Are major news events ever announced in-flight?

King of the Prawns

Imagine a major news event such as the assassination of Bin Laden or the death of Nelson Mandela. Are these stories announced on planes by the pilot to the passengers as they come to light on the ground?
Have you as a pilot ever done so?
Have you as a passenger ever experienced this?

If not, is there any event that you could imagine the pilot doing so? e.g. "a major earthquake had occurred in the country we have just departed. You may want to contact your loved ones as soon as we land."

Were the terrorist attacks of Sept 2001 announced in-flight at the time as they happened? I presume this will become less of an issue these days as wifi is available to passengers who wish to be kept up to date with world affairs.

ozzy jr

I was on an Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin the night Princess Diana died. 1997 I think it was. I always used to listen to my radio Walkman on flights and try and pick up local stations as I was flying past. Anyway, I heard the news that she'd had died so told my Mam and sister who were sitting beside me. The people in front heard us talking about it and asked what happened. Before long the whole plane knew.

The Pilot didn't announce it though.

keith16

My brother was on a flight during the Ireland v England rugby match in Croker....pilot announced the score at full time 43-13 (iirc) and the whole plane went bananas!

I was on a flight back from Greece the night of the Eurovision a couple of years ago and they announced the winner and that Ireland had placed 112th (or something).

YbFocus

keith16 wrote: »

My brother was on a flight during the Ireland v England rugby match in Croker....pilot announced the score at full time 43-13 (iirc) and the whole plane went bananas!

I was on a flight back from Greece the night of the Eurovision a couple of years ago and they announced the winner and that Ireland had placed 112th (or something).

112th in the eurovision

Dublinflyer

I was on an internal flight in the US from SFO to PHL (and on-wards home to DUB) on 9/11. The pilot did not say anything about the events of the day and just said that we had a minor tech issue when is was clear that we were descending a lot sooner than we should have. We ended up landing in IND were we were held on the aircraft for about 3 hours and while the crew did not tell us exactly what was happening, like everyone else they did not really know the extent at the time, but as soon as I turned on my mobile it want mental with calls and messages from friends and family who know I was flying that day. It was only really once we made it into the terminal and could see TV's you could really grasp what was going on. I ended up spending 2 nights in a hotel but when it was clear it was going to take weeks to get home I ended up renting a car and driving up to Toronto where I have some family and stayed with them. It was 2 weeks before I got a flight home. As it was a business trip I was lucky in that my employer picked up the tab for my expenses and I was able to work out of the Toronto office for a while. Still, not a few weeks I would like to repeat.

refusetolose

i was on a plane to crete when ireland were playing spain in the 2002 world cup

pilot kept us updated throughout

L1011

Was on a flight in to Manchester where the pilot announced that United had just been beaten by Liverpool, leading to cheering. I'm sure it was a major news event for the Liverpool fans onboard!

Carawaystick

Flew during the last World Cup final, Pilot announced the result mid air

EI from Malpensa to Dublin

180567

I was once on a Cathay Pacific 747-400 flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong and they interrupted the movies and everyone fell silent and they announced the winner of the Melbourne cup Horse race (which is a very big event down in Australia).

CaptainSkidmark

I was on a flight last week and he announced the weather :P

shamwari

Not quite a news event but nonetheless a good stab at humour which showed the captain was human!

I was on a charter flight to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona many moons ago. The captain admitted he himself was a big F1 fan and was very envious of us to be al going to race. He did remark though that our aircraft had more power and was running a bit more wing than an F1 car, and if he did a flying lap he really was flying :P

faceman

I've heard international football results mentioned on BA and EI flights. I also flew BA long haul Christmas Eve and the cabin crew were in Santy hats and well up for a bit of banter and festivity.

I was on an emirates flight to dublin and the pilot made some jovial comments about crap Dublin weather prior to landing. It made some passengers laugh.

Suasdaguna1

Ridiculous thread


Thought I was mean saying the above but nope what drivel.

Dublinflyer

Just curious, why is this drivel? And if you feel this is such a ridiculous thread why comment twice or are we just in the mood for trolling today.

John_Mc

Run along there and find an interesting thread for yourself so

durandal01

I was aboard EI 145 (or 135) from SNN to either SFO or LAX, I can't remember now on 11/09/2001.
We were told we were turning around with no reasons why over the PA.
I was a bit dozy and didn't catch it all but everyone was calm so it wasn't tech problem at least.
The cabin crew served dinner and afterwards the captain (Capt. Daly?) walked down the aircraft talking to passengers.
He said all borders, ports and airports of the US were closed and he didn't know why.
I remember asking him if I could use my SW and VHF scanners (I was going to Reno) and he said they would be of no use.
It wasn't until landing at DUB and seeing the TV news that the reason for our return became clear.
It was an odd couple of hours from the turn around to the landing, all sorts of scenarios were going through my head on what it took to close down all access to the US.

Dublinflyer

What happened on 9/11 was unprecedented and while I can't talk for everyone It did take a while it to really just sink in with me. I was not long "retired" as a pilot, through an injury, and I worked in the US for one of the airlines involved. It took a long time to get hold of one of my former colleagues to discuss what happened.

flanzer

I always wondered about being on a plane in the US on 9/11 when the aerospace was shut down, like what what the pilots said to pax, did they know themselves, any rushed landings etc. Hearing the couple of stories here has me intrigued. Thanks for sharing

Fabio

DO you mind me asking what sort of scenarios were indeed going through your head?

I mean if I heard that I doubt the twin towers would have come to mind - more like a coup or the President's death or something. Any idea how far "out" ye were when ye had to turn back?

Maire2009

I don't think announcing 4 passenger planes had been hijacked - 2 of which were flown into the Twin Towers, 1 into the Pentagon and 1 forced crash landed - would be the best thing to announce mid-flight anywhere in the world should one want passengers to remain calm.

I don't mind flying at all but I'd not like to hear stuff like that while on a plane a couple of thousands feet in the sky.

durandal01

Fabio wrote: »

DO you mind me asking what sort of scenarios were indeed going through your head?

I mean if I heard that I doubt the twin towers would have come to mind - more like a coup or the President's death or something. Any idea how far "out" ye were when ye had to turn back?

I really couldn't think of a single reason for the close down, international news gave no cause for concern. I thought it had to be big though, probably an attack involving nukes.
I reckon we were just south of Iceland when we turned around.
The captain, a shortish, round man with a beard and a nice manner (Capt. Daly?) said he was given no reason for the recall order.
I don't think he knew the reason, we were probably out of range of ground VHF, other aircraft within range would have no idea either and Shanwick HF wasn't for chit-chat.

Fabio

Excellent thanks!

Filibuster

I was on a Ryanair flight in 2001 and the pilot announced that Brian Dowling had just won Big Brother

Five Lamps

durandal01 wrote: »

I really couldn't think of a single reason for the close down, international news gave no cause for concern. I thought it had to be big though, probably an attack involving nukes.
I reckon we were just south of Iceland when we turned around.
The captain, a shortish, round man with a beard and a nice manner (Capt. Daly?) said he was given no reason for the recall order.
I don't think he knew the reason, we were probably out of range of ground VHF, other aircraft within range would have no idea either and Shanwick HF wasn't for chit-chat.

Would there not be some plane to plane chatter? Obviously some airlines would have given out instructions to secure the cockpit.

Growler!!!

Five Lamps wrote: »

Would there not be some plane to plane chatter? Obviously some airlines would have given out instructions to secure the cockpit.

True, but the reason to secure the cockpit would be to stop unauthorised access. Unauthorised persons who may be listening on frequency.

durandal01

Five Lamps wrote: »

Would there not be some plane to plane chatter? Obviously some airlines would have given out instructions to secure the cockpit.

There may have been some sly attempt at chatter on VHF if somebody was in range but I can't see anyone over the Atlantic that day knowing what happened.
Radios are not for idle talk.
Aircraft would not have passed each other anyway, those over the eastern Atlantic would have been recalled and those approaching the US would have been vectored to Canada by Gander Ocianic.
Neither Shanwick nor Gander would have been in a talkative mood that day.
The flight crew might have tried to spark up a conversation with Keflavic if they were within range.

Littlelulu13

My story seems rubbish now after reading the 9/11 ones

Anyway I was on board a plane to the UK and we were ready to go when it was announced that we couldn't leave due to an incident in the airport we were going to (can't remember which now). They said they didn't know what the incident was so I took to twitter as did the man beside me and we had a natter about it and what it could possibly be. The people in front heard me say it was a fire on the runway and that was whispered around the plane.

So talking to an air hostess I asked how long she thought we would be waiting or if we would have to get back off. She said she wasn't sure because they didn't know what the incident was. I said that it was all over the internet that it was a fire on the runway. She said oh right and made her way to the front.

Few mins later the pilot made an announcement to say that he was aware we had looked it up online so he may as well tell us the full info!!

I thought it was strange to withold the info because yeah a fire is bad but people automatically thought terrorist attack.

Dublinflyer

A lot of pilots would have had a good idea of what was going on on 9/11. There are a number of comms options available while over the ocean and out of VHF range, Satcom etc. I am not sure what an airline policy would have been at the time but if I was captain on one of the flights I would not tell the pax extent of the days happens. All that would have done is panicked a couple of hundred people who would have been worried about the safety of friends and family, and themselves. It would have led to a tense atmosphere in the cabin and caused difficulties for the cabin crew.

Tenger

Littlelulu13 wrote: »

......
Few mins later the pilot made an announcement to say that he was aware we had looked it up online so he may as well tell us the full info!!
.....

On a realted note I was on a flight about 3years ago. Dublin airport was closed due to snow. We had actually pushed back and were #2 for takeoff when they closed the field. We returned on stand and waiting about 2-3 hours. Decision was taken not to get off as if it reopened we would be ready to get out.

DAA were telling the captain that it would reopen at 6pm. Eventually at 5.30pm he informed us that they had just clarified that runway inspection would take place at 6pm. HE was very good in keeping us informed but you could sense his frustration mounting. (I know his comms were referenced here for LiveATC playback after the event.)

At approx 6.20-6.30 he was being assured that we were still #2 for departure......meanwhile passengers were able to use their iPhones to check DAA website.....where it said "Airport Closed until further notice".....

For me it was a great example of how the lines of communications fell about in that disruption. DAA had decided to close the airport for the rest of the day but the info still hadn't filtered down to the individual aircraft. You would think that an all aircraft call would have been made by DUB ops before the website was updated.

Dublinflyer

The daa never talk directly to aircraft and information about runway condition is no linger made over the radio as too many people are listening. In the event of events that like snow and ice there are conf calls with the airline ops offices and staff and they filter the information to their fleet by a number of methods. If a big decision was made to close the airport the airlines would be made well aware of this. The flight crews generally vent their frustration towards ATC as in a lot of cases that's the only was they can. In the events of previous years with snow and ice the airlines would have known they they were closed for the day but will not offload all aircraft at the same time as this would have caused a bigger mess in the terminal, especially the baggage reclaim hall. It's a very difficult balance in keeping the airlines up to date with the latest information and giving them time to plan but we also have to let the travelling public know what is going on as well. If the airlines choose to withhold information to pax on aircraft that's their call but as everyone as access to smartphones etc they usually know what is going on before any announcement is made.

youtheman

Years ago me bruvver was piloting a Ryanair aircraft when he got word that Ireland had gone 1 up in a World Cup Qualifier against Northern Ireland. So he announced it over the P.A. Then someone told him he had gotten the wrong end of the stick, it was Northern Ireland that had scored the goal. He was sitting there wondering how he could get himself out of the hole, then he got word that it was one-all. So he just told them that and didn't dwell on the details.