“It’s only becisse it’s cold outside”

And the best...”rub the plane and it will get bigger”

Grumpyaviator

Had a passenger flying with a friend escorting her. She was a disturbance at the gate and sat near the front of the plane making conspiracy comments. I went to back of the cabin to look an interior panel that had come off (by another passenger pulling on it). The lady started saying I found major damage and was going to try and fly the plane killing us all. It was deferrable but we deplaned for “maintenance”...needless to say, she wasn’t reboarded.

Peacock

This thread will get better once the max is flying again

Grumpyaviator

Truth.....

saxman66

Here's a couple:

I was non-reving in back of a 737. Captain comes on the PA before departure to say Mx is onboard looking at something minor and there will be a 10-20 delay. The lady in front of me summons a FA and demands more information. The FA says she'll ask. CA comes on a few minutes later to explain and its going to be more like 30 to 45 minutes to fix the issue. Lady goes bonkers now to anyone that was within earshot.

"This is ridiculous! Why would they have us board an unsafe airplane?! Don't they check these things before they fly?!"

Then she got political: "This is corporate greed! All this just to make a few more bucks. No one cares about the little guy anymore. This country is going down the drain!"

I about lost it on that last one. We eventually had to find a new airplane so we had to swap out. I can only imagine her thoughts then.


My second event, I was a poor old regional FO, still fairly new. We landed in Nantucket for quick turn. Think about the type of people that fly there. It also has no jetbridge and the ramp is very busy with prop planes all around. The policy there is to keep the pax onboard the aircraft while the valet tags are unloaded, then they can deplane and must be escorted across the ramp into the terminal. Since it's a quick turn, I decide now is a good time to do the walk around. When I get back to the main door, the pax are starting to deplane and I wait with them to go inside to use a real bathroom. As I'm going opening the bathroom door, a guy starts yelling at me. I say what's up, and he first blames me for ignoring him. Okay. Then he demands to know why I kept the people on the plane for a whole 15 minutes just so I could stand around outside. I wasn't sure why he was yelling at me, but I tried to explain the safety and security policy. He didn't like that answer and said he was going to report me to my manager. It turned out that he had seen me lazily and slowly walking around the aircraft and it was my call, the regional FO, to make everyone wait onboard. I was really hoping to go see my boss on that one. Never got to though.

Duckdude

Used to fly the J32 for TSA/Trans World Express. TWA did not serve Burlington, Vermont at the time but TSA served Burlington, Iowa. We landed in Burlington, Iowa one day and a passenger looked around, appearing very confused, and said “this doesn’t look like Vermont.....”.


The passenger told me they had called TWA reservations on the phone and requested a ticket from LAX to Burlington. Never said Vermont and the reservations agent never asked. The passenger didn’t even know there was a Burlington, IA.

We took the passenger back to St. Louis with us 15 minutes later but I don’t know what happened after that, since there were no TWA flights to Vermont. Maybe put him on another airline?

Seems like the whole thing was an honest mistake.