Hello All,
I am now so fed up with passengers yelling to me in the flightdeck from the forward vestibule (B737) with dumb comments such as:
"You said 10 minutes to landing on the PA and I timed it and it was 12, that's not very good!"
"There are screws missing on the wings" (engine pylon vents)
"You've got an oil leak" (condensation)
"The wing looks bent" (winglet)
"You've had an airmiss by 200', file a report, I'm a glider pilot!!" (TCAS, ATC anyone?)
"A bit fell off the engine on landing" (Thrust Reverser deployment)
"You've braked too hard, you have to call the engineers" (Autobrake 3, Idle reverse)
"You hit something up there!" (wake turbulence)
"Lousy parking, you're miles from the corridor" (airbridge)
"You took off on one engine, I'm reporting you to the CAA!" (he did)
"It's not foggy at the airport, my sister is there, why can't you do an autoland?" (100m visibility, non precision approach)
Now, a few years ago I would have taken some time to reassure the concerned individuals that all was normal and explained what it was that they saw, heard or felt in order to further good
PR and to make the passenger feel appreciated and to avoid being dismissive.
However, now we have more and more of these inane comments coming thick and fast (pardon the pun) from ruder and apparently dumber passengers who don't seem to want to believe the truth even when I take the time to explain it, and coupled with insanely short turn round times so I don't have the opportunity these days to explain anything in detail, I'm afraid that I resorted to telling the last complainant firmly just to "get off as you are blocking the emergency exit". No further conversation was entered into.
This did the trick.
I'm a bit disappointed that it has come to this but I've run out of patience and good ideas, and I'm not too bothered with good
PR any more as it seems to be completely wasted on the masses, any suggestions folks?