Originally Posted by
ihatechewinggum
I asked the CC if it was possible to turn off the music - this was well into the cruise. He told me it wasn't possible, and that they could only turn it down to a certain level. Sounds strange to me - can anyone who works/worked for the company confirm?
A related non-aviation example.
Years ago the Muzak Corporation installed as an innovation their piped music in tramcars running in US cities. It was on a tape loop, 3 minutes of music and then a commercial. It started when the tram was switched on and could not be overridden. However it had a feature that when started up, it only began broadcasting when it reached the start of a music track. The music infuriated the drivers subjected to it all day, so when the music began they would turn the master switch off for a moment, then back on again, and that gave another 4 minutes of silence.
Trouble was, when the master switch was turned off the emergency brakes were fully applied. So the tram rolled nicely through the city, every few minutes there would be an opening bar or two of music, followed by a huge lurch as the brakes went on for a moment and everyone was thrown forward in their seats, then normality was restored until a while later, when it all happened again.