On High-Maintenance Passengers:The biggest high maintenance crowds fly between
LaGuardia and
West Palm Beach. I had a flight attendant call it the miracle flight once, because they pre-boarded something like 63 wheel chairs in
New York, and it was a miracle because when they landed in
West Palm only three passengers needed help getting off the plane -- they all just up and walked off themselves. It was the miracle flight, because everyone got cured on the way down there. In the cockpit we don’t really have to deal with passenger dramas like that, but every flight attendant I’ve ever met hates working that flight.
On Delays:
At airports like
Kennedy and
Newark, the average afternoon delays are two hours plus…no one can really figure it out. Of course, the passengers have this feeling like they’re being held hostage on the plane -- you've seen it on the news -- but if we leave and get out of line, we have to start all over again. At
Kennedy, you can have a day where’s there’s not a cloud in the sky and you'll still have a three-hour takeoff. When you’re sitting in line in traffic for two hours and you can see the sunshine, people don’t understand -- but at the same time, we (the pilots) don’t understand either.
The problem is communication breakdown.
As pilots, we can only pass on the information we're given. I can call our dispatchers to try to get information, but the only info we can get is from the air traffic control tower, and they don’t really communicate. If you ask and try to get specific info, they bite your head off. So it comes to a point where we stop asking, because they just get mad. It’s my job to try to keep the passengers at ease, and when I don’t have a reason why we’re delayed, I try not to lie to people. One thing I can do -- and it may not be the best thing -- is I tell the flight attendant to comp drinks. Give ‘em free liquor. Maybe that’s the wrong attitude, but if you serve anyone two free drinks they’ll loosen up and it will make the two-hour delay pass faster.
On Things That Go Bump in the Flight:
Sometimes there are lightening strikes -- I've gotten off the plane and seen singe marks on the wings, even if the passengers didn’t notice a thing. And last summer I had an engine failure, where the left engine just quit in flight. We had to make this emergency landing, and obviously people knew something was going on because we were descending. So I just told the passengers the truth, that the left engine had quit. I could have just said we were going to be landing elsewhere due to a problem with the aircraft - maybe I should have left out the detail of the engine. Sometimes, I look in the future now as captain, and I think honesty is a good thing, but I think certain details can be left out so people don’t freak out. Engine failure can be a scary thing, and some things are probably better left unsaid.
On Partying Amongst the Crew:
I don't think it's what it used to be. Our crew -- the pilots and the flight attendants -- all stay at the same hotel. But years ago, certain airlines segregated the pilots and flight attendants because there was too much partying going on. Rumor has it that some pilots’ wives organized it so pilots and flight attendants would be in separate hotels. A lot of the major airlines still do it. Now that I’m captain, I’m flying with younger guys, 25-year-olds, and they’re all ready to go partying and drinking. But the airline doesn’t want us drinking within 12 hours of a flight, and they really make it so our job as a crew is to watch out for each other. Today, I'll sit out here by the pool, have lunch with the crew, go to a sports bar and watch football. And I should stop drinking by 6PM as I’m due at the airport at 5AM. There are people who abuse it -- I'm not saying they’d show up drunk for work, but they might push that 12-hour rule -- and a lot of them have gotten themselves fired. I try to adhere to it. I really love my job. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
