Originally Posted by
Planemike
You seem to start off from the premise, the passenger is in the wrong and has to be dealt with a severe manner. To mind referring to the passenger as "a prat" is indicative of a certain mind set. You seem to feel it is the right of the crew to shout "jump" and the passenger should respond "how high, sir !!". At the end of the day the people you have on board are "customers" i.e. they have paid for a service. Would you accept that sort of treatment if you were in a shop?? No you would not. Why should passengers on an aircraft be treated differently? It is not unknown for those who don a uniform and are given some authority to embark on an ego trip.
""It becomes a battle of wills and if you lose authority of that cabin then in an emergency you are toast."" This again, to my shows a poor attitude towards passengers. You have to have authority over them.....really? These people are handing over their money to fly on your airline. They are not being paid to be there as would be service personnel who obviously can be given orders.
Noxegon.......Agree with much of what you say.. One has the feeling there are some on here who would be very happy for many airline staff to be issued with cattle prods to help manage the SLF. Give them a quick prod if they are not paying close enough attention to the safety briefing or the sales pitch for the duty free..!!
(my bold)
Try thinking this through. Yes, the crew do need to have authority over the passengers in an airplane - for very good safety reasons. The uniform is primarily there to pick out cabin crew and pilots so the passengers know who to listen to and
who are authorised - by the CAA - to issue safety instructions and, yes, orders if need be.
One only has to observe passenger’s behaviour to see that they do not realise the importance of airline safety procedures, and you are obviously of a similar mindset. An airplane is not a bus - you can’t break the window and step out onto the hard shoulder. Situations can quickly get seriously dangerous unless correct action is taken. Just think for a moment how quickly fires take hold of an aircraft - this is why there is a requirement for aircraft to be evacuated within 90 seconds. We (pilots and crew) review our safety procedures before every flight. Cabin crew are asked medical and procedural questions during their daily pre-flight briefing such as what are the actions in the event of a passenger not breathing, choking, heart attack, use of the defibrillator. They are trained in - and practise - crowd control techniques. If they cannot answer their questions, they do not fly and are sent home.
Passengers are told that in the event of an emergency evacuation they must leave all personal belongings behind, yet again and again we see evacuations compromised because passengers are pausing to bring their bags, putting others’ lives in danger - in some cases condemning them to death.. Time after time, day after day, one sees passengers ignoring the safety briefing, reading their newspaper, talking, listening to music, playing with their phones. Crews practise procedures in cabin trainers that fill with smoke, and I can tell you that when you cannot see further than 6 inches in front of your face, it is extremely difficult to find the exits because you cannot see them from a distance so the situation becomes extremely serious.
Next time you are seated in an aircraft cabin, ask yourself how you and your family would fare if the cabin filled with smoke and flames now. Would you and your family be able to get out? Where is the nearest exit? Is it in front or behind you? How many seat rows are there between you and the exit?. When you can only see 6 inches ahead you can just about see the seats and you have to count them off to find the exit. Where is the next nearest exit if that one is blocked? Did you read the safety card?
Have you considered that you might have to climb
over the seats while choking on smoke to get out because your fellow passengers are dawdling and collecting their cases?
Have a word with yourself. Please.