Is this a UL?

Couldn’t find anything on Snopes, so here I go.

Now, I know the story about the pilots and navigator getting locked out of the cockpit, which necessitates breaking down the door with an ax, is a UL. But is this one?

Scenario: Flight 123 is on the ground, without the assigned cabin crew; they’re in transit, but supposed to get there barely on time. Flight attendant X, having arrived early for flight 456, is told to greet the passengers and get them seated before the assigned crew arrives, then hustle back to 456 before it takes off. Flight attendant X seats passengers, then runs to flight 456 with seconds to spare. Boarding agent Y drops paperwork in slot inside flight 123, without noticing the flight now has no cabin crew at all, closes doors, and 123 takes off.

After half an hour, a persistent knock is heard on cockpit door. Navigator finally opens door. “You want coffee? Where are the FAs? Whaddyamean you don’t know? Didn’t they do the safety instructions?..Well, I’ll be a purple snouted mandrill.”

Upshot: Ground crew now has to put paperwork in an FA’s little hand before closing doors.

So is this true or a UL?

That sounds like a UK to me…

Shortly after college I worked as a night auditor of a hotel where some flight crews flying in would stay over night… the FA’s and the pilots would arrive at the hotel at the same time (on the same shuttle run), and leave in the morning at the same time (ditto on the shuttle run). Unless this varies from place to place, it wouldn’t be very likely for the FA’s and the pilots to show up at different times.

That’s just a guess, though… my “insider” information came from inside the hotel. :wink:

er… um… ULBLUSH

In all my experience flying (four whole times!) the Flight Attendant (Air Waitress?) always closed the door from the inside. I think they also have to tell the pilot that everything’s OK before they move the plane.

I’d guess that your story is an Urban Legend.
-Rue. (World Traveler)

And here I thought you were from Kentucky, where UK and UL are mortal enemies.

Hm. Well, all right…but this was supposed to have happened in the fifties, when air travel was mushrooming, and a lot of mistakes happened simply because they’d never happened before. It may just seem implausible because now procedures “have always been this way”; “always” meaning “since something like this happened”.

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Right, but in this case, the flight crew was starting fresh, while the cabin crew was, as I said, arriving on another flight (same airline) which had been delayed. This practice, of not coordinating the flight and cabin crews so they’re always on the same flights in a run, may have been discontinued. Or not.

**

Again, maybe as a result of this.

**

**

In the UK, it’s “Air Hostess”. :wink:

Anecdote (and I read this in Newsweek :p): The evening of 12/31/99, an empty flight left for DC. They had to go, because the plane itself had to be in Dulles the next morning. The pilots weren’t too stoked about this, but I bet the cabin crew had one heck of a par-tay!

Another vote for it being an UL. Even in the early days of flying, I thnk they had procedures and protocols figured out to avoid this kind of error. A pal who works in the airline industry certainly thinks so, anyways.

BTW, the fact that this one isn’t in Snopes means you can get yourself over there and add a new UL, thereby achieving immortality!

Well, all right then!