With the recent incident with QF, I wanted to ask what feelings do passengers get during a rapid decent ?
I'm not a pilot, I'm very infrequently SLF - but I'm a fan of large aircraft and worked on the avionics of C-141 and C-5/A during my hitch in the USAF.
I've been on 2 commercial flights and a charter which had to drop altitude rapidly due to cabin pressure issues, none of which were [fortunately] as sudden as QF 30's problem.
It's a mess, it's unpleasant, ears pop and hurt, and in the commercial flights, what started the little panic there was, was someone who knew nothing about aircraft starting to mouth off.
(There was no problem on the charter flight, as the pilot spoke directly to us.)
Several folks have mentioned that it would be a good idea to include a hint about a rapid decent in the safety speech.
That's a great idea - I think it would help the folks who don't know pooh about airplanes understand what's going on.
But, I've got to comment... Most of the people flying these days really belong on buses or ships, where life is much slower.
I miss the days when you could pay for a 1st Class ticket and get 1st Class treatment from the time you got out of the cab at departure until you got into the cab at the other end.
Now, no matter how much you pay, it's all cattle-car quality. No food, poor and harried service, a generally hostile attitude, and the pilots seem almost afraid to say 'hello' if you happen to see them while you're boarding.
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