Air travel is an experience full of arcane rituals and mysterious regulations — which is part of what makes it such a nightmare. If you’re like most travelers, you’ve found yourself scratching your head a time or two wondering what the heck is behind some of these procedures. A flight attendant is here to answer your queries at last, and some of them are pretty surprising.
Tiktoker @cherdallas has been a Dallas-based flight attendant for five years and also creates content about the ins and outs of working for the airlines. In a recent videoshe shared some of the secrets behind the weirder aspects of air travel.
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This is more common on European airlines but is common here in the States too. It seems a bit arbitrary, right? What difference does it make?! Well, especially these days when stories of, um, planes low-key falling apart in mid-air, it’s a way for the crew to keep tabs on the plane.
“Think about where the flight attendants and pilots are sitting,” Cher said. “We do not have a clear vantage point of the wing. Like we can’t see the entire plane from our seats.” So if something goes awry, they likely have no idea — especially if the shades are down.
With the shades up, “If something falls off or something is on fire or something is broken, that passenger is gonna see it and alert a crew member.” So remember, window-seat people: Even the flight attendants are counting on you!
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“People think that our planes are like from the ’70s or something,” Cher said, referencing the era when people literally sat in mid-air ripping cigs for hours on end in an enclosed metal tube — a thing I still cannot believe was ever real even though I am old enough to have had my tiny lungs coated in secondhand airliner smoke as a child.
Anyway! The real reason is “just because people have smoked on board when they’re not supposed to,” Cher said. Since breaking this rule can be a kind of a life-or-death situation on a plane because of fire hazards, “we have to have somewhere to safely put (a cigarette) out” just in case someone goes rogue. This is also why all the garbage cans have flaps that automatically shut — it’s in case someone throws a cig in there, like an animal.
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Sitting down during takeoff and landing, sure. But during taxi? The plane is barely moving! Ah, but: “If you think about it, you are basically on a highway of cars that have really wide and flammable wings of fuel,” Cher said. Ok yeah, yikes.
She likened it to being in a car without a seatbelt — if the plane has to slam on its brakes, which Cher says happens a lot more often than you think, you’ll go flying in the wrong sense of the word, and likely bash into other passengers in the process, as well as one of the many sharp pieces of metal all around you.
This explains why one time when I was on a flight and an elderly lady got up while taxiing and started walking to the bathroom, the flight attendant leaped from her seat and bellowed, “MA’AM WE ARE ON AN ACTIVE TAXIWAY WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!” (Yes, it was hilarious, and no the old lady did not care AT ALL.)
Anyway, now you know, so the next time you’re on a plane, just follow the dang rules. Flying is annoying enough already!
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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
