Why do pilots "fib"
May 5, 2015, 11:49 am
#31
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: not far from MUC
Posts: 6,620
Not trying to be contrary here, but isn't blaming "bad weather" just a teeny-tiny bit lazy? They're got more information, so why not give it?
How many members of the general public would associate clear skies and gusty winds with the phrase "bad weather"? If it's windy, say it's windy. If it's snowing, say it's snowing. If it was forecast to be windy, so schedules were cut, then it wasn't as windy as forecast, then tell us that too. We're grown-ups too. Well, most of us
The more info you give pax on the cause(s) of delay, the lower the frustration, IME.
How many members of the general public would associate clear skies and gusty winds with the phrase "bad weather"? If it's windy, say it's windy. If it's snowing, say it's snowing. If it was forecast to be windy, so schedules were cut, then it wasn't as windy as forecast, then tell us that too. We're grown-ups too. Well, most of us
The more info you give pax on the cause(s) of delay, the lower the frustration, IME.
May 5, 2015, 12:06 pm
#32
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Near Edinburgh
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 9,034
Not trying to be contrary here, but isn't blaming "bad weather" just a teeny-tiny bit lazy? They're got more information, so why not give it?
How many members of the general public would associate clear skies and gusty winds with the phrase "bad weather"? If it's windy, say it's windy. If it's snowing, say it's snowing. If it was forecast to be windy, so schedules were cut, then it wasn't as windy as forecast, then tell us that too. We're grown-ups too. Well, most of us
The more info you give pax on the cause(s) of delay, the lower the frustration, IME.
How many members of the general public would associate clear skies and gusty winds with the phrase "bad weather"? If it's windy, say it's windy. If it's snowing, say it's snowing. If it was forecast to be windy, so schedules were cut, then it wasn't as windy as forecast, then tell us that too. We're grown-ups too. Well, most of us
The more info you give pax on the cause(s) of delay, the lower the frustration, IME.
May 5, 2015, 12:10 pm
#34
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: UK
Programs: British Airways Gold, IHG Spire Elite, HHonours Gold.
Posts: 403
Regardless of the OP slight faux pas, it's not like BA haven't told the odd porkie in the past is it.
They tweeted last year that it was foggy at all London airports. I looked across the southern runway into beautiful blue skies. I tweeted them a photo back saying 'no it isn't' and was replied to by a chap who'd been cancelled into LHR and rebooked into LCY (IIRC) and had to get back across to connect at LHR during the tube strike
They tweeted last year that it was foggy at all London airports. I looked across the southern runway into beautiful blue skies. I tweeted them a photo back saying 'no it isn't' and was replied to by a chap who'd been cancelled into LHR and rebooked into LCY (IIRC) and had to get back across to connect at LHR during the tube strike
May 5, 2015, 12:13 pm
#35
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,663
Any pilot who operates into LHR will be able to look at today's weather and instinctively know it will cause delays.
In terms of what information the pilot decides to share over the PA is individual choice. I always treat passengers as adults and give as much info as I can. However, it must be remembered a significant proportion of the population are nervous fliers. Using phrases such as gale force winds, severe turbulence and huge thunderstorms isn't really going to help their well being, and so I tend to use typical British understatement and tone it down. I don't think that counts as a fib.
In terms of what information the pilot decides to share over the PA is individual choice. I always treat passengers as adults and give as much info as I can. However, it must be remembered a significant proportion of the population are nervous fliers. Using phrases such as gale force winds, severe turbulence and huge thunderstorms isn't really going to help their well being, and so I tend to use typical British understatement and tone it down. I don't think that counts as a fib.
May 5, 2015, 12:16 pm
#36
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: UK
Programs: British Airways Gold, IHG Spire Elite, HHonours Gold.
Posts: 403
Any pilot who operates into LHR will be able to look at today's weather and instinctively know it will cause delays.
In terms of what information the pilot decides to share over the PA is individual choice. I always treat passengers as adults and give as much info as I can. However, it must be remembered a significant proportion of the population are nervous fliers. Using phrases such as gale force winds, severe turbulence and huge thunderstorms isn't really going to help their well being, and so I tend to use typical British understatement and tone it down. I don't think that counts as a fib.
In terms of what information the pilot decides to share over the PA is individual choice. I always treat passengers as adults and give as much info as I can. However, it must be remembered a significant proportion of the population are nervous fliers. Using phrases such as gale force winds, severe turbulence and huge thunderstorms isn't really going to help their well being, and so I tend to use typical British understatement and tone it down. I don't think that counts as a fib.
You could also ask the crew to mention that the brace position isn't actually going to save them, but simply preserve their dental records. Should settle them down ^
May 5, 2015, 12:21 pm
#37
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: TYO
Programs: Tokyo Monorail Diamond-Encrusted-Platinum
Posts: 9,634
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared by the nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either gender, born towards the small hours on a Friday night..."
