YOU may have noticed that flight attendants tend to make us feel very welcome when stepping into the plane.
Well, it turns out the cabin crew aren’t just being polite and wishing you a good start to your holiday.
Their friendliness, it seems, is not just a case of being nice, but keeping a lookout for the condition of passengers stepping on board.
One flight attendant, Rania (@itsmekikooooo), has taken to X to share with her followers the real reason why stewards give passengers such a warm welcome.
“Did you know that your flight attendant greets you not only out of politeness?,” she wrote in the caption over footage of her making an inflight announcement.
She revealed that their greeting was “to check whether you are too drunk or sick to fly”, adding that it was also helpful “to see who could help us in an emergency”.
@itsmekikooooo Did you know that?✈️🩷Also to see who could help us in an emergency🥳🤩✈️#fy #fyp #viral #fypageeeee #for #stewardess #cabincrewlife #flightattendant #foryoupage ♬ RUN THIS TOWN X GANGSTAS PARADISE - ALTÉGO
In industry terms, crew members are looking for “able-bodied passengers (ABPs)” who could potentially assist in “evacuating an aircraft”.
And social media users were quick to share their thoughts in the comment section.
One person commented, alluding to already knowing this, saying: “I had pancreatitis when I was in Corfu. I acted normal going onto the plane otherwise I knew they wouldn’t let me on."
A second joked: “Me with headphones walking on the plane completely ignoring the flight attendants... ”
A third said: “Ah okay this makes a lot of sense, I always get the same look going on flights.”
Another flight attendant added in the comments section: “We look for anyone who hasn’t got any mobility issues, can speak English, looks like they will be able to open a door and ideally travelling alone.
"That makes you an ABP (able-bodied person)."
Another user wrote in the comments: “I got chosen to sit at the exit row in case I needed to open the door.”
Another said the same thing.
“Have you ever walked on a plane to a flight attendant greeting you, or the flight attendants walking up and down the aisle? I’m about to tell you what we’re really doing.
“When you’re walking on the plane and see our happy smiley face, we’re actually looking you up and down and we’re trying to find our ABPs - our able-bodied people.
“These are people who are going to help us in an emergency. For example, military personnel, firefighters, police, doctors, and nurses – in case of a medical emergency, or we are going to land the plane, or there’s a security breach - we know who can help.”