It seems like every week there’s an incident at an airport. Just a fews days ago, a catering truck crashed into Alaska Airlines 737 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, causing significant damage. Two weeks earlier, an Air Canada airplane nose was smashed by reckless driver and a few weeks ago, a Delta Air Lines A350 knocked the tail off of a regional jet in a ground collision at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
In the videos that were provided, you can see each aircraft jolt quite a bit so anyone sitting or standing without their seatbelt on would have been thrown and possibly significantly injured.
As one flight attendant commented: “See this is why they tell you to say seated with you seat belt fastened while the airplane is moving. No, you can’t go to the bathroom until the Captain turns off the seatbelt sign. Ya’ll need to listen, for your own safety 🤷”
So I was quite surprised when I just came across this video (embedded below) in my Threads feed with the caption: “Calling all pilots, flight attendants, and @secretarypete to weigh in: Iberia pilot decided to just push back and start rolling with DOZENS of passengers still waiting to find their seats and stow their bags. Cabin crew quite unconcerned, as you can see. This can’t be legal at a US airport, right?? (MIA) Pro’s: are you as horrified as I am? Do I report to FAA??”
Post by @blueforthewin1View on Threads
I am quite surprised the captain pushed back and that flight attendants didn’t make the passengers sit or tell the captain to wait. Usually, and more often than not, when I fly, there’s always some knucklehead passenger standing in the aisle or in the bathroom just as the plane is about to pushback and the flight attendants get on the horn to shame the passenger into returning to their seat immediately, saying that the aircraft can’t push back until everyone is seated.
Some users in the comments disagreed.
sassystarfish13: You can’t win with people. If the pilot had waited for everyone to sit down you would have missed your slot for takeoff then you would be b***hing because you had to wait. Put your phone away and mind your own.”
Others noted it is a violation: “This is a big violation of safety procedures. Other pilots bring their planes to a halt if passengers are moving about during taxi.”
I agree with the latter. As a frequent flier, it’s annoying because I realize that if we don’t push back when we’re scheduled to, we may have to wait a long time for another open slot. And as many frequent travelers know, airports are crazy busy these days so missing your time slot could add a good amount of time to your journey.
A pilot with Alaska Airlines says that a situation like this is a violation of her company manual. “When the brake is off, everyone needs to be in their seats with their seatbelt fastened,” she says. But she does say that this may not be a violation for the airline involved. “These rules are usually airline specific and what’s approved in their company manual.” But for Alaska, she says “no one should be up during push back unless it’s an emergency bathroom break or a little kid and the flight attendants always call us to let us know.”
This flight took place on the Spanish airline Iberia, from Miami to Madrid and I actually flew this same route on Iberia a few years ago. It was a great flight and the flight attendants were professional.
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