pachamama

OK it's a real stupid title but I flew BMI from London - Belfast - London over the weekend. That curtain thing was way infront of me as I was assigned the last row in 'Y oh WHY' (another er.. first), and on both occasions every time we landed, a large percentage of pax clapped and cheered on landing.

Unless I was oblivious to a scary cockpit announcement (I have to catch up on new music on my headphones that gets sent to me - I never have time otherwise) I thought the flight was very uneventful, so what is with the clapping?

It made me think...

Is there anything else I am missing out on when

a) travelling on other airlines other than my usual 'Brit Air'?
b) travelling behind that curtain thing.

seraphina

I'm Belfast born and bred, and on flights to and from the province I see this quite often. I think it's just a thing that certain people from NI do, but it would really wind me up if I was trying to maintain a professional cabin atmosphere - it makes the place seem like a charter airline! I think it just highlights that there may be a large number of infrequent flyers on board.

chris18london

There was me thinking the pilot got the clap from GatwickBA or a certain shower..

Its definitely not a UK thing, were there many passengers who appeared, possibly Russian? ..Where anything softer than what appears to be a controlled collision with the earth is quite remarkable?

BelfastFlyer

Every flight Ive had that either leaves ot lands in bfast the pax always claps... guess it's good manners

colmc

I've experienced it on other airlines too - I remember the first time I witnessed it, I was flying Virgin to NYC and upon landing the happy clappers began. I thought all of them had just gone spontaneously insane!

Gizmos

happens all the time on charter airlines, my OH calls it "Chav Syndrome" - happened once on a flight from Florida which happened to be the first escape flight after a hurricane - we knew there were loads of people who had been put on this flight from other airlines as we'd heard them talking - they were the ones who clapped on landing at LGW.

so dont worry the clap is something you want to be doing

schofs

Mrs Schofs says they always clap on the Italian airlines, purely because they're so shocked/relieved at having not crashed.

phreegreens

Some years ago, about 100' from the threshold at LIN, the pax I was sitting next to on AZ tin said..

"you're never quite sure with Italian pilots if they have had too much too drink, or not enough.."

Always thought it was one of life's great observations..

uk1

I was on a BMI flight from CDG>LHR a few months ago that declared an air emergency after a large bang and stuttering starboard engine. This was over the channel and one or two were nervy. We went straight in and one or two clapped - or it was very noisy hearts beating ......

FlyingOnceMore

LHR-BHD

Not once in literally hundreds of sectors on that route have I ever experienced clapping. I must always be on the miserable b****rs flights.

chris18london

Erm.. just out of curiosity - who actually flies to BFS anymore>?

adrianjc32

There was a time when we thought we had passengers clapping on BA, then we realised it was those stupid seat dividers in Club World! In turbulance it was like a cabin filled with sea lions.....

FlyingOnceMore

Basically LCC's (except Air Berlin who use BHD) and everything International.

Easyjet
bmibaby
Manx2
Jet2
Zoom
Continental (to Newark)


and of course, all holiday charter flights.

Aerotec

Was there a large school group? There are loads of them going about town at the moment so maybe they were coming over there for a visit. Kids clapping is ok but when adults do it it is just so "LCC"

pennineuk

Happens a lot on Olympic....mind you, if you ever landed safely on somewhere like Samos, you'd understand why people clap!