For anxious flyers, it can be hard climbing on-board and hearing a mysterious sound in the aircraft. But now one pilot, who works for American Airlines, revealed what it means
You might have heard the sound during the flight(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Travelling is fun – but it’s not great if you’re an anxious flyer.
That means the dash through security then finding your gate can be all too much at times. Then when you climb on-board, you hear a mysterious sound.
But luckily for you, these random noises on the aircraft don’t always spell trouble. According to American Airlines pilot Steve, there’s an explanation for the “ding” you hear.
He spoke to his 248,100 TikTok followers and claimed the chime is often a call for his flight attendants. Sharing the flight secret, he said: “So you’re sitting in the back of the airplane and you hear this…
“And you think hmm is that random ding? Is there a purpose behind that ding? And a little bit later you hear this… There’s that ding again, it happened a second time.
“Is there a rhyme or a reason, well the answer is yes. I chime the flight attendants three separate times during the flight on purpose. The first time as we’re taxiing out and you’ll hear the announcement – ‘flight attendants prepare for departure’.
“Shortly after that, I’m cleared for take-off when I’m cleared to go onto the runway and take-off, I turn that no smoking sign on and off and give them a ding that’s their final warning, take a seat, we’re about to take-off.”
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The pilot then claimed he’ll make the sound again as the aircraft is travelling up 10,000ft in the air. He added: “I reach up and grab that no smoking sign again and give them another ding to let them know it’s safe to get up and start their service.
“When it’s the third time, after that PA on descent when I say ‘flight attendants prepare for landing’ as we’re coming back, down through 10,000ft, I ding them one more time.
“That way they know they’ve only got a few minutes left to get everything cleaned up and put away, because we’re about to land. Now you know.” Since he shared the post, it garnered 814,000 likes and 6,500 comments.
One said: “The ding always gives me anxiety,” while another added: “I thought it was someone buzzing for the flight attendants *laughing emoji*.” And a third posted: “Thanks for telling me, I always thought the plane was about to crash.”