There’s a lot of sounds you might hear during a flight, but have you ever wondered what that mysterious ding really means? One pilot from American Airlines recently revealed all
Oh don’t we all love to travel.
There’s the excitement of arriving at the airport, then the stress of going through security, and when all that is done, you’ve got duty free shopping, as well as finding your gate. And finally, it’s time to take your seat on-board and listen to the safety precautions.
Now you might have noticed there’s usually a few sounds which ding right before the aircraft takes off. So have you ever wondered what this really means? American Airlines pilot Steve recently revealed all in a TikTok post with his 248,100 followers.
He said: “So you’re sitting in the back of the airplane and you hear this… And you think hmm is that random ding? Is there a purpose behind that ding? And a little bit later you hear this… There’s that ding again, it happened a second time.
“Is there a rhyme or a reason, well the answer is yes. I chime the flight attendants three separate times during the flight on purpose. The first time as we’re taxiing out and you’ll hear the announcement – ‘flight attendants prepare for departure’.
“Shortly after that, I’m cleared for take-off when I’m cleared to go onto the runway and take-off, I turn that no smoking sign on and off and give them a ding that’s their final warning, take a seat, we’re about to take-off.”
The pilot then claimed he’ll make the sound again as the aircraft is travelling up 10,000ft in the air. He added: “I reach up and grab that no smoking sign again and give them another ding to let them know it’s safe to get up and start their service.
“When it’s the third time, after that PA on descent when I say ‘flight attendants prepare for landing’ as we’re coming back, down through 10,000ft, I ding them one more time.
“That way they know they’ve only got a few minutes left to get everything cleaned up and put away, because we’re about to land. Now you know.” Since he shared the post, it garnered 814,000 likes and 6,500 comments.
One said: “The ding always gives me anxiety,” while another added: “I thought it was someone buzzing for the flight attendants *laughing emoji*.” And a third posted: “Thanks for telling me, I always thought the plane was about to crash.”
