Passenger Applause

[michaelmedley]

Yesterday I travelled on TOM439 to MAN and the Crew had to do a Go-Around due to aircraft not clearing the runway in time.

Weather conditions weren't great at the time but nothing more than standard bad English weather.

Once the flight landed all the passengers applauded the pilots for the landing.

I have never heard this done before and was quite surprised. I can imagine it happening if the flight was in trouble or had to make a EMG landing.

Is applauding the Pilots common, or is it just not such an "English" thing to do?

ALSO, what do pilots make of it? does it fill them with pride that their work is acknowledged.

Love to hear some stories of the past and present.

Thanks

[sicamore]

Different horses for different courses. The applaud all the time state side, even at the end of movies. Here in Zambia they just silently make the sign of the cross :D

[easyflyer83]

Various different cultures applaud after landing so no it's not a specific British thing to do.

A big generalisation on my part but your flight being Thomson probably had a lot of inexperienced flyers and most probably have never experienced a go-around. Particularly in turbulent weather and anything deemed out of the norm and it wouldn't be unusual to get a ripple of applause.

Alot of people, particularly people on forums such as this, seem to get slightly irritated at passengers applauding after landing. The assumption is that passengers are applauding the flight crew and whilst in your example yesterday they probably were, this isn't usually the case.

From a British perspective and from experience applause after landing tends to happen on leisure routes. However, it only usually happens 'downroute' and very rarely upon arrival into Manchester/UK which means they are just happy to be on their holidays.......plain and simple.

The odd crew member tends to turn their nose up when it happens but they aren't harming anyone and it can be quite amusing.

[michaelmedley]

EasyFlyer.

I suppose you are right. I used to work for Thomson/FirstChoice and used their flights about 8 to 10 times a year and although that may not be alot, the attitudes passengers had going "Outbound" compared to "Inbound" was quite funny!

I bet CC must prefer heading downroute (especially Charter)??

I imagined the Yanks were applauders as like sicamore said; they applaud anything, even a good haircut! (Joke!)

I think yesterday the Pax were just pleased to get down safely! Shows that many pax take the crew for granted.

[Jarvy]

Only time I've heard applause was landing at Antigua from JFK, not sure why normal flight.

[easyflyer83]

Jarvy, freezing cold New York state arriving into balmy Antigua..... People travelling on leisure and are probably in high spirits. Bet they didn't applaud on landing into JFK? My theory above is proven. ;-)

[thepotato232]

Only applause session on landing for which I have been present in recent years was at the end of a >16 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. Not owing to any dramatic application of piloting skill; just glad to be off the bloody thing.

[Tableview]

I used to fly Alitalia quite a lot (only because they gave me free tickets!) between JNB/NBO/ROM/LON. Invariably people used to clap when we landed, specially after a long sector. Sometimes we landed four or five times on the same flight, people would usually wait for the last bounce before clapping, and I remember the only thing about AZ that was better than lousy was their food which was rermarkably good.

[PAXboy]

When I commuted LHR~MUC on LH they often used to do it. There seems to be something in the air and they do it - or they don't. After routine sectors and tricky ones, long or short haul. Beats me. <If there was a 'smiley' for shurgging shoulders - I would insert it here>

[Rwy in Sight]

I think it has to do with the weather. I recently flew on a flight after a very windy front has sweaped the destination airport and the applause was there. I remmebered thinking that all applause while the aircraft is slowing down is premature since an overrun is always a possiblity.

I did applause once in recent years when after a hard braking we managed to use a specific exit and thus shortening a delay we had.

[Jarvy]

More usual over here is the sound of a hundred mobile phones being turned on!

[radeng]

Tableview,

Haven't you heard the old joke?

"Why does the Pope kiss the ground when he gets off an aeroplane?"

"Wouldn't you if you flew Alitalia?"

[storm_eagle]

First time i heard applause was on board Alitalia's 747-200, back in 1995. Pleasant flight FCO-YYZ. Same thing happened on the way back. :rolleyes:

[i_like_tea]

I use a noise cancelling headset so I can't hear when my passengers applaud my landings... (well that's my excuse anyway....!) :}

My very first Airbus landing with pax on board got an applause though.. and they didn't even know the significance ;)
No idea why.. was a beautiful day, wind gently down the runway and not a cloud in sight.

[Carry0nLuggage]

A slightly different response I remember arriving into LGW one Friday night was a gale of laughter at the usual "Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at LGW etc." speech. Having had a very positive, no-bounce landing, there was absolutely no doubt we'd arrived!

[Denti]

Depends on passenger type quite a bit in my experience. On vacation flights it is pretty common, especially if many elderly who do not have much experience are on board. On a flight with an all suit-package in the cabin? It is just a disgruntled "finally" and receiving their emails/texts from the passengers.

But all in all if something out of the ordinary happens like extremely bad weather, go-arounds or both combined passengers are more prone to applaud and thank the crew on deboarding, even more so if there was a real issue and everything was fine after a full cabin preparation.

[Cunliffe]

In Cold War days a colleague who travelled to Moscow on business told me about on board applause.
Apparently it used to break out on BA as soon as the aircraft lifted off on the return flight.