Beleivable
But airlines can use some common sense too. I have been in one of these flights, an airline flying in the Trivandrum Doha sector and there was this very enlightening anouncement to the tune of "this crew in addition to English and Arabic speaks Hindi, Bengali, French and Thai". Very enlightening when the plane is half full of passengers who dont know one word other than the local language (in this case Malayalam). Ok, it is not possible to have crew knowing all the languages in the whole world. But if a long haul flight to Japan has atleast a few Japaneses peakers, the least you can expect is atleast a few pre recorded annoucements in the main local language of the place where the flight goes/orignates which can be played during take off/landing.
Impractical? I consider not! Esp in case of Air India which has about 50 flights a week from Trivandrum/Cochin/Calicut to the middle east, the three airports in the Indian state of Kerala and they very well know what the passenger profile is like.
And heaven knows what is going to happen if there has to be an emergency evacuation in one of these flights!
Just a few idle thoughts!
NB : By the way I heard it is not one of those cases where all and sundry left the passenger in peace to doze off wiith great consideration! Apparently it was a routing Cochin Bahrain Doha Cochin flight and it seems transit passengers at Doha are supposed to remain onboard the aircraft.
Cheers
Last edited by rsoman; 11th March 2003 at 17:12.