5 ms·

It's silly until your plane skids sideways on the runway, requires an emergency evacuation, and you're the idiot in the exit row who has no idea what to do beca

It's silly until your plane skids sideways on the runway, requires an emergency evacuation, and you're the idiot in the exit row who has no idea what to do because you can't be bothered to give a shit about it. It's silly when the plane is almost parked at the gate, everybody stands up, and then the plane jolts to a stop against the blocks, causing a whole plane full of people to fall all over each other and get hurt because they couldn't sit down for another ten seconds, until the bell rang, like they were told to. It's silly when the cabin door opens at 10,000 feet after takeoff, nearly sucking out passengers who, thank god, decided not to ignore the "keep your seatbelt fastened" warnings (the plane descended/slowed down and the attendants were able to get the door closed. The flight continued to Germany without stopping). Hey, you know that live/die seat up/down joke? Turns out it's not about you; it's about not making it difficult for the people in the row behind you to evacuate. Can you imagine the sighs and groans of the first-world aggrieved, if they were instructed to temporarily cease their addictions?

ubernostrum 13y ago
Wow. This is one of the most melodramatic and disconnected-from-reality comments I've ever seen on HN. And that's saying something, recently.
MichaelGG 13y ago
>It's silly until your plane skids sideways on the runway, Um, so we're to believe it's the headphones that caused this? Most likely if the plane is skidding all over and there's a major emergency, the headphones aren't going to prevent someone from noticing. I'd be far more worried about sleepy passengers or something. In fact, in your scenarios, you wouldn't even be in an exit row, as you'd be apparently too disconnected from reality to verbally say OK to their request for assistance if needed prior to takeoff.
cheald 13y ago
You've managed to completely miss my point. If the policy were about making sure that people were paying attention, then they would interrupt people sleeping, reading dead tree books, wearing earplugs, or doing anything else that takes their attention off of the attendant. They don't. The policy has been retconned into being about attention, but the claim that it's about paying attention is belied by actual behavior.
piyush_soni 13y ago
You really think if all of these is happening and you'd have no idea what's going on? And of course, for the first time flyers, it's still a good idea to listen to what they are talking about (they'd anyway do it). But those who are flying almost everyday, the instructions are not changing regularly. Who listens to them anyway on a regular basis?

ubernostrum 13y ago

Wow. This is one of the most melodramatic and disconnected-from-reality comments I've ever seen on HN. And that's saying something, recently.

MichaelGG 13y ago

>It's silly until your plane skids sideways on the runway, Um, so we're to believe it's the headphones that caused this? Most likely if the plane is skidding all over and there's a major emergency, the headphones aren't going to prevent someone from noticing. I'd be far more worried about sleepy passengers or something. In fact, in your scenarios, you wouldn't even be in an exit row, as you'd be apparently too disconnected from reality to verbally say OK to their request for assistance if needed prior to takeoff.

cheald 13y ago

You've managed to completely miss my point. If the policy were about making sure that people were paying attention, then they would interrupt people sleeping, reading dead tree books, wearing earplugs, or doing anything else that takes their attention off of the attendant. They don't. The policy has been retconned into being about attention, but the claim that it's about paying attention is belied by actual behavior.

piyush_soni 13y ago

You really think if all of these is happening and you'd have no idea what's going on? And of course, for the first time flyers, it's still a good idea to listen to what they are talking about (they'd anyway do it). But those who are flying almost everyday, the instructions are not changing regularly. Who listens to them anyway on a regular basis?