Air Passengers Endangering Others

I travel a lot on the following air route sectors, Kuala Lumpur to Dubai and Dubai to Khartoum and vice versa.

In the airplane itself, I really can't sleep at all and that's the bad thing about it. So, what do you do when you can't sleep?
I would be watching those movies available via the small screen located right in front of you (at the back of the front seat). Unfortunately, the air stewards / stewardess would collect all the headphones from all air passengers (normally about 30 minutes prior to landing) for safety purpose. Just in case we crash land, the wires won't be dangling all over the plane.

What else do you get to see?
I would see a few air passengers who would be walking up and down the aisle to relax and stretch their legs or body.

The best part is not during the high altitude time but when we are landing. This is what I have observed / noticed:-

1) Upon departing Dubai for Khartoum, could see some air passengers still talking away on their mobile phones. At times, even when the plane is moving away from the airport and trying to move to the runway, some fellas would still be talking. They must be making tons of monies during that few seconds.

2) Just when every single person in the plane (incl all air stewards / stewardess) are seated in preparations for landing, you would see one air passenger standing up ....... walking towards to the toilet. Then you would hear the air stewardess' voices "Excuse me, Sir!", "Excuse me, Sir!". Normally such air passenger would pretend to be deaf.

3) As the plane is about to land, air stewardess would be checking each and every air passenger to ensure that their seatbelt is buckled up, their respective seats are upright and to put any bags / belongings up in the luggage compartment above.

I have seen this old European fella who was acting just like a young kid. I noticed the air stewardess was making her rounds. This guy was seated two seats away from me. First round, she told him to buckle up and straighten his seat. Round two, she requested him to do it again. Round three, ............. he undo everything hahahaha ..... and I think this air stewardess has had enough of him.

Round four - if not mistaken, the senior air stewardess came to him this time (I suspect she was requested to speak to this fella). Guess what did she say to him? I really respect how she handled him professionally.

"Excuse me, Sir! I have noticed that your seat kept moving down. Is there anything wrong with the seat? If there is, I might have to request you to change seat for your safety purpose. Is your seatbelt working alright as well?"

All said and done and he straighten up his seat and buckled his belt. Old fella (about 50 years old) and I reckon that he's not a first time traveller as he knows how to operate the movie channels with ease. Surprise! Surprise! As the plane was just about to land, he unbuckled his seatbelt. How I wish that the plane would move a bit and he was thrown out of his seat and land on the aisle. Not that I'm cruel but such people are just a nuisance and a danger to other air passengers. They thought that they are frequent air travellers and knew when / how to wear a seatbelt.

4) My colleague told me that in one of his recent trip from Dubai to Khartoum, as the plane was approaching the landing strip, a mobile phone actually rang. What does that mean? It tells you that that fella's mobile phone was not switched off at all.

I wonder which mobile line he was using as he was able to receive a call while still up in the sky. Not only his mobile was not switched off as three other passengers joined this ridiculous air passenger and made phone calls. Then you would hear those air stewardesses' voices again "Excuse me, Sir!, Excuse me, Sir. Please switch off your mobile Sir". Why do you still address them as Sir when they don't deserve that respect?

5) As the plane has landed either in Dubai or Khartoum airport and even before any announcement has been made, the locals would switched on their mobile phones as fast as possible and calls would be made to whoever and whatever. Can't wait at all???????

6) As the plane has landed either in Dubai or Khartoum airport, a few air passengers would stand to open the luggage compartment to take their handheld luggage even though the plane was trying to make its way to the main airport building. The plane was still moving!!!!!!! If I could remember correctly, it did happen before when the plane has just touched the runway and the air passengers stood up.

No choice again and you would hear those air stewardesses' voices "Excuse me, Sir!, Excuse me, Sir. Please sit down Sir, please sit down Sir". If the air stewardesses were slow in voicing out to get the first few to sit down, more air passengers would have stood up.

I really wonder where would they want to go. Jump out of the small window? Open any of the emergency doors and jump out of the plane onto the runway? It really didn't make any sense at all.

I have seen air stewardesses having to unbuckle and actually get the air passengers to sit down and buckle up again. Ain't that endangering the lifes of others?

7) I have heard seen an air stewardess running towards a toilet ........... the moment the toilet door was opened, you could see smoke coming out from the toilet too ........ haha. That smoker addict just cannot stand it without smoking for a few hours.

8) I have sat next to an air passenger who may not understand english language that well. Not ridiculing but this was my experience. He saw me watching movies. He touched my hand and requested me to assist him (by pointing to his screen and my screen). So, I touched screen and went to the screen which shows the movies' listing.

Now, how do you tell him that that's the listing. I looked at him, point ... point .... point ... at a few movies' names. He looked at me bewildered. I reckon being a guy, he would like to watch an action movie. Chose one for him and he asked me for a headphone. He didn't get one and I requested one for him.

In a short moment into his movie, he touched screen and the screen showed other movie channels .... and so forth. He signalled to me again and you know those duck and chicken talk. I was doing that coupled with sign language. I lost of course.

Why did you change your channel? Maybe he speaks or understood arabic language. So, I got him an arabic movie. He touched screen again ........... then he touched me !!!?!??!??!?

How would you react?

9) On another occasion, a similar air passenger had some issues with the screen. He touched and touched and touched. Looked at me and I directed him to the movies screen and put on the same movie as mine since he pointed at my screen. I reckon that he liked my movie.

A few moments into the movie, he touched and touched and touched (the screen of course - what were you thinking) and the screen went blackout. This time he touched me (they have to touched as I pretended not knowing what was happening as I want to enjoy my movie).

I got the air stewardess and told her this "He doesn't know how to operate and he has been touching it too much and changing channels every miliseconds. I think the screen gave up on him."

She re-set his screen (done somewhere in the plane), came back to me and requested me to touch here and there (the screen lah. blogging about air passengers' antics, not mine) to check his screen. It worked again ...... set up his 'favourite' movie ...... I simply choose one action movie. When a person has an itchy finger, he will always be tempted to use it. The screen blackout again ...... he looked at me. I looked at him and pointed him to an air stewardess with my eyes fixed on my screen.

Lots more to tell ....... I could even write a book about it.
Tags: Air Passengers, Air Steward, Air Stewardess