What would you do?

[+TSRA]

I've had several instances where a passenger asked me if something was wrong either directly or indirectly through the FAs. In short, speak up!

If it's nothing, no big deal. If you haven't realized it yet, most pilots love talking about airplanes, especially if we get into the nitty gritty of something.We're kind of geeks and nerds like that. Sure, you'll come across a few pilots who will give you the look, or will tell you to stay in your lane, or complain as they delay the flight. But then, it might be something we missed, or didn't see because it's not a normal part of the walkaround, or even the lighting was poor when we did the walkaround an hour ago. I'm of the opinion that I'd rather stay alive and appear incompetent than remove all doubt as you push me into the oven, so if I can fix something you caught, cool! If it's a non-event, I get to talk to you about the airplane, which is also cool! I won't say that I've never been annoyed, but I believe it comes with the territory of operating in a customer service environment

Oh, an no, I do not believe the customer is always right. I worked in retail for long enough when time building for my CPL to know that most times the customer is very, very wrong. I digress, here are a few times that come to mind from the past 25 years:

A few times on different turboprops being told of tape hanging off the prop. It's a protective tape which peels off after time. No big deal, and in my experience maintenance normally tells you to peel it off if it's really bad and they'll fix it next time you're near the shop. If you don't pull it off you can sometimes hear a buzzing sound if you're seated near the prop, and I've had a few passengers tell me about that sound too.

On the 1900D a passenger said he thought he had seen a bird go into the engine. We hadn't seen anything go past the window nor had we seen anything untoward on the instruments. I thanked him and discovered the remains of what was a bird on the walkaround and again on the wing. It's something we would have caught anyways as it was very apparent looking into the inlet and the wing, but it was nice to know ahead of time.

I was brought out of the flight deck and told that there were "holes" in the skin. After talking it through with the passenger, they meant the protective shield in the plane of the Q400 propeller that protects the fuselage from ice coming off the prop in flight. All was well after the explanation. More often though people would ask what the damage was rather than come out and say there were holes.

Also on the Q400 but taxiing out, a passenger called the FA in a panic that one of the tires looked flat. I asked my FO who had done the walkaround, and he remembers checking the tires and that they looked OK. I know that unless the tire is blown, that a flattening tire may just look slightly bowed at the bottom if you've not seen a flat tire before and this being one of his line indoctrination flights, I elected to go back to the gate. Maintenance was there waiting, a quick tire pressure check to confirm all was OK, and we were off maybe 30 minutes later. In my PA I thanked the passenger and said that even though it was nothing today, we'd rather make sure the airplane is 100% ready to go than to take a chance. Was I annoyed? Yep. But I'd rather be annoyed than have egg on my face if the tire were flat and it decided to shred itself on takeoff and do damage. This was also shortly after another Q400 had a tire explode on them and the damage caused the gear to collapse after landing, so we were all a little on edge.

Incidentally, I had someone last year tell me while they were seated in the middle seat over the wing that they could see the tire was flat on a 737. I asked if they saw it as they came on board, which you might be able to see from the gate just before you get on if you knew exactly what to look for. Nope, they could see it and feel it from their seat. Having just done the walk around myself, I'll admit I let my skepticism get the better of me and told them that no, I had just come back from checking the plane out, and the tires were fine. I honestly thought I was getting pranked because the response was "oh, ok."

Twice on the 737 where someone said the back of the wing was missing. They meant the back of the flap fairing.

And finally, just last week I came out of the flight deck to use the lav. I waited in the forward galley for tor the current occupant to come out, and when he did he closed the door, looked me in the eyes and said "the sink water's cold, I can't warm it up" and proceeded to walk back to his seat without another word. It was a strange enough encounter than when I went in, I opened the panel where the water heater is and, sure enough, the water heater was turned off. A quick flick of the switch and we were back in the 21st century.