enviroian

http://popularmilitary.com/airline-p...eave-aircraft/

If four announcements were made and people were still attempting to get off the plane then shame on them.

kop84

I've been on a few flights where announcements were made about a passenger in the back with a tight connection, and if people could please remain seated until that person passes that would be greatly appreciated. Most of the time people have remained seated until that person does pass...I must admit I think the one guy's USMC sweatshirt helped matters.

It really is sad that people can't wait for 5 minutes for something like this after being asked repeatedly to do so. But nothing else unfortunately that DL could do...seems like 4 announcements should have been plenty

Often1

The two situations are different.

1. Deceased - This is a sign of respect and some people lack respect. That won't be changed by DL or a thousand announcements.

2. Wait for Connections - I find that either everybody must have a tight connection or people just ignore these requests. Frankly, many people have tight schedules and have meetings, conference calls, people waiting for them and the like. I'm not sure that a connection trumps those and most people don't think they do.

enviroian

ABSOLUTELY.

I for one have a major hangup with #2 and have been vocal about it. However no way on earth would I move out of my seat until that deceased service member was properly offloaded. No way.

DiverDave

I'm going to disagree. It is respectful and appropriate to allow the Honor Guard to disembark the aircraft first.

I do not see a need for passengers to remain seated until remains are unloaded. Plainly some people feel otherwise.

Some folks are bound to have tight connections, and Delta is working really hard these days to close the door at T-10.

FWAAA

Simple solution if the flight crew does not want anyone disembarking before the body of a deceased serviceman: Don't open the door. Place the FAs in the aisle to bark at everyone to SIT DOWN.

If you open the door, passengers will leave.

Ledfish

#1 . It is not that some people lack respect, what they lack is respect for others.

Keith2004

I agree with this, there was a lengthy thread on Airliners.net that got dramatic and was closed.

Mr. Elliott

Last year I was on a flight from ABQ to MSP and on taxiing in to the gate the FA made an announcement about everybody remaining seated to allow a Navy aide, who was sitting in the rear of the airplane and was accompanying the casket of a deceased sailor to leave the airplane first so he could supervise the unloading of the casket.

Not only did everyone remain seated, but as the Navy aide walked down the aisle to the front door almost everyone started to applause as he passed them.

Since we had over an hour and a half connection time we remained at the gate and watched as the coffin was unloaded from the airplane with the flight crew and other airline personnel standing at attention and placed on a specially decorated cart and moved away.

While I do not believe this sailor died in combat, their caskets are usually flown back home to their families in a small cargo jet charted by the government, it was still a very emotional sight to see.

Mr. Elliott

bergamini

This is, of course, a shame. I've only had a deceased service member one time (ANC>MSP) and we all stayed seated and several of us cried.

I find it hard to believe the whole plane would do it intentionally. I have to wonder how well the overhead speakers work and if everyone heard. I don't hear a lot of what they say on planes and I'm trying to listen. I really hope and think most people wouldn't be intentionally disrespectful.

camachinist

I thought Kalitta was handling that stuff now.

Good movie on one journey:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019454/

Flown a lot and always have a few moments to show respect for those who give the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. I doubt that'll change. Others do what they do.

MCO Flyer

Was on HNL-ATL two years ago when it was on the 744 for a few months and the FA made an announcement that we had a deceased serviceman onboard and that we should remained seated until the body was unloaded but once we got to the gate several pax stood up which the FA had to make two more announcements until everyone eventually sat back down.

Often1

This is likely the case. Once one passenger is up, the equivalent of the "moment of silence" is over and others just figure it wasn't for real.

I've come to the conclusion that these sorts of things are a bad idea because if they don't work as planned, there is a ton of bad will and why that is isn't really an issue which can be resolved.

SJC ORD LDR

It depends on the situation.

In this case, they were flying into a hub, so unless the flight was early, people are worried about connections. Having them sit on the plane for even an extra minute or two is asking a lot of people who are nervous about their connection.

Also, it's possible that someone either was playing loud music during all the announcements or were just not paying attention. It happens.

yaychemistry

I agree it's a shame that this happened, but my instinct is that this wasn't intentional either. It was probably a critical mass of people who didn't hear the announcements that enough of them got up right away.

According to the article, it was PHX-DTW. This route is usually served with an A320, which has streaming entertainment, but not in-seat. I would be willing to guess that there were quite a few passengers who had headphones in their ears the entire time and never heard the announcements. The streaming entertainment doesn't pause for announcements like the in-seat entertainment does, nor does it play the announcements in your speakers.

There were also probably at least a few of those people who were listening to music on their smart phones during/after landing and still had the headphones in their ears when the announcements were made during taxi.