spiffyone
10-22-2007, 12:54 AM
A question about the 'ding' - every flight I've ever been on has been quiet, with FAs seated, until the 10,000 foot 'ding' saying portable electronics can be used...then everything seems to get rolling. I have heard dings at other times in flight, and thought they were a method for pilots to communicate with FAs - one ding means bring coffee, two means pick up the phone, or something like that.
So today, my flight took off from Pittsburgh, and had been airborne for about 30-40 seconds - we were still climbing sharply and taking a vertigo-inducing right turn- and I heard a ding - way too soon to be the 10,000 ding. A few seconds later, 2 dings. Of course I thought that meant something bad...but it was a normal flight otherwise.
We did go very quickly from push back to takeoff -really just rolled out to the runway, accelerated, and took off. My husband suggested that maybe the pilots had instructions for FAs that they didn't have time to give before takeoff, and so called them then. But I thought they couldn't talk under 10,000 feet?
Do you think it was just a mistake - someone hit the ding button by mistake?
Obviously it didn't mean anything bad, but I was just curious. Was an easy flight otherwise.
So today, my flight took off from Pittsburgh, and had been airborne for about 30-40 seconds - we were still climbing sharply and taking a vertigo-inducing right turn- and I heard a ding - way too soon to be the 10,000 ding. A few seconds later, 2 dings. Of course I thought that meant something bad...but it was a normal flight otherwise.
We did go very quickly from push back to takeoff -really just rolled out to the runway, accelerated, and took off. My husband suggested that maybe the pilots had instructions for FAs that they didn't have time to give before takeoff, and so called them then. But I thought they couldn't talk under 10,000 feet?
Do you think it was just a mistake - someone hit the ding button by mistake?
Obviously it didn't mean anything bad, but I was just curious. Was an easy flight otherwise.