Boarding aircraft by stairs has been part of the travel experience for many decades, whether for small or large aircraft, narrow-bodied or wide-bodied. I know that some of us think that this is actually the only proper way of boarding a 4-engined wide-body, probably because we grew up doing it. Those who remember the last years of Kai Tak will recall that - at a time when the majority of aircraft operating there were wide-bodies - almost every aircraft was boarded by bus transfer and stairs because there was only ever a small number of contact gates and getting one was a bit like winning the lottery.

Despite all of that, I don't recall there ever having been any hysteria about the likelihood of people falling down the stairs like dominoes. And many modern airline passengers are actually spoiled beyond measure, but don't even realise it. Let me tell you the story about licking the runways at three in the morning.