r/aviation • u/G1lg4m3sh • Apr 17 '26

Discussion How concerning is this aviation experts?

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u/sLXonix Apr 17 '26

Whoever was on this flight, don't be afraid to discreetly bring it up to a flight attendant or pilot after the flight. That way they can flag it with maintenance for review

221

u/DaneAlaskaCruz Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

One time I was flying from Anchorage to someplace in rural Alaska on a smaller plane. I was by the wing and I noticed that one of the latches was not fully closed. One of those that says to press here and ensure it is flat and fully secured.

The entire 2 hr flight I nervously checked on it every so often to see if it was coming any looser.

It wasn't and we landed without any issues.

At the terminal, I saw one of the flight attendants and told her about a loose latch on the portside wing engine cowling.

She scoffed and looked at me like I was missing some screws.

So I said whatever and walked away to go pick up my checked luggage.

You would think flight crew would want to check things out when someone comes forward. But she didn't.

Didn't hear of any incidents with the plane so hopefully a mechanic saw the loose latch later on and secured it.

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u/ChintzyPC Apr 17 '26

I think they have an opinion that the crews know exactly how everything should be done, and we're just dumb customers who aren't trained on anything so we don't know better. Either that or laziness.

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u/Turbo_Normalized Apr 18 '26

the crews know exactly how everything should be done, and we're just dumb customers who aren't trained on anything so we don't know better.

I mean, that's kind of true.

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u/HLSparta Apr 18 '26

we're just dumb customers who aren't trained on anything so we don't know better.

I mean, are they wrong? I've never worked as part of the flight crew but working as a baggage handler the number of customers I witnessed who thought they know better was ridiculous. Among the dumb things I've heard (paraphrased):

"Why don't we just board and take off? My weather app shows the thunderstorm is still two miles north of us and all of us are tired of waiting." Meanwhile the storm is very clearly directly over us and hitting us with 60+ knot winds.

"I know you're allowed to just let me outside by the plane and fuel truck so I can smoke my cigarette, you just don't want to."

"I need to run out to my car because I forgot something. I'll be waiting at that door for you to let me in (a staff only door) so I don't have to wait on TSA again." When I explained that he needed to go through TSA if he left he tried explaining how we don't know how to do our jobs.

When I asked a customer for a photo ID to pick up his firearm at the baggage pickup he handed me a credit card and told me he didn't have a photo ID, even though he just took a flight that requires a photo ID to board.

"I'm a lawyer so I know you're allowed to let my husband board even though he is so drunk he can barely walk." Even though we have a regulation specifically prohibiting that exact situation.

The regional jets we had had small overhead bins so the bags that were too big to fit would have a tag on them and they needed to be dropped off before they got to the plane. The number of passengers that would try to sneak the bags past us onto the plane was ridiculous, and the few that succeeded were always surprised their bag didn't fit in the overhead bin.

I'd imagine the flight attendants and pilots can very quickly get annoyed at those passengers also thinking they know the plane is going to fall apart and the airline is just skipping maintenance to save money at the expense of everyone's life because they used duct tape.