You don't trust us anymore`
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You don't trust us anymore`
Despite delusions of grandeur and a big aviation library, I'm mere SLF. Here's an observation about a fundamental change in commerical aviation.
Until the attacks on the US, I felt I could talk to cabin crew and pilots as humans on an equal basis, and I can scarcely remember a flight which didn't involve a long and interesting (for both sides) conversation up front followed by an invitation to stay for the landing.
Flew British Midland from Ajaccio to Heathrow yesterday. B Mid (and others?) have banned the use of the forward toilets on their fleet, to keep pax away from the cockpit (and pax are not allowed in or near the forward galley). And I know I'll never get another cockpit visit, let alone landing, even if I live to be 150 (B Mid STAFF are banned from blagging jumpseats unless they're in uniform and on duty).
So, something radical has changed in the relationship between pax and crew - even in the wake of some pretty nasty and increasingly regular airrage incidents, there was a level of trust between the two parties, and that has evaporated. Having done a lot of miles just before the WTC attacks, my pockets yesterday were still full of rolls of different currency, including Lebanese Lira, US Dollars, Hungarian Wotsits and Syrian Pounds. My passport has all kinds of recent visas for countries that are suddenly harbouring "terrorists". If the British Midland hostie I was chatting to yesterday had seen the wad or the passport (combined with the conversation topic of jumpseat rides) she would have been HIGHLY suspicious, when I'm just a travelling musician who has friends in Beirut and loves flying. As it was she was happy to talk but guarded and in no way was I going to be allowed into the forward galley to ask for a drink, let alone visit the cockpit, ever again.
Until the attacks on the US, I felt I could talk to cabin crew and pilots as humans on an equal basis, and I can scarcely remember a flight which didn't involve a long and interesting (for both sides) conversation up front followed by an invitation to stay for the landing.
Flew British Midland from Ajaccio to Heathrow yesterday. B Mid (and others?) have banned the use of the forward toilets on their fleet, to keep pax away from the cockpit (and pax are not allowed in or near the forward galley). And I know I'll never get another cockpit visit, let alone landing, even if I live to be 150 (B Mid STAFF are banned from blagging jumpseats unless they're in uniform and on duty).
So, something radical has changed in the relationship between pax and crew - even in the wake of some pretty nasty and increasingly regular airrage incidents, there was a level of trust between the two parties, and that has evaporated. Having done a lot of miles just before the WTC attacks, my pockets yesterday were still full of rolls of different currency, including Lebanese Lira, US Dollars, Hungarian Wotsits and Syrian Pounds. My passport has all kinds of recent visas for countries that are suddenly harbouring "terrorists". If the British Midland hostie I was chatting to yesterday had seen the wad or the passport (combined with the conversation topic of jumpseat rides) she would have been HIGHLY suspicious, when I'm just a travelling musician who has friends in Beirut and loves flying. As it was she was happy to talk but guarded and in no way was I going to be allowed into the forward galley to ask for a drink, let alone visit the cockpit, ever again.
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Yes the reĝationship has changed, but not only in the way you have mentioned Epsom.
This is what I posted on another thread, and it's about that same changed relationship.
............Sounds to me as if this pilot has just gone one step further in doing what many of us have been doing since Sept 11.
Acknowledging the event and using the PA to create new kind of "bond" between pax and crew.
The situation we now all find ourselves in is new, and new ways of dealing with it are required imho.
My PA's (i'm cabin crew) have been different this week, more personal and less stand off-ish and pompously official,less dictating. The effect has been startling. Passengers behaviour has been radically different from before. More cooperative, less aggressive and yes, a new feeling of "we are all in this together".
Perhaps the same thing would have happened anyway, I don't know. But surely ceating a new kind of bond between pax and crew, creating the feeling that all of us on the ac have our various roles to play to make sure we get to the other end safely, is not a bad thing??
The pax get emancipated, from powerless cattle to active participants...........
So as far as I'm concerned, the change is not only for the worse, quite the opposite in fact.
This is what I posted on another thread, and it's about that same changed relationship.
............Sounds to me as if this pilot has just gone one step further in doing what many of us have been doing since Sept 11.
Acknowledging the event and using the PA to create new kind of "bond" between pax and crew.
The situation we now all find ourselves in is new, and new ways of dealing with it are required imho.
My PA's (i'm cabin crew) have been different this week, more personal and less stand off-ish and pompously official,less dictating. The effect has been startling. Passengers behaviour has been radically different from before. More cooperative, less aggressive and yes, a new feeling of "we are all in this together".
Perhaps the same thing would have happened anyway, I don't know. But surely ceating a new kind of bond between pax and crew, creating the feeling that all of us on the ac have our various roles to play to make sure we get to the other end safely, is not a bad thing??
The pax get emancipated, from powerless cattle to active participants...........
So as far as I'm concerned, the change is not only for the worse, quite the opposite in fact.
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Yep, glad I managed to get my first "glass cockpit" flight deck visit in last Xmas - never again I suspect 
Flaps, I've been on quite a few trips with Effays like you - especially the small Dash-8s and the like in North America.
One FA, on a late-night "hop" from Portland to Seattle (no, I don't work for Boeing or Microsoft!) looked at the half dozen travel-weary pax on her 20-seater and said "I guess I don't need this", and put down her microphone, walked a few paces towards the first occupied row, and proceeded to give the safety drill "un-amplified"
Would you belive it, but that, coupled with a bright smile, had every one of the pax listening to the entire drill
Flaps, I've been on quite a few trips with Effays like you - especially the small Dash-8s and the like in North America.
One FA, on a late-night "hop" from Portland to Seattle (no, I don't work for Boeing or Microsoft!) looked at the half dozen travel-weary pax on her 20-seater and said "I guess I don't need this", and put down her microphone, walked a few paces towards the first occupied row, and proceeded to give the safety drill "un-amplified"
Would you belive it, but that, coupled with a bright smile, had every one of the pax listening to the entire drill
