A hapless passenger ended up causing a significant delay to a United Airlines plane after forcibly trying to open an overhead locker that wasn’t actually an overhead locker, managing to pull a large overhead panel away from the ceiling.
A photo of the damage was shared on a popular flight attendant Facebook group, with crew members sharing their tales of passengers who had damaged aircraft by simply failing to read clearly posted instructions.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that passengers comply with all lighted signs and posted placards, like ‘No Smoking’ and ‘Fasten Seatbelt’ signs, but what happens when passengers don’t bother reading the placards in the first place?
In the case of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on which this incident happened, there is a flight crew rest compartment with two ‘bunks’ and rest seats located just behind the forward galley.
The compartment is located above the passenger cabin in the ceiling of the aircraft, and, as a result, the first couple of rows don’t have any overhead lockers in the center of the cabin.
The problem, however, is that Boeing made these overhead panels covering the flight crew rest compartment look similar to lockers that extend the rest of the way along the cabin.
There are, though, some clues available to passengers that should avoid situations like this. First, and perhaps most tellingly, there’s no handle on these panels to open the overhead locker, and secondly, there’s a posted placard that reads ‘No Stowage.’
Despite these indications, some passengers still think the flight crew rest compartment is an overhead locker and will try to force open the panel by pulling down, using the lip at the top of the panel for leverage.
The problem isn’t unique to the front of the Boeing 787. There is also a Flight Attendant Overhead Rest Compartment at the rear of the Dreamliner with a similar design to the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350.
One of the reasons why passengers will insist on trying to open an overhead locker that doesn’t exist is that there’s a belief amongst some travelers that they get their own overhead locker located directly above their seats.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and it’s not uncommon for hand luggage to be stored many seats away from where the passenger is actually sitting – which is a good reason to ensure that any valuables are kept on you rather than a carry-on case.
While this incident aboard a United Airlines plane is extreme, flight attendants joked about passengers who pull ashtrays away from lavatory doors in the mistaken belief that this is actually a door handle (ignoring the large posted placard that reads “PUSH’).
Others joked about passengers who try to fight their way into cupboards and locked stowages as they attempt to find the lavatory, often walking straight past the door marked ‘LAVATORY.’
It is, however, sometimes easy for a flight attendant to forget that air travel can be a rare and daunting experience for many passengers and that they are walking into what, to them, is a strange environment.
When they say “a picture is worth a thousand words” they didn’t mean it was a challenge for internet bloggers to take up.
And some people are just (fill in the blank) ;-O
The placard needs to be more clearly expressed, as in “DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPEN. This is NOT a luggage stowage area.” Using large red font helps as well. Making the panels a different color then the luggage bin doors would be an extra tipoff for novice passengers. Don’t forget: If it can happen it will happen.
I’m thinking people don’t know the meaning of the word ‘stowage’.
Consequences of a failed education system.
They probably don’t know what “stowage” and “lavatory” mean.