So… here I am sitting, minding my own business, readying my copy of Paulo Coelho’s Aleph inside the plane, of an airline that I won’t mention that it owns a couple of football clubs, when suddenly an announcement came that took my attention away from Paulo’s story, which is very hard to accomplish. It roughly said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are now in the process of fueling our aircraft, please remain seated and do not fasten your seat belt.”
Apparently I was the only one reacting to that announcement because everyone was busy doing whatever they were doing, mainly talking or playing with their phones, I didn’t notice another reader at the time. First thought was “really? Seatbelt off??” Why? Another thought came that maybe I misheard that. But that thought was dismissed when another announcement came after a while.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are still fueling our aircraft, please do not fasten your seatbelt”
Now you shouldn’t do that to someone like me. I’m a writer with a hyper active imagination of a 4 year, sugar high, kid. What am I suppose to think now? That the seat belts are running on fuel? Is wearing a seatbelt aggressively going to cause some spark that somehow will find its way to the tank fuel? Is the airplane gonna think we’re are flying if we wear our seat belts and start to takeoff automatically?
That’s when my logical thinking started to speak to me, and it says “This might be a safety procedure, in case, god forbids, the tank accidentally caught fire and they need to evacuate the airplane, so they make sure nothing will hinder our exit plan.” But then my logical-er thinking jumped in and it made more sense “Seriously?! If they care for our safety, why did they let us in the plane while they are fueling it?”
There might be a logical explanation to this illogical announcement. The thing is, someone who works in an airliner might read what I wrote and think of me as ignorant. But that’s it, I am ignorant about flying and their rules, so are you about literature, orthodontics or dental facts. Writing this post actually made me think of the many times I was treated rudely for asking questions, for example, related to visas or residency. Guess what? I don’t work there so don’t expect me to know how things work in your place of business or country. So here I am with a confused look and with many questions on why we don’t wear our seatbelt when the airplane is fueling.
What do you think is the real reason?
ahamin 
You must be logged in to post a comment.