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Comment by andix | Hacker News Reader

Always report anything suspicious to the flight attendants. In the past there were some accidents that could've been prevented if passengers spoke up.

As a passenger you have no idea what is dangerous and what isn't. And the cabin crew is trained to take every report serious.

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Once I was flying with my wife. She was in the window seat and she noticed that one of the plastic panels on the wall had come loose. She called the flight attendant over and told them. Long story short, they held the flight at the gate until a service crew could come and fix it (which they did by duct taping it back in place). Do you think the other passengers appreciated her perceptiveness, or was there a lot of dark muttering about why she didn't keep it to herself? (Spoiler: it was dark muttering)

The other passengers didn't like it. So what? You probably never met them again.

No, totally, I'm with you. Better safe than sorry. I just thought it was funny.

Obviously. No good deed ever goes unpunished.

> As a passenger you have no idea what is dangerous and what isn't.

If this were true, there’d be no point in paying attention to what passengers reported. I think people do have some idea what’s dangerous.

The problem is the airline is in a CYA/image situation and will tend to do a fix they otherwise wouldn’t at that moment. But those fixes are expensive and cause delays.

Maybe what people need to keep in mind is “speak up about things that matter”. In general, it seems like someone’s willingness to say something has more to do with their personality than the severity of the problem. Some people will flag an FA for a paint chip. Some wouldn’t if an aileron was dangling off the wing.

Case in point, Aloha Airlines Flight 243, in which part of the roof of the plane disintegrated mid-flight due to metal fatigue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_Airlines_Flight_243

> During an interview, passenger Gayle Yamamoto told investigators that she had noticed a crack in the fuselage upon boarding, but did not notify anyone.[3]: 5

I certainly regret not reporting a burst tyre while taxiing to depart as we ended up diverted to an emergency landing with all the passengers in brace position. No real harm done but stressful for everyone.

Wow, so not speaking up at the right moment is a bigger thing that I would have imagined. So you were the only one on the plane noticing a burst tyre during taxi out?

I think a number of people noticed (including the cabin crew) but nobody said anything. I guess we assumed the flight crew knew what was going on, but no, that was not the case. This was a Qantas regional flight Sydney-Armidale

How could you see the tire from a passenger seat? Or were you the pilot?

If your window is before or after the wing then you could possibly see the side wheels (I'm not sure that it applies to every aircraft but I certainly have seen them and have wondered the suspension necessary to land smoothly).

De Havilland Dash 8, for example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3voCL_CK18&t=14s

This was on a Dash-8 and I was a passenger seated beside the wing. The aircraft shook when the tyre burst and the cabin crew looked concerned but nobody did anything. Eventually, an hour into the flight, one of the flight crew came back with a torch (it was nighttime) to look at the window at the landing gear.

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