Ryanair Passenger Problem
 

Overheard on Scottish Info earlier this afternoon - a ryanair flight requesting advice with regard to a passenger watching a video containing "masked/hamas terrorist". flight attendant and crew a bit spooked by pax and wanted a bit of advice. Scottish unsure as what to advise - does anyone know the end to this story?


If we hadn't heard Ryanair asking for a "discrete frequency", we wouldn't have taken much notice. as it was worded, we just had to listen in on comm2. Perhaps airlines should get mil uhf so us ga plebs can't listen in......

You mean that there are actually videos not containing 'terrorists' or other 'they are out to get us' characters?

Perhaps Ryanair should make an exclusive deal with Disney so that their crews don't develop nervous disorders.:rolleyes:

I overheard that this afternoon, I bet anyone overhearing the "discrete" frequency was frantically dialing it up out of sheer nosyness.

Why didn't they declare a pan pan? Whats so bad about somebody watching a video? and did anyone else think the Ryanair lady sounded hot??

So WTF were they scared of ? That he might hijack the plane with his DVD player ?

Of course a terrorist is going to consult a video in flight just prior to making his move :rolleyes: .

I can understand CC freaking out (some are almost as dumb as their pax), but what kind of 'advice' was the Capt expecting to receive ? I hope it went something along the lines of "turn off the video and give him a clip round the ear".

Deary me.

...watching it on what? Just out of curiosity...

Probably a laptop or portable dvd player at a guess.


It really depends on the situation and what exactly the guy was watchin really. If it was a block buster movie that happened to be about terrorists, sure he should have been a little more sensible, but surely nothing to cause great alarm. However if it was an instuctional "how to..." type of thing a little alarm might have been warranted.

Just my 2cents!

P206

SWITCH OFF THAT DVD AT ONCE !!! I AM VERY FRIGHTENED
 

Well, I dunno. This is almost, unbelievable. What kind of captain makes a call like this ? Nice one PT, you sum it up beautifully.

It’s about time we get the terrorist thing in proportion to the normal daily hazards, IMHO.

I do not expect everyone to agree.,

Old Terrified DVD watcher.

Does seem a bit odd that after all the post September 11 changes with locked doors & heightened security,that there isn't a SOP for "umm, we have someone a bit weird on board".

Reflecting on the radio call, and considering today's date, I do think that either FIS wasn't the communication channel for her concerns, or she should have been a bit more decisive and declared a PAN.

I went off frequency and didn't hear the end of it, but at the time the ATCO's response was polite radio speak for "and what exactly do you want me to do about it?".

There must be a SOP - wasn't there that top Scottish Lawyer who made a daft comment about looking like a terrorist and got himself hauled of the shuttle and into court? The crew must have done something to get the police to the gate for that one.

he was probably watching "Hot Shots"

:}

Saw a similar response from cabin crew once (on another airline).

The father of a jewish family started praying before take-off and in the cruise. This involved taking his arm out of one sleeve of his jacket, strapping little boxes to his forearm and forehead and rocking his upper body back and forth in a wailing wall stylee.

It was obvious to me what he was doing but the cabin crew didn't have a clue and looked somewhat alarmed. The passengers around him kept looking to the CC for assurance but came there none.

None of my business but I felt obliged to explain it all to the FA who then looked a little calmer. Suggested she might want to have a quiet word with the flight deck, just to let them know what was going on.

Bit odd really as I'd have expected the crew of the (major) carrier to have been a bit more worldly wise.

Well, in the case of Ryanair, this "worldly wise" thing certainly is an issue as the average Ryanair F/A appears to be 18 years old - and is being led by a purser of the average age of 19....:}

terrorist lookalikes?
 

Many years ago, before all the latest stuff, but not before airline terrorists, I worked for Decca-Racal as a marine surveyor.
I travelled with an engineer and we had to take a flight from Norwich to Aberdeen with some sensitive equipment which had to go in the cabin.

The equipment was a sonic "pinger", sometimes called a "fish". It is a device towed behind a survey ship which send acoustic signals down into the seabed so that the echos can be picked up and analyzed in order to detect possible oil/gas bearing strata.

It looked exactly like a guided missile. About 5 feet long, 6 inch diameter, yellow, with fins at one end and a smooth stainless steel cone at the front. The box of tricks with it was an olive-green metal thing about the size of an orange box with a front panel of gauges, switches and gizmos.

The engineer walked down the aisle carrying the "fish" and sat with it in his lap.

I had a seat a little distance away. As we reached cruising altitude, the engineer told me to equalize the pressure on the box to avoid damage to sensitive electronic components. This entailed opening a small valve on the front panel.

The look on the faces of the other pax was already something to behold, but when I gingerly leaned forward and clicked the valve open, an action whch was immediately followed by a "hiss", nearly every passenger dived for cover in his or her seat!

These days it wouldn't be at all funny, indeed it wouldn't be allowed, but at that time, it was quite hilarious.

:}

Duck for cover?
 

Because if you had a real missle they would have been protected by hiding behind their seat backs (non-reclined of course).