ROSEMARY ABBOTT | Sport
CABIN SCRAMBLERS
Fynn Lacy, 29, cut a relaxed figure after his plane landed in Wellington this morning.
Flying from Christchurch to the capital city, Lacy found himself quietly amused during the familiar post-landing ritual, the moment the wheels touch down and half the plane immediately launches to their feet.
As the Air New Zealand flight rolled toward the gate, almost everyone around Lacy stood up, hunched under the overhead lockers, holding their bags like a starting pistol was about to fire. They stayed there for close to ten minutes, not moving anywhere and getting no closer to exiting the plane.
“What’s the point of it?,” he asked incredulously. “We all get off at the same time. Standing in the aisle doesn’t make the cabin crew door open any faster.”
He watched as passengers shifted awkwardly, shoulders pinned together, legs cramping while the cabin crew calmly reminded everyone they could sit and relax as the process unfolded, which no one took seriously.
“People were sweating and shuffling for ages,” Lacy said. “I stood up when our row actually moved, and I still exited at the exact same time as the people who’d been upright since we hit the runway.”
When the aircraft door finally opened, the ten-minute aisle standers advanced a grand total of one row at a time, the exact same pace as everyone else.
“Even when I got to the bag terminal, one woman’s bag came out after mine anyway. In theory, her exit from the airport took longer than mine, despite her thinking it would be the opposite.”
More to come.
