Flight attendants spill their secrets from on board

Pilots and their cabin crews have lifted the lid on some of the industry’s in-flight secrets including what really goes on in the cock-pit and why you should never take your shoes off on a plane.

Airline crew admitted to cat-calling officials and the competition over official airways, revealed the cleaning standards are not up to scratch and said people ‘die on flights a lot’.

In the Reddit thread, airline and airport staff revealed all of the insider gossip and even spoke about the things that really happen in the flight deck.

The insiders also said flight attendants will hang coffee filters near particularly smelly guests and will set aircon to different temperatures to stop the odour from spreading through the cabin. 

Many pilots ‘scroll on Facebook’, ‘watch movies’ and ‘make meow noises over the airways’ in an attempt to ‘beat the monotony of the job’ according to those on the thread.

‘The job is hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror,’ one pilot said.

‘Things could be smooth out the back and we could be in the flight deck swearing our heads off dodging lightning or working out what to do when things go wrong.

‘People really have no idea how far planes can glide without engines, you don’t just go instantly crashing to the ground once you lose power. 

‘The real problem with losing engine power is you can’t adjust anything on the landing so you basically have one shot.’ 

Others revealed the aircraft may be allowed to leave the airport even if things aren’t working well.

‘Planes often have broken equipment onboard, it’s just the nature of the business and things break. Can’t always fix it, so there is an approved list of things that may be broken,’ he said.

Adding it could be something ‘insignificant like ‘a brake temperature sensor isn’t working’ or something which means they need more crew – like navigation systems not working well. 

But they weren’t the only ones letting out trade secrets, flight crews revealed the reasons they’d never take their shoes off mid-flight and it has nothing to do with the smell.

‘The planes have a very quick turnaround at airports, and don’t get cleaned, if someone threw up in the aisle on the flight before it isn’t actually going to be cleaned properly,’ one woman said.

While another added: ‘ And we usually just have one mop on board which means the toilets, galley and any other spills are dealt with by the same one.’

‘People wee on the floor of the toilets all the time, so that mop is being used everywhere else,’ another clarified.

‘And the vacuum cleaner is low power which means it is only the surface dirt being cleared off,’ said another.  

When customers die cabin crew have to make it look like they are sleeping, some said

‘I was on a flight in which a passenger literally puked all over the her seat, the seat back in front of her and the person sitting next to her in the middle. It was an ungodly. Never think of anything on a commercial as anything other than completely filthy,’ added another.

While others shared the moments that made them cringe.

‘I was in a passenger seat one day flying home and someone in the seats behind took their shoes and socks off and used my armrest for their feet. It was very disturbing,’ one woman said.

‘It always creeps me out when people do this or put their dirty feet on the back of my chair. I always want to sneeze on them but I can’t really,’ said another. 

One flight attendant said when people die mid-flight the staff try to make it less obvious, this could include putting glasses on the person or making it look like they are sleeping.

‘It is best if it is kept hush hush because if people knew there was a dead person on the flight they would panic and you don’t need people panicking at 20,000ft.’

Other staff said pilots and cabin crew often lie about the reason for delays.

‘We will blame the weather rather than say it is a mechanical fault so we don’t need to fork out for accommodation if people miss connecting flights.’

The most common ‘secret’ staff revealed was about the guard frequency on the radio – something set up to monitor for an airplane in distress.

‘It is full of people doing cat-calls and making fart jokes and heckling each other,’ one man said.

‘And by cat-calls I mean, meooooooowwwww.’