Seatbelt sign on, Sit Down!

[Steve Crook]

I flew to Melbourne on Qantas a couple of months ago. We had quite a wait between pushback and take off in Sydney. At some point towards the back a passenger, or some passengers, must have stood up to retrieve something from the overhead locker. A flight attendant made a PA announcement advising that all passengers needed to be seated and wearing their seatbelts. During the delay the captain had been making regular announcments updating the flight status. His next announcement was a very stern warning about standing up while the seatbelt sign was illuminated. I later overhead a flight attendant in the adjacent galley to me express dismay to her peers about the passenegers standing. It just came home to me how, by and large, this behaviour is a rarity here and how safety conscious airline crews are.

[Kirk C]

When i was working on the ramp, waiting for a JQ flight to arrive from Bali, the A320 was coming up the line quite quick, as soon as the stop came up on the NIGS, he jumped on the brakes, the nose came down, compressing the strut almost all the way.

I chucked the chocks in, and plugged in the head seat, only to hear the captain saying

"That will teach them to stay seated"

I know allot of people would question this as being dangerous, and he could have injured some one, however the rules state that you have to remain seated till the light goes out, and this could have happened any where in the taxi, ie a Vehicle driving in front of the aircraft would have resulted in the same outcome.

Stay seated!