Behind the Scenes of Air Travel

Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome Aboard. Prepare for boarding. Your boarding pass the six-digit alphanumerical code that appears on most boarding passes ( Right Side) is called a passenger name record which is used to identify individual passengers just in case there's more than one passenger with the same name. This code which is recorded in the database of computer reservation systems, that contain flight itineraries for each passenger can reveal a lot about you, including your date of birth and contact details this is one of the main reasons you should never throw your boarding pass away in a public trash.  Among other things the database this code corresponds to holds credit card information, passport details as well as IP  addresses, if booked online but if a code connected to all your personal information seems scary hopefully you'll never find this next code on your boarding pass. Passengers who find the four s's code on their ticket Left side (SSSS) may find themselves going through additional security checks,  short for secondary security screening  selection. This code is added to boarding passes of passengers who airlines deem suspicious. As we all know airports take security very seriously and some things that might look totally innocent to us, are seen as suspicious for airline officials. Last minute flyers, one-way fares or buying tickets using cash, can all look a little suspicious to the guys at the airport security desk so try not to panic, if you see that code on your boarding pass, that is if you don't have anything to hide.

      Storms are one thing, but some nervous flyers also worry about the possibility of lightning striking an airplane while that might seem highly unlikely, it's actually estimated that each airplane in the US commercial fleet is struck lightly by lightning at least once per year, while that may seem terrifying it's actually not as dangerous  as you'd think. Before an aircraft goes into service it undergoes lightning strike simulations that test its conductivity this ensures lightning can travel uninterrupted across the plane's exterior shell and back off into the sky. through an extremity like the nose or a wingtip leaving those inside totally unharmed save for a ruined pair of underpants. 

     Next time a kid gets locked in an airplane bathroom, you can easily unlock it from the outside using just one finger,  most cabin bathrooms exterior locks are tucked behind a metal lavatory sign, this one for flight attendants to use in the event of an emergency to open it just lift the lavatory sign slide the knob into the unlocked position.

 Pilots and co-pilots are warned against eating the same meals while working as a preventative measure against mutual food poisoning if something is badly wrong with one pilot's meal making them sick the other pilot can take over however there's a pecking order to pilot food in some airlines the pilot will receive a meal from the first class menu, whereas the co-pilot will receive something from business class, I'll bet that makes for quite the awkward dinner date snakes on a plane but with being responsible for hundreds of passengers safety.

 Crew must be prepared for the unfortunate event of an in-flight death if a passenger does pass away during a flight, the crew will usually have to wait until the plane reaches its final destination to remove the body from the plane.  Crew will cover their body with a blanket after ensuring they're buckled in for the safety of other passengers. Singapore Airlines did one better than the old hide them under a blanket and try not to freak out method and launched a fleet of airbuses with compartments specifically installed to store an average sized body in the event of an in-flight death known as corpse cupboards. 

Most regular flyers out there will recognize chimes sound while most of us know that this is usually a sign to get back to your seat and fasten your seatbelt. It can actually mean so much more, while each airline uses chimes slightly differently, there are some regularly used patterns that you can learn for your next flight. A singular chime can be the pilot letting know flight attendants of upcoming turbulence but it might also mean he wants a cup of coffee. Two consecutive chimes usually means that the airplane is approaching ten thousand feet. Three or more chimes indicates a more serious problem, such as an extremely ill passenger or a warning for extreme turbulence so listen out.

Thank you for flying.