4 ms·

I'm curious what the worst profession to hear when they ask "is there an x on board" is. Sure, "is there a doctor on board" is scary but usually ends fine. "Is

I'm curious what the worst profession to hear when they ask "is there an x on board" is. Sure, "is there a doctor on board" is scary but usually ends fine. "Is there a herpetologist on board" could get interesting, a la Snakes on a Plane. "Is there an electrical engineer on board" would be scary, and "is there a computer scientist on board" would be downright terrifying. Maybe "is there an infectious disease specialist"?

giarc 10y ago
Long story, but I work in infection prevention (like infectious disease, but I'm not a doctor). I was on the receiving end of care once. I was flying back home and had an large episode of vomiting in the rear bathroom. I'm pretty tall and the vomiting came on quickly so it ended up everywhere (I couldn't bend down enough to hit the toilet). It took me quite a while to clean up. I came out of the bathroom and told the flight attendants that they should close the bathroom to prevent other people from getting what I thought I had (I named off a bunch of likely viral candidates). This kind of freaked them out. They closed the bathroom and I returned to my seat. After 5 minutes the FA came back and said the pilot wanted this medical form filled out (demographics, symptoms etc). The FA left and another 10 minutes passed. They came back and said that ground medical operations wanted to ask some questions. The FA asked the questions and responded back to ground operations. After that, they decided they wanted EMS to come and meet the plane when we landed. The FAs announced this to the passengers and asked everyone to remained seated. Two EMS staff came on board and asked me what was going on. I told them and they asked if I wanted to go to the hospital to which I responded absolutely not. The whole ordeal was quite embarrassing. Needless to say, if you are an expert, don't use technical words, just say "I puked in there, you should close it."
rsync 10y ago
"Is there a pilot on board ?"
- neurotech1 10y ago
  That actually happened fairly recently with a United Airlines 737: http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/485155/af-pilot-helps-in-airline-emergency.aspx http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/4851...
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    > "are there any non-revenue pilots on board, please ring your call button." May be a stupid question but what is a "non-revenue" pilot?
    - CamperBob2 10y ago
      A pilot flying as a passenger to get to another flight they're scheduled to work, or who's taking advantage of an employee benefit (free/cheap flights). Why they would use language that excludes a military pilot or someone from a different airline altogether, I don't know. Might just be an industry-insider code phrase to keep from alarming the passengers with the obvious request ("Uh, does anyone onboard know how to fly a Boeing 737?")

giarc 10y ago

Long story, but I work in infection prevention (like infectious disease, but I'm not a doctor). I was on the receiving end of care once. I was flying back home and had an large episode of vomiting in the rear bathroom. I'm pretty tall and the vomiting came on quickly so it ended up everywhere (I couldn't bend down enough to hit the toilet). It took me quite a while to clean up. I came out of the bathroom and told the flight attendants that they should close the bathroom to prevent other people from getting what I thought I had (I named off a bunch of likely viral candidates). This kind of freaked them out. They closed the bathroom and I returned to my seat. After 5 minutes the FA came back and said the pilot wanted this medical form filled out (demographics, symptoms etc). The FA left and another 10 minutes passed. They came back and said that ground medical operations wanted to ask some questions. The FA asked the questions and responded back to ground operations. After that, they decided they wanted EMS to come and meet the plane when we landed. The FAs announced this to the passengers and asked everyone to remained seated. Two EMS staff came on board and asked me what was going on. I told them and they asked if I wanted to go to the hospital to which I responded absolutely not. The whole ordeal was quite embarrassing. Needless to say, if you are an expert, don't use technical words, just say "I puked in there, you should close it."

rsync 10y ago

"Is there a pilot on board ?"

neurotech1 10y ago
That actually happened fairly recently with a United Airlines 737: http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/485155/af-pilot-helps-in-airline-emergency.aspx http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/4851...
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  > "are there any non-revenue pilots on board, please ring your call button." May be a stupid question but what is a "non-revenue" pilot?
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    A pilot flying as a passenger to get to another flight they're scheduled to work, or who's taking advantage of an employee benefit (free/cheap flights). Why they would use language that excludes a military pilot or someone from a different airline altogether, I don't know. Might just be an industry-insider code phrase to keep from alarming the passengers with the obvious request ("Uh, does anyone onboard know how to fly a Boeing 737?")