Seven words you should panic about if you hear them on your next flight have been revealed.
It’s pretty normal to get a message from your pilot during a flight. It could be a short announcement on updated arrival times, maybe a brief warning of upcoming stormy weather, or even a kind update highlighting geographic points of interest below the plane.
Usually, pilot announcements can – at worst – be a bit of an annoyance, especially when you’re trying to get on with a book (or finish a movie).
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While it is fairly rare for a plane to malfunction mid-flight, pilots have seemingly created a kind of ‘secret language’ in which they can update passengers on the plane’s status in a way that won’t cause too much stress or panic.
But, be sure to bank these seven words that your future pilot may one day update you with: 'One of our engines is indicating improperly' – this is effectively pilot code for one of our engines has failed'.
The good news is that having a failed engine isn’t actually as serious or scary as it sounds, which is why the pilot opts for the less-daunting euphemism instead.
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While it may not seem it, the event in which one of the plane’s engines fails is far from an emergency and is surprisingly deemed a fairly ‘textbook’ problem, according to Lifehacker.
The news outlet even suggests that some pilots may not even feel the need to announce the issue altogether.
As a ‘textbook’ problem, the situation also has a ‘textbook’ solution, which usually revolves around pilots taking the executive decision to make an unscheduled landing at the nearest available airport.
In some cases, however, some pilots won’t even divert the plane and simply carry on flying.
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While it sounds irresponsible to do so, planes are actually completely able to stay in the air even if an engine fails during the flight. In-built safety features and backup engines simply kick in, the only consequence of which is the aircraft not being able to fly at its usual altitude.
In more scientific terms, the lack of a working engine means that the capacity for range and fuel efficiency is dramatically lowered.
This all results in the reduction of the plane’s maximum thrust, yet this is something passengers won’t even be able to realise half the time.
It is important to note, however, that while this scenario is ‘textbook’, the probability of a plane’s engine failing while in the air is massively rare.
That being said, there are many other signals that pilots or cabin staff might make during a flight, so it’s always good to keep your ears open while flying – one example being three high-low chime sounds played in a consecutive row, which can be alerts for an issue on-board.
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However, these sounds can be used for a whole host of different issues – some less serious than others – including timed alerts for cabin crew members or an update on upcoming turbulence.
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