- Mobile Phones CAN Be Used During a Flight:
If you’ve ever travelled by plane anywhere, you know this is not permitted. In fact, if a flight attendant sees you with your phone during a take-off, you will at least get a grave stare down, if not a request to switch it off or put it on airplane mode. But guess what? Your mobile phone frequency doesn’t meddle with the aircraft at all! In fact, as of 2018, some airlines in Europe, Middle-East and Asia have permitted the use of mobile phones during transit.
- Secret Rooms:
Most big flights that fly long distances have secret sleeping rooms for their crew members. Boeing 777, Boeing 773 and the Airbus A380 have overhead cabins that flight attendants rest in, especially during the long hauls. These cabins are accessed by secret stairways or hatches (similar to an overhead cabin structure). The cabins can sleep about 7-8 crew members comfortably, some larger aircrafts have upto 10 sleeping spaces. These spaces are separated into sections, with each section containing a flat bed, pillows, some storage spaces, enclosing curtains, etc. Pilots have their own space too, which is built a little more luxuriously, similar to a business class, if you may.
- Pilot Shortages
Most countries and airlines these days are facing pilot shortages. This is a major reason for frequent flight delays. However, the reasons provided to passengers range from, unfavorable weather conditions or unexplainable technical issues, to just air traffic congestion.
- Lightning Creator
During the monsoons, most flights become the source of lightning when they pass through a heavily charged region of clouds. In these instances, lightning flash originates at the airplane and extends away in opposite directions. In a year, most airlines report at least one case of lightning issues during transit. Larger commercial aircrafts are more prone to such incidents, as opposed to smaller private jets. Today most aircrafts are protected against this natural hazard so as to safeguard the passengers and minimize damage. So while you may feel tremors and light flashes when lightning hits your plane, there are very high chances that you will fly through safely.
- Money Below Your Feet:
The Federal Bank of America and other such banks around the world use passenger planes to transport cash around their various world branches, and believe it or not, that money is stored right underneath your feet!
- Tray Tables or Changing Tables:
The little pull out structure you see in front of you during a flight may be a tray table for you but remember, a flight6 gets millions of passengers through the year. Some of these passengers come with little babies for whom these tray tables double up as diaper changing tables. Don’t be surprised if you contract ailments through these. Every germaphobe knows that the table is the first thing you need to sanitize when you sit on a flight.
- Luggage Issues:
Some airlines have claimed to consciously leave behind passenger luggage due to cargo overburden. Everyone knows there is a high possibility of you losing your luggage during air transit. Most frequent flyers, thus tend to carry minimal cabin sized bags to avoid delays due to luggage related issues. Old bags on the conveyor belt can also lead to your bags finding their way into a random flight and destination. Thus, when you pack, remember to always pack your essentials in your cabin carry-on and only pack non-essentials in your check-in bags.
- Wheel Chair:
Airlines are not allowed to deny any passenger wheelchair access. Some people who know of this have repeatedly misused this facility provided by flights. Having a wheelchair means not standing in long cues having front-row, larger leg-room seats. While it is unjust to use this facility if you do not need it, but the reality is that many keep misusing is time and again.
- No Airline Tracking on Oceans:
When you travel over the ocean, there is no radar tracking on your aircraft. Radar tracking is a signal that is sent to the base (departure and arrival) regarding the exact positions and directions of the plane. Once the aircraft is more than 240km out to sea, the radar coverage fades away. The pilots now stay in touch with the bases through a high-frequency radio.
- Lavatory Locks:
When you use the restroom on a flight you see a basic lock on its door. However, what if we told you, this is not really a lock but a trick? Doors on flight lavatories have a little medal plate on the outside, right above the indicator, stating “LAVATORY”. This plate when opened, has the real lock which can be flipped to open the door. This means that you can never really lock yourself inside. It is also a secret device used to ensure passengers don’t use the lavatories during take-off, landing, turbulences, etc.
