Flight Plan

Beth went and saw Flight Plan over the weekend with her grandmother and suggested I go see it. She liked the movie. I did too. There were a few things, as a flight attendant, that weren't quite right, but overall they did a good job. Despite what my and other flight attendant unions are saying, I loved the line, "It's okay to hate the passengers." Of course it is. You learn that on day one of flying. The only caveat is this: you can't let the passenger know.

So what was right and wrong about the movie?

• Planes don't land nose wheel first
• Flight attendants don't immediately run through the ailses with oxygen bottles after the masks fall, they too grab the mask nearest them
• Large aircraft really do have an avionics bay... not as large as portrayed in the movie, but usually large enough to stand in
• The large flat pannel screen that showed the cabin layout in the galley and activated flight attendant call lights... those really exist, just not that large - and they don't usually show a layout like that, rather the aircraft is divided into zones and specific seat numbers show up where the call button has been pressed
• There isn't access to the large, open space above the passenger cabin
• There is access to the cargo hold on some aircraft
• The fictional aircraft in the movie, the E474 is similar in design and size of the new Airbus A380, which began test flights earlier this year

Now I'm just waiting for Elizabethtown to open since Kirsten Dunst is wearing an American Airlines flight attendant uniform, right down to the wings and name tag. Wonder how that happened?