Flight Attendants Reveal Disturbing Secrets of Flying

Everyone knows the horror stories about flying. Getting dragged off the plane, crying babies, being stuck on the tarmac for hours. What most people fail to realize is that flight attendants are highly trained and are there in the event of emergency. Every LH flight attendant has slid down every slide of the plane types s/he flies on. Including the upstairs of a 747 - scary. There is also a huge, 6 meter deep pool near Frankfurt airport, where we trained with life rafts in cold, "rainy" (instructor turned a hose on us) and horribly wavy conditions. NOT as much fun as being in the wave pool as a kid. We have also all put out fires and evacuated each other from "burning" (dry ice) plane mockups. this is LOTS of fun, especially the bit where you shout the evacuation commands in each other's faces.

Serving drinks in like a side hustle. 



Here we find out some disturbing secrets about what you might not realize about flying and what goes on behind the scenes.

- Lavatory doors can be opened from the outside by lifting the metal plate saying "lavatory" and pulling the pin under it. 

- Both pilots may not eat the same meal, but they might be eating at the same time while the plane flies itself.

-There is a crash axe just laying around in the cabin. It'll split open your skull (not tested) but it won't actually get through the aircraft skin or windows. It’s to hack away panels and access the source of a fire (eg. If it was coming from the electrics in the window paneling etc)

- Often there will be a dead body in the cargo hold...from the axe if someone gets out of hand...just kidding. It's someone flying home a loved one who died in another state or in the military...There are also organs, blood are obvious ones but we also carry everything right up to Formula One car parts, exotic animals, marble tables, oversized televisions... everything.

- Everyone asks about the water and whether it's safe to drink... To clarify, the tanks ARE cleaned out but it depends on what you define as regularly. Ours go a maximum of a week before being scrubbed out. It's basic Health and Safety. Also our boilers have filters inbuilt before pouring tea or coffee.

- Do not ever walk into a toilet with bare feet. I promise you, 9 times out of 10, that is not water on the floor. Also please don't try and have sex in them, you are so obvious and it is filthy. The toilets are often absolutely disgusting and get deep cleaned only at the end of a route... For us this could be from one side of the world to the other... imagine how lovely they are at the end of a 12 hour flight with 200 people using them

- Never, ever, ever, EVER use or put anything in the seat pocket. They are cleared of rubbish but are never 'cleaned'. I have pulled out and seen all sorts been pulled out from there. Dirty tissues, sick bags, knickers, socks, peoples feet, gum, half sucked sweets, apple cores... and then next flight you go and put your phone/laptop/iPad in there.


- If you're flying short haul, definitely bring antibac wipes or sanitizer. A lot of airlines will have the crew 'turnaround' the plane meaning they pick up your rubbish, fold your seat belt over, file your magazines in the seat pocket and then welcome new passengers on board. I have lost count of the amount of times I have had to tell people how disgusting it is to change their baby on the tray table or in a seat.

- Take off and landing are the most dangerous times of flight. Try and sit as close to the door as possible. It's pretty obvious but they've done studies where your chance of survival dramatically decreases with every row you're away from the door.

- When a plane lands at night, cabin crews will dim the interior lights. Why? In the unlikely event that the plane landing goes badly and passengers need to evacuate, their eyes will already be adjusted to the darkness.

- Similarly, why window shades are to be opened. Because it allows you to see outside (in case of a crash) if there is a fire, and to allow rescue teams to see inside as well.

- Planes can fly with quite a bit of damage, and passengers won't be told about it. I had a cockpit windscreen crack on take off out of Brisbane once (heading back to the middle east), and we had to do an emergency landing in Singapore. Passengers started asking why we were only at 20,000ft and the moving map was showing another direction, it was awkward. The captain came on the PA and told them we were landing in Singapore due to a technical problem at top of descent. They never knew it was due to 2 of 3 layers of the cockpit windscreen being shattered.

- Shockingly, lining up in the aisle before the doors are opened does not save as much time as you might think.

- It is nearly impossible for turbulence to crash a plane (even the bad stuff). Turbulence is only dangerous because of things flying around the cabin and that includes people not wearing seat belts.

- There is a secret crew rest compartment up in back of a 747 and downstairs in the hold of an A340 / A330. Yes, we sleep there.

Company Secrets Exposed by Employees

Companies can be devious but some are good. Here are a few employees who decided to spill the beans...

 What about lice?

Worked at a bike rent shop where we told customers we sanitized the helmets we rented via ‘heat treatment.’ ‘Heat treatment’ consisted of having some sorry high schooler run up to the top of the building, essentially the attic of this old wooden structure, and just leave them in boxes, or, if they were wet, hung from nails to drip and dry. (kakejaufman)

Fake Jewelry

I used to work in a jewelry shop that sold cheap silver/gold painted plastic jewelry, none of it being real metal, but every sale I had to up sell one of these $5 ‘polishing cloths.’ You can’t polish a turd; the only thing this cloth did was rub the cheap paint off the plastic faster. I felt like such a con artist. [deleted user]

 Want Fries with that?

I worked at [a major chain] and they taught me how to pinch the fry carton just right while putting the fries into them so that it looked full, but actually wasn’t.

I only had 1 customer call me out on it. He shook the fries out into his bag and poured them back into the fry carton himself and it only filled up half way, so I had to give him more fries. I was impressed and embarrassed. It’s been 7 years and I can still see his face. (ExperiMENTALbunny)

Some people want to pay more for the same thing

 The cup of soup and bowl of soup were the exact same size. People would pay more for a bowl, and just get a cup of soup in a bowl that was shorter and wider at the bottom than the cup. (angela_bee)

 Just like homemade

Worked at a restaurant that also did catering. People would come in for tastings regularly for things like weddings and we’d give them samples of some of our food. The big thing at these tastings was the cheesecake, which was made in-house to be served in the restaurant and was pretty great.

What we didn’t tell them was that for catering events, we bought pre-made cheesecakes instead [….] Basically we’d sell them on our cheesecake then give them something less good that was easier/cheaper for us. Honestly, we were stretching ourselves a little thin with catering. It was always a mess trying to get all the food prepared as well as run the restaurant. (fantastiskandie)

 Crash Bang Boom
I worked in car rental in Ireland. We weren’t supposed to sell the extra insurance to Spanish or Italian customers, because they are not known for being great drivers and often damage the cars. Much more profitable to only sell insurance to people who won’t use it. (2007_britney)