'due to extremely high winds'
 

....'please close all window shades immediately' :confused:

34,000 feet, polar route, I was dozing and I thought that I misheard the German announcement initially, but passengers suddenly scrambled to comply. I then listened to the announcement in English but the person making the announcment (purser, I believe) had quite poor English (not Germisch!) that I wasn't sure if he said that in English.

Has anyone had that experience? I have never heard that request before in my flying history and found it unusual.

Don't you close your shutters at home when there are strong winds?


Sorry, kidding. I also had two pretty turbulent flights over the polar route last month, but haven't heard such an announcement.

But many people woke up and opened the sunshades when the plane was shaking (me too, just for looking what was going up outside...) - while it was daylight outside and night in the cabin. So maybe they just wanted to avoid that too many people were bothered because of the daylight?

I was wondering if it was somehow prompted by the gusty wind landing? I assume that the new tersely worded extra speech about seatbelts to be fastened whenever one was seated was due to the recent turbulence incident (but come to think of it, I only had that on one of my flights today)

Perhaps I just had an extra anxious crew on that flight?

But I imagine that it would make the nervous flyer more nervous - the thought of windows cracking or flying out at 34,000 feet!

My flight was three weeks after the incident at HAM - and quite incomfortable (the bottles at the bar in front of 4E remained at their place, though). I think it was "light to moderate turbulence".

Was your flight a day- or a nightflight, and what about the daylight outside?

There is for sure no rule to close the sunshades just because the flight is a bit bumpy. Such a rule doesn't just make sense.

Happened to me once on a LX day flight ZRH-JFK , very strong winds it felt quite uncomfortable (although I fly a lot and do not mind turbulences). FA asked everybody to close shades.
The pilot started changing engine thrust constantly, where sometimes it felt like he shut them off as it was very silent, while then going full throttle the next moment and the engine sound was as loud as when the airplane is taking off. It was quite unusual. no further explanation give by the FA or pilot, all FA's were in their jumpseats. :confused:

This is just the impression you got in the cabin. When the direction of the winds you are flying thru changes, the sound is carried towards or away from you. (remember the doppler effect?)

good point :o

Perhaps the pilot wanted the shades down because he was worried passengers might freak out if they saw the plane rolling and pitching due to the winds/maneuvers

Shades down doesn't hide the barf bag, does it now??? :)

As this topic is not Miles & More nor LH, LX, OS etc. specific I'll move this thread to the TravelBuzz Forum.

Have a nice day

totti
M&M moderator

Perhaps they were talking about solar wind? This is a problem on polar flights. Closing the window shades might reduce the dose of radiation that you receive.

The Frequent Flier And Radiation Risk

About as much as wearing an extra layer of clothing.

The increased risk posed by the trivial increased chance of barfing (no horizon reference for window pax) is probably orders of magnitude greater than the lowered risk from any conceivable decrease in radiation exposure.

Def not the case. The doppler effect would not come into play during a localized wind shift with the noise source so close to the listener. Not to mention, the source of the sound is not moving toward or away from the listner and thereby negating the doppler shift. It very well could be the case that the engine went to idle and the back to a high power setting. It has happened to me on a few rough approaches in the 747 during gusty/high wind conditions.

YVR-FRA, departs 1600hrs, about 60 minutes into the flight. I fly that route often and it is very smooth most of the year. I wouldn't say that the mild turbulence was anything worse than I have felt on other routes.

And it was still the start of meal service, daylight outside, and I was about the only person in C sleeping (or trying to) at that point, I believe. Still, it did result in shades closed for longer than usual at least.

Maybe if the gusts popped out a window, the shade would prevent a pax from getting all cut up by the glass? :D