An incident on a recent short haul flight has left me with a few niggling concerns about what I saw, particularly the safety implications of it. This was a very lightly loaded (30% full) flight back to the UK where I found myself as the only pax at any of the 4 over wing exit doors. I joked to the steward stationed for boarding in the middle of the plane that I would have to work fast to open all 4 doors myself. He laughed but didn't seem to register any issue with this. Boarding was announced as complete and we started to move. Only once we were underway was this issue noticed by the crew member I assume was what I will always refer to as the Purser (because I'm old-skool) but I'll admit I'm lost without the old silver scarf/tie to refer to! Despite having walked the cabin at least once already (and presumably reporting that the cabin was secure to the Captain), she seemed surprised to find 'unmanned' doors and set about asking pax to un-clip, stand up and move to those rows. We were by now not just manoeuvring on the ramp but were on the taxiway, and had made a relatively sharp turn to join it, all with 3 people standing up and moving around the cabin- one from a good 5 rows aft. Looking at the map of the airport, I can see that we were on the last few yards of the taxiway before the runway (and what turned out to be given the loading a 'drive it like you stole it' takeoff!) while the final man was clipping his belt on his new seat.

Where would this have left a passenger, unwilling to get up and walk around the cabin of a moving aircraft who declined to do so? Thinking here of 'obey all instructions from the crew' vs concern for personal safety and that of anyone you may fall on.