Passenger intelligence

[Philip Argy]

We have had discussions recently about passenger intelligence, or the lack of it, so this story caught my eye, no offence to the elderly lady in question:

Woman goes down airport baggage chute

An elderly woman misunderstood instructions while checking in at Sweden's main airport and was whisked down a baggage chute after she placed herself instead of her luggage on the belt, media reported.
The 78-year-old woman, who was not named, was preparing to fly from Stockholm's Arlanda airport to Germany on Tuesday when she lay down on an unmanned baggage belt in the belief she was following check-in instructions, the Upsala Nya Tidning local daily reported on its website.
She was quickly swept off to the baggage handling centre, where staff members helped get her back on her feet.
The woman suffered no serious injury and caught her flight as planned.

[Bob C]

Sounds like Kosmo Kramer's mum !

[Daniel G]

The poor woman is 78

The elderly are very easily confused. Back in the old girls day she was probably much more intelligent that you'd like to believe!

[Stephen Brown]

So what happens in an emergency situation on the plane when you need to be able to follow directions quickly and accurately??

You'd like to think that everyone is going to be able to follow what is happening, wouldn't you?

[Josh F]

I am sure she will have no problems going down the emergency chutes on the aircraft considering she went down the baggage one with no problems

[steve k]

sounds like an old bag to me!!!

[Simon L.]

Originally Posted by Stephen Brown

So what happens in an emergency situation on the plane when you need to be able to follow directions quickly and accurately??

You'd like to think that everyone is going to be able to follow what is happening, wouldn't you?

Sadly, more passengers travelling today probably cannot follow crew instructions promptly and correctly than we'd like to think, and the reason beings can range from language barriers between crew members and passengers (e.g. they don't speak the same language etc.) to those who may require special assistance. But that's the way it is, and life goes on…

[Marty H]

Passengers are clueless, I dont think flying is that difficult task, of checking your bag in, finding your gate and boarding the aircraft, disembarking the aircraft and getting your bag and leaving the airport.

A few 'situations' Ive seen:

Had a lady and her husband come into MEL from a BNE flight and was then in the queue to board a PER flight, got their boarding pass scanned and the alarm went off girl scanning looks at boarding pass and says to the lady this is your BNE-MEL boarding pass I need your MEL-PER boarding pass, lady says no I dont have one Im looking for my bags.

Another one was a man was standing at the top of the escalators for a long time near the check in area at MEL, in the end one of the guest services girls walks over and says excuse me do you need any help, he said Im just waiting for my bag to come up the escalator.

And the countless amounts of times pax try to check in for QF/JQ flights at the DJ check in area is beyond belief.

[Anthony J]

This all seems extremely unfair.

Maybe it is the case that passengers are poorly educated as to the expectations of the airline.

I am terrified of catching trams in Melbourne because I just don't know or understand the system. I know I can research how to catch them however my need for trams is infrequent so there is a good chance I would not know the process as locals do.

That must make me clueless and lacking in intelligence.

[Adrian B]

Originally Posted by Anthony J

This all seems extremely unfair.

Maybe it is the case that passengers are poorly educated as to the expectations of the airline.

I am terrified of catching trams in Melbourne because I just don't know or understand the system. I know I can research how to catch them however my need for trams is infrequent so there is a good chance I would not know the process as locals do.

That must make me clueless and lacking in intelligence.

thats not you, thats our tram system.....