Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about flying and airports and the like, this comes along and blows your mind! Insiders: reveal!
A bunch of renegade airline and airport employees recently spilled their beans in a recent discussion threat on Reddit. The thread, entitled People who work for airlines, what are secrets passengers don’t know?, has so far received 13615 comments.
Here are seven of the most unnerving revelations.
1. The locks on your zippered suitcase are pointless
Did you really think those tiny little locks were going to stand in the way between your valuables and airport staff – if they wanted to have a look inside?
Well, no, they wouldn’t, just as the above video shows.
According to user royalsiblings, “You can pop a zipper with a pen and drag the locked zipper pulls around the bag to close them back up. I’ve done this many times to identify bags that are tagless and locked.”
And they were right.
2. Miracles can – and often do – happen in the air
According to user tagt8er, “People fake needing a wheel chair to gain boarding priority. 10 wheelchairs get on and olny (sic) 1 person needs it getting off. We call um (sic) miracle flights.”
Another anonymous user, SlateHardjaw, remarked on how elderly people would often pretend to be “feign feebleness” to get the prized wheelchair cabins, which have more space and a bigger shower: “They’ll borrow walkers and wheelchairs from friends in attempts to pull off the ruse.”
And you thought all old people were so nice and sweet?!
3. The possible reason your luggage got lost
Not removing old flight tags on your bags can often confuse baggage handlers as well as conveyor belt scanners, and this can sometimes be the reason why some bags end up in Tokyo instead of Toronto.
So says Redditor aurelius: “[It’s] not a secret, just common sense; I see it happen all the time.”
4. A plane can still fly without all its parts
Did you know that there’s a list of things that can be missing from an aircraft, while still being allowed to fly?
Say what?! Yep, it’s true.
Every aircraft has a Minimum Equipment List (MEL) which lists every single item that can be broken on the aircraft while it still remains airworthy, according to PiperArrown3191q. And according to another us Redditor, unimproved, this list is HUGE!
However, there’s no need to be alarmed. A plane will never be allowed to fly if safety is a concern (duh!).
But, says PiperArrown3191q, “it should be noted that the operational limits of the aircraft are altered to respond to broken parts. For instance, if certain lights are broken, the aircraft is restricted to daytime use.”
5. You probably shouldn’t drink that (coffee)
Planes certainly aren’t known for brewing the best coffee, but did you know that part of why on-flight coffee tastes so bad is that no one cleans the coffee container.
According to user, WorseToWorser, “the coffee is absolutely disgusting because the no one washes the container that goes out every morning. The station agents who get paid way too little don’t give a shit about cleaning it. I certainly didn’t when I worked for AA. Also, because we weren’t given the proper supplies to clean it. We pretty much just rinsed it out and dumped coffee into it.”
6. Pilots are never served the same meal
According to Redditor, ichigo29, this is to prevent both pilots from falling ill on the flight: “2 pilots are served different meals and cannot share, this is done in case of food poisoning.”
7. There really is no good reason to switch off your phone
According to TychoErasmusBrahe on the thread, “there really is no good reason passengers need to switch off mobile devices during takeoff and landing.”
The Redditor continues: “the frequencies used combined with the lack of signal power in the antennae of consumer grade mobile devices means there is 0% chance of them ever interfering with the plane’s sensors and instruments in any way whatsoever. This has been tested ad nauseam since the beginning of aviation/mobile communication technology, and it has NEVER shown to be a problem.
*Check out what secrets these pilots recently confessed to….