What to say or do in the heat of the moment?
As a passenger, I mean. Like the Spanish passengers on the 738. Note that much is made of one of them being an engineer. Wow, says a lot for the airline view of the traveling public. Popping a slide as Agaricus bisporus suggests would seem a bit over the top for a non-pilot so, what do you do? Stand up in the aisle and refuse to sit down, knowing you'll probably look ridiculous or hysteric at some stage? Or sit back and cross your fingers.
That's what I did - sit back and hope for the best - somewhere back in the 1980s on a VASP 732 when I realised we were taking off with zero flaps. Rio to Sao Paulo, a connecting flight for Lufthansa. Then, there was just no time: a very fast taxi and zoom off we went and quite a rattling experience it was. I wonder what I would do today in similar circumstances.
But in this thread's particular case what seems almost criminally negligent is not that the 738 departed, but that its crew did not contact the AA flight directly to say "look, we passed very close to you and there may have been contact". If in doubt, etc.
Last edited by broadreach; 31st July 2012 at 22:36.