The Most Dangerous Mistake During Plane Emergencies

The plane’s on fire and you have less than 90 seconds. That’s not a dramatic tagline, it’s the math behind aircraft evacuations, and it’s why we lose our minds when we see passengers dragging carry-on bags to the exit. We break down how one person stopping at the overhead bin can jam the aisle, block the door, injure people on the slide, and cost the last folks in line their chance to get out. If you care about aviation safety, flight attendant training, and real-world emergency behavior, this conversation is for you.

Then Shawn tells a story that still makes his blood pressure spike: getting left behind in Tokyo on a Haneda layover after a pairing modification, a confusing pickup time, and a bus that left early. Empty lobby, language barrier, crew scheduling chaos, and the sinking realization that the “nobody gets left behind” rule somehow got ignored. We pull out the practical lessons for crew members and travelers alike, from grabbing at least one coworker’s contact info to building in extra time when you’re abroad.

We also zoom out to a bigger theme we keep seeing everywhere: people filming instead of helping. From evacuation videos to a street beating clip, we ask what accountability should look like when bystanders and passengers choose content over action. Along the way we hit TSA shutdown impacts, Global Entry disruptions, spring break airport lines, and a headline-making cockpit conflict that raises questions about professionalism under pressure.

Subscribe for more real talk from the cabin, share this with a friend who never listens to the safety brief, and leave a review. What’s the one travel rule you wish everyone followed?

Transcript

hy Bags Kill Evacuations

G 0:00

The plane's on fire. You have less than 90 seconds to evacuate an entire airplane. Sometimes it's not the fire that's the most dangerous thing, it's a person in front of you trying to take their bag.

Shawn 0:10

What an idiot! Get out of my way. Why is your bag so important that you want to risk your own life or other people's life?

G 0:30

Well, today we're talking about evacuations of aircraft because in the last, I don't know, the last few months, we've seen evacuations, and what's really bothered me is they're taking their bags. I mean, it is it literally is the most ridiculous thing.

Shawn 0:46

I don't understand what's so important or so invaluable that's with them. I think it's like an auto-reflex action, like you brought your bags on, you wanted to bring your bags off, type of thing. But people just don't get into that emergency mode. Like they don't realize I need to get the hell out of this aircraft. It's stupid, it's their life.

G 1:06

Right. It doesn't make it when you're watching these videos, it makes no sense at all. Right. I mean, us as crew members, what's the first thing you're doing? You're starting to creep, uh you're critiquing the evac, right? Right. The first thing that you see, I mean, when you're seeing people come down those slides, they're holding a suitcase.

Shawn 1:23

Yeah, that's stupid. I mean, first of all, it's dangerous. You got a freaking object and you can hit people.

G 1:30

You just watched an engine fire, Sean.

Shawn 1:32

Right.

G 1:32

I mean, it doesn't make it if they knew how how a fire goes through an airplane.

Shawn 1:38

Right. How fast it can go through the airport. Yeah. That's that's the crazy thing that people don't realize. I think this is a whole compounded like problem with the public in general with aviation, right? They know and have been repetitively been drilled with this, you know, these are the exits and this is what you do, and all that stuff. But they're starting to tune it out so that now they're not even thinking, and we've become so safe, like accidents are so rare, right? Right. So we become so safe that they're just like, that's not gonna happen to me. But then when it happens, we get all this stupid behavior, right? Yeah. With the bags coming down to the slides, and you know, people trying to, you know, block their ways, and I need to get out, you know, out first, and you know, all that crap. Funny thing about it though, too, is that people don't understand when other people watch these videos, the first thing that they do is they do what? They hold the rec the crew responsible.

G 2:36

Yeah.

Shawn 2:36

They try that's what they try to do. They try to sit there and say, oh, this is a crew thing. This is not a crew thing. Yeah, it has nothing to do with crews.

G 2:43

Well, I mean, that's also why the FAA right now has like mandated airlines to like start making more announcements about not taking your bags, right? Yeah. So all the airlines now, if you've been traveling lately, has been, you know, they're you're hearing these announcements. And in the event of an evacuation, please do not take your baggage, you know? And so that has to be repeated over and over until they get this conditioning in their head. But um, you know, the liability airline is in in jeopardy when you're talking about like, you know, safety and you know, FA looks at blants to blame us first, just like you were saying.

Shawn 3:18

But go back to when you board an aircraft, right? You have you have like 20 25 minutes to board a plane because they're bringing their bags on.

G 3:26

20 to 25 minutes to board a plane domestically.

Shawn 3:29

Yeah. Right. But what I'm saying, they they're bringing a bag. We're just talking about domestic. I mean, they that's what we've seen recently, right, in the news. So you're looking at like 20, 25 minutes, they're bringing their bags on slowly.

G 3:39

Yeah.

Shawn 3:40

Right? Trying to find places for their bags. Right. You have 90 less than 90 seconds to evacuate that entire plane. Right. Less than 90 seconds. People don't realize that. And they're risking not just their lives, but everyone's life behind them.

G 3:57

Yeah. If there is a uh like firefighters say the flash over effect of a fire on board the aircraft, I mean, that happens so quick. You just be off the yeah, you have to be off that aircraft. It's gonna just jet down that whole entire tube of the airplane.

Shawn 4:12

Yeah, it runs where the oxygen. That's the if you have never seen, if you've never seen this, go look at it. I mean, they have videos and they'll show you, they'll show you a video how it runs inside of an airplane. Because what you did, that bag just cost probably 20 people their lives.

G 4:27

Right.

Shawn 4:27

It it makes it makes absolutely no sense.

G 4:29

I think also, you know, talking about this whole subject of safety, I think there's another thing that FAA should be looking at too. Like, not only are you gonna hold the the companies liable for the safety, you know, and us instructing the instructing the public, we they also need to hold the public accountable in other situations. Like, I personally think that it should be illegal for anybody on the plane for takeoff or landing to not have their shoes on. No, I I get that. Like, we get that. That's a that's a no-brainer. Yeah, but the f until they start seeing an incident that has that uh, you know, like people getting off the plane and they're coming in no shoes and they're cutting their feet and all this stuff, and realize, oh wow, you know, this sh we should we should enforce this too.

Shawn 5:17

Yeah.

G 5:18

But these are basic rules, you know, in in the in this industry, like we've seen over our whole entire career. Rules only change when an incident happens.

Shawn 5:27

Right.

G 5:28

Right? Yeah.

Shawn 5:28

So you okay, just going back to what you said, thinking that as a passenger, you take your shoes off on an airplane, and then uh like five minutes later you're evacuating that, and all of a sudden your shoes are gone.

G 5:40

Right. Yeah. I mean, people don't think that way. That's why they're not thinking about like me grabbing my bag and getting into the overhead and bend to even attempt to grab my bag is slowing just one, two seconds away from that emergency that could possibly the person at the end of the line, the last person getting off the aircraft, might not be able to get off the aircraft because they're already dead.

Shawn 6:03

But what's worse is that you're seeing these videos that are coming out that you're seeing passengers actually videotaping them standing in line, oh yeah, everybody holding their bags, I saw that. Trying to get trying to get off the airplane. Yeah. And then and then they have to take the extra seconds because they're they're cradling their bag and they're jumping into the slide. So if you looked at uh truly, though, if you looked at an evacuation, first of all, did did you look the last one that you seen on the airplane? Okay, the first person went down, they all ran away. Right. Nobody assisted anybody. No. There's certain there's certain things that we do in evacuation. Right. And we tell a person, the very first person exiting to do help.

G 6:41

Next, help the person off the plane.

Shawn 6:43

Help at the bottom. Yeah, help at the bottom. But okay, it it also makes sense if you think about this, because you're just thinking about yourself. Right. You're not thinking about anybody else. When you take your bag, you're thinking about who? Me, my stuff, right? You're not thinking about anybody else's.

G 6:59

This is standard, right?

Shawn 7:00

I know, I know, but you're not thinking about anybody's life behind you.

G 7:04

Selfishness in the airline business is not a rare occasion. Yeah.

Shawn 7:07

But you see it through this whole evacuation. I mean, it's it's ridiculous because we have to deal with this in training later on. Because the FAA comes after the crews with the with the training because they're saying, oh, you need more training. Right. Okay, well, how do you get people to make their lives more important than a bag?

G 7:26

Find them. I mean like that, like here's the thing. Like, they held us accountable like in as an airline. Like, they're gonna review these videos, they're gonna investigate the video things, all this stuff. They find the companies or they tell the recommend the companies and force them to do certain things. The public should have accountability too. Like, if you've done something that you're violating the rules of the aircraft and you're inhibiting evacuation of aircraft or videotaping going down, why shouldn't they get up a fine?

Shawn 7:57

No, I get that. Because they have a lot of videotapes of them, too.

G 8:00

That's what I'm saying. Like, in order to prevent this, you have to have some type of preventative uh you know reaction to this. Like it has to have some type of result. Oh, not results is not the word I'm looking for, but it has to have some type of consequence, is what I'm looking for. And so until they put that on the public, the public's gonna continue to do the things that we keep on seeing. That YouTube or you know, um whatever, you know, what the heck is the what I'm thinking about? What's the Instagram or Instagram or whatever? Any of the social media. I mean any social media out there, you need, you know, like that's what they're all wanting to do. Well, I well, I need to post this, you know. I need to, I need to get this on. I'm I'm a part of this.

Shawn 8:39

That that's a that that's a 10 seconds. And that's what kills me though, because if you watch the other videos, you'll see like an aircraft. Okay, so you have an engine fire, right? So you had this one was on the left side of the aircraft. Right. So you're looking at it, so you know pretty much what side you're gonna be going out. Right. Okay. And then you get on the ground and you're thinking, okay, we're on the ground, we're safe, but that's a false sense, right? So they get this thing in their head, like, oh, it's not as bad as you think it is.

G 9:08

Right.

Shawn 9:08

Right. So they they're sitting there saying, Oh, uh, you know, I'm not seeing fire right now, so it's not as bad as you think it is. There's I I'm trying to think of logically what's going through their head.

G 9:18

Yeah.

Shawn 9:19

Because you're taking bags, you're taking videos, you're doing everything that you're not supposed to do. But as soon as you hit that slide, as soon as they hit the slide, they're gone.

G 9:30

Yeah.

Shawn 9:30

Right? Their ass was taken off running on uh around on the tarmac. I didn't see one person help anybody until the fire department got to the bottom of the slide.

G 9:39

And that's what the problem is. You're thinking logically. Yeah. Right? I mean the public doesn't think logically.

Shawn 9:48

Yeah, but I mean, but when you're looking at when you're looking at the these evacuations, people get injured because of of not helping anybody at the bottom. Right. Right? They get injured going down slides. They get injured because they have bags. They get it, it just doesn't make sense. It goes on and on. I mean, it it's just utterly ridiculous. And not to mention, it's like you're you're blocking the exit. I mean, just think of you got a family behind you.

G 10:13

Yeah. Makes no sense. Well, I mean, this this is like compounded, also like the exact same thing as like turbulence. When we talk about turbulence, you know, people sitting in the seats and fasten your seatbelts. Like it's as simple as that, but still, as much as we tell them and stuff, they still don't do it. And they have to sit there without their air, and then they get injured. Yeah. And then they're like, oh, they want to hold the airline accountable for it. Well, yeah, but you're not following the instructions, too. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, so it, you know, this is a continuous problem in the industry. Like, it's gonna continue to be, but it's something that needs to be addressed.

Shawn 10:46

The the reason why we want to talk about this today, guys, is that we've seen so many of these evacuations, and every single time that we see them, people are taking bags with them. And you don't understand. I mean, right now, okay, so it didn't cost other people their lives. But let me tell you something, it's going to one day. And what it is is that there's there's going to be 20 or 30 people behind you that's not going to make it off the aircraft because of your stupidity. Well, it's not one day, too.

G 11:14

I mean, if you look up the history of airlines.

Shawn 11:17

I'm sorry, I'm talking about what we're seeing right now.

G 11:19

Yeah, what we're seeing right now. But in the history of airlines, there is a very famous accident that happened, the collision of the uh planes in Vay in uh Los Angeles, that the two planes were on fire, and people died at the emergency exit at the window because there was an argument that ensued trying to get out of the window, and they were fighting on who was gonna get out of the window first. Right. And that, I mean, you can look up this in history and stuff and see the whole account of this accident. And the people that were behind them, all of them died of smoking inhalation because of this fight.

Shawn 11:55

And that's the part that's a part we're that's the part we're trying to get across to you guys is that anytime that you're on board an aircraft, trust me when I'm telling you, you have less than 90 seconds to get off that plane. We are trained that way. And there's a reason that we're trained that way. Leave the bag and get your butt off the aircraft because you can always go back and get that bag, but if you're not there, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

G 12:22

Exactly. Right, and all this material bullshit is replaceable. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. Everything's backed up to the clouds now and it's like all this stuff like burn my Mac far as I'm concerned. Like, I might get a new one.

Shawn 12:33

And you know, the airlines are gonna cover everything, they're not not gonna cover it. I mean, it it that's just ridiculous. Everything that you had on there, they're gonna cover it. Yeah, it doesn't make any difference. It's silly. All right, so hey, what the hell happened with you in Tokyo?

G 12:49

Dude, this is a long story, but it's definitely worth it because for every crew member that's out there, I'm gonna tell you right now learn this lesson. This is something you do not do.

Shawn 13:02

So ever, ever, never. You guys, you get wait till you hear this story, man. Because this is crazy.

G 13:08

So I I go to I'm I'm going to Tokyo and I'm going there for the first time. So, and I'm flying into Narita and uh the airport, you know, first time going in there, just a big international airport, just like all of them, but I'm in a foreign country and all this stuff, had a blast on my layover. Like I went to all kinds of stuff, and we're gonna talk about that in another episode, but we got to talk about this situation. I'm a crew member, I'm in a foreign country. I decided, you know, you know, I'm gonna go adventure around and I'm out and about doing Ubers all over the place and everything. And my uh my pairing pops up, you know, like boom, and we got a modification. So I'm like, uh-oh, we're delayed, you know, like that. Everybody, every crew member knows that. Like, uh-oh. I gotta come. It's a good or bad moment, right? What is this a good? Yeah, good or bad. I don't know if this is gonna be good or bad. What's happened? So we're I'm looking at it, we're delayed. And so the plane gets delayed, and they modify it like a few times before they finally like this. Is the definite time we're gonna. So I'm supposed to show up like a nine to 9:25 to my van. So, you know, as usual, international destination. I know I'm gonna be flying a long flight. I get a little nap before I get check in and all this stuff. I get up, do my little routine, all that stuff in my room, and I decide I'm gonna go downstairs to check out. I'm like 15 minutes before I'm supposed to be down in the van, you know, have time to check out and all that stuff. So I get down there and I'm waiting, and um I the guy is checking me out. There's one guy at the counter because it's late at night, and he's like, I'm like waiting and waiting, and like it's taking a little long, longer than normal. And I'm like, you know, I I gotta get down to my van. Let's go. And so finally I get up there and I'm like, I gotta hurry, I gotta, I've gotta get to my van. So he checks me out and everything. I'm like, thank you. So I go downstairs to where the van is where I pick up and I walk outside, and there's nobody there. It's a ghost town. Gee, it's like you get the wrong time. I like I thought like I went down this escalator into like the Twilight Zone. Yeah. Because I'm like, what this is weird. Where like where's the rest of my crew? You had to be thinking you you had the wrong time. Yeah, I'm like, did I do have the wrong time? I'm checking my pairing. I'm like, you know, wait, wait a minute. Like, is it you know what's what's happening here? Like, is this the right like update, you know, trying to get the heart rates start going up? Yeah, and I'm like, what's happening? I know I'm supposed to be here at the right time. So now I go back upstairs and I'm looking for the crew. I go back downstairs, I'm looking for the crew. I go outside the hotel, I'm walking around the outside of the hotel. Like, did I miss the spot I'm supposed to be picked up? I'm like, I don't know where the freaking where's the crew. So I I'm like, okay, heart rate is elevated. What do I do? I'm like, okay, I'm gonna need to kind of foreign country, I don't speak this language, I can't talk, but like I know there's you know, English speaking people, but it's like you're like, okay, so I'm like, okay, call call crew scheduling. So I call and I'm like trying to get a supervisor, and I, you know, you know how long. I mean, I'm sure everybody in the world that works for an airline knows how long it takes to you, you're in panic mode. Yeah, and everybody's in panic mode. I'm like, my my blood pressure is going out of control right now. And so I'm like trying to get there and uh finally get hold of a duty supervisor, and I'm like, okay, you know, I you know, they send my van's this time. And he's like, no, no, no, you're I think your van's at 10:30, not 925, and your show's at 10:30. Well, he's looking at the show to the airport, not the van pickup. And I'm so I'm arguing with him, like, no, no, no, this isn't. He's like, Oh, wait, oh yeah, you're right. I go, so can you can you call my crew? Like, where's my crew at? Like, what's what's happening? I'm like, this is my pairing. She he's like, he goes, Yeah, I think my next move is I'm gonna call somebody. I'm like, dude, I'm like, come on, help me out. I'm like, I got minutes here. I'm like, what's going on right here? I need to figure out what's happening. I've never in my entire 37 years come down to a hotel lobby, and there's not even a person from the hotel visiting in this lobby, it's empty, especially especially international because it's a whole different area.

Shawn 17:13

Yeah, yeah.

G 17:13

It's not like you just jump in an Uber into the plane. And when you when I went outside and there's just no one around, you're just like, what the hell?

Shawn 17:23

You go straight into freak out mode. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

G 17:25

I was in freak out.

Shawn 17:26

There's no way because I I know. I mean, you're you're in freak out mode right now. Yeah.

G 17:29

So now I'm now I'm like, I go up and I'm go up to the counter and I'm just asking him, I'm like, listen, I go, can you call my crew? I can't find my crew. I go, can you call my crew? And I have this the scheduler on the line. He's trying to call, trying to figure out what's going on, too. So he's like, Oh, this person's checked out. Oh, this person checked out. Oh, this person. I'm like, did I check that pairing modification? Right. What the hell? I'm like, what is going on? Like, how can they all be checked out and gone? Like, I'm like, right, this is weird. And like, I didn't get a call, like, nobody called me or nothing, like, told me. I'm like, my pairing says this. Have you put it together that they left you yet? No, dude. I finally am sitting there, I'm like, wait. So, meantime on the van, they had taken the bus and left like almost 10 minutes early. And they had gotten down the road, and the um lead flight attendant is going through doing crew rest.

Shawn 18:32

They had to leave more even more than 10 minutes early because you think about how long it takes to actually no.

G 18:37

I I was down there like five, like at the bus about five minutes before departure. Like, you know what I'm saying? So I was I gotta I was delayed at the counter, you know, so that's what I was estimating. So then they're going, he's going down, and he's like, you know, who won what bunk do you want? What do you what crush crew rest do you want? All that stuff. This is the this is the leaf legend. So the leaf legend is like, what you know, what do you want? What do you want? And so he's like, gets down. I'm like eighth name on the list, and he's like, Sean. Sean. He's like, Where's the man? Get him in, get him in, where the hell? Like, dude, he realized then that it was like we left a crew member. That's the most taboo thing that you do. You do not, I don't care what it is, you don't leave your crew, dude. I was like, so now I'm back at the hotel trying to figure it out. I realized now the crew the hotel had actually got a guy to me, and yeah, because I also called the transportation company, and so they all coordinated, you know, talking Japanese and figured out, oh, the bus left me. No, the the crew left you.

Shawn 19:45

Yeah, the crew left me, right? On the bus.

G 19:48

Right. So then now I've got to get to uh like they're gonna pay for a taxi to get me to the airport. Now it's like 20 25 minutes to get to the airport. I gotta go through an airport that had never been through customs by myself. I had no idea where I'm going. And so I'm now on with uh the supervisor and all this stuff, and they're telling me, you know, oh yeah, okay, that yeah, they the purser has called us and contact us, and you know, the the supervisor's like, yeah, and we can't we kept trying to call you, but it kept going to voicemail. And I was like, Yeah, okay, so um what's what's he doing? He's like, Yeah, we kept trying to call you, and we're going, it keeps going to voicemail. I'm like, I don't care about this voicemail problem. I'm like, dude, you're not on my contact list, and if you're not calling from scheduling, you're not getting through to my phone. Get past this and help me right now. My blood pressure is now coming through my head. You're gonna be calling the ambulance pretty soon. Making me have a heart attack. So all these things are happening, and it's like you every crew member out there can understand like the the time and the the expediency that you're trying to like move in, if you're trying to like figure this out.

Shawn 21:00

But if they haven't done international, it's worse.

G 21:02

Yeah.

Shawn 21:02

Okay, so I I gotta clarify that. Okay, domestic is one thing, yeah.

G 21:06

International, whole different when you're in the country that you speak their language, yeah, it's okay. Yeah, well, but when you're in a country where you don't speak their language, now I've got a language barrier. I got to do that.

Shawn 21:17

I just had to clarify that because there's there's a whole different level of freak out.

G 21:21

Yeah, yeah. I was so I was freaking out. So now the the lead flight attendant is freaking out himself because I've never done this before, and he's in panic mode. Like, where's my flight attendant? Where's he at? Where's he doing all this stuff?

Shawn 21:33

So you know his blood pressure was giving your head. He's going like he's like, he's doing the ocean deck. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

G 21:41

Not to mention the whole crew, even the people that you work with, yeah, didn't even think, you know, hey, uh, Sean's not down. And evidently I was told that like everybody in the van was like flipping out. What? We left a crew member? Like, how can we do this? Sean here's the crazy thing. So the captain on our trip, he's ex military. Yeah. And And him had this whole conversation. We were talking military and bring you know what we had done and all that stuff before. And I'm thinking to myself, how do you leave somebody behind in matter? You don't know. Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Shawn 22:11

Yeah, wait a minute. Military?

G 22:13

Yeah.

Shawn 22:13

So so that that theory of no one gets left behind just kind of went right out the damn window, didn't it?

G 22:20

So now the captain, he's flipping out too, because he's thinking military-wise, like I left somebody behind. What the fuck? And I even the mic team. And so he's saying, like, everybody's trying to figure out like what do we do? Like, what is this like? Do we flip the bus around? You know, like how like what should happen? So it was a panic mode on all levels, everywhere. Like the bus was having a panic. I'm having a panic. We're all like figuring it out. But I mean, every crew member out there that travels internationally could totally get this. Like, it was just the most surreal. You don't this doesn't happen. This is the most taboo thing in the world.

Shawn 22:57

I can already tell though you're gonna transition here in a minute.

G 22:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so so at that point, now that I've realized they left me, right? Now panic has turned to anger. Pissed. I am straight. I'd be pissed.

Shawn 23:13

I'd be so mad.

G 23:14

Because you do not leave crew.

Shawn 23:16

You don't leave recruitment.

G 23:17

You don't leave crew, man. Especially if you're the flight attendant in charge of making sure that nobody's, you know, like you don't leave crew, period. Domestic army. I was the guy, I was the guy in charge. I had my you know, stomach is dropping. Like I just like I screwed up. Exactly. You know, like it's unbelievable. So by the time I finally get to the airport, and I, you know, the transportation company was fantastic. They actually had somebody meet me at the airport, they guided me through the airport so I could figure out where I was supposed to go as a crew member. They got me to security. I went through that. Then my gate was like 144. So, like, you know, in international terminals, it's a long walk to get to them. And I'm late and all this stuff. So I'm just saying. And then here's the other thing that was crazy about it. So I'm trying to call our company and I'm trying to get the hold of the uh flight attendant charge, right? And I'm like, you know, I'm like, I can I get to his number. Company's like, I'm not allowed to give you that number.

Shawn 24:14

You can't do that. We can contact you, but we're not gonna let you contact him.

G 24:20

I'm in a prison in a poor country. I need help. Can you give me this number?

Shawn 24:24

Uh no. Uh, we're not allowed to help. Yeah, we're not allowed. Yeah. Good luck.

G 24:28

Exactly. I was like, I go, are you kidding me? I go, we're all on company frequencies right now. Yeah. Give me his contact. No. Let me contact him and let me see if he will allow that. No. This is where we come to in this world. Are you kidding me? No. Just help people. No. So, anyhow. Do you like all those news? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm hearing you. I'm hearing you, but not hearing you. So, anyhow, I I finally get his number and he he we connect on the phone. You had to hear that conversation. He was like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna get you through. I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure you get here. You know, we're gonna guide you through. And I'm like, if I get to the airport, how do I get through there? I don't know how to get through because I didn't know nobody was meeting me. Yeah, exactly. And all that stuff. So I was like, this is crazy. But it was like, even talking about this story right now, I'm like sweating a little bit.

Shawn 25:19

Like, how do you think he felt and you were coming on his plane?

G 25:22

Yeah. And by the time I got to the gate, I was like, now I'm angry. Now I'm like, I'm ready to just strangle somebody, right? I'm like, Yeah, I know. This is like so I said you transition. Oh my gosh, this is crazy. But um, it took me a long time to come down, man. I mean, like, we get in our plane, we board the plane, we get into our service, I get done with the service. I'm into my rest period now. I get in my bunk and I'm like, what a fucking day.

Shawn 25:52

You're not even halfway back, you're not even halfway done.

G 25:55

And I'm sweating in my bunk still. It was it was just the most surreal halfway done in your surreal experience. And I'm sorry I've like gone on and on, but this point this is such an important story for every crew member out there. Do not ever, ever, ever leave a crew member.

Shawn 26:17

Man, I don't care because you don't know whether okay, it could be that that person had a medical problem. That could that person could need something hurt, they got injured.

G 26:28

Dude, put okay, and so let's so many back on this. Yeah, let's take this to a new hire situation. Yeah. What if he was a I was a new hire? I gone. It'd be a mess. This is my yeah. It'd be a mess. I have no ex military experience, I have no all this experience behind me.

Shawn 26:43

You know, like clue what to do.

G 26:45

None of those phone calls would have happened. No, yeah, they didn't know where to go and how to do it. Like, I mean, we've trained to do certain things, but like as a new hire, you're like, I gotta call crew scheduling, and then we're on hold for you know, okay.

Shawn 26:58

I'll give you another thing. Could you imagine though? Okay, every you go on the plane, he thinks you're on board. Oh yeah, but wait a minute, he thinks you're on board, and then you just board the airplane.

G 27:08

Yeah, I don't know if that could get to that point right now with the technology because we get to like scan in and all that stuff, so I don't think it can get to there, you know, like I'm saying. But there there was gonna be a somehow.

Shawn 27:19

So at that point, you know somebody that but that's correct. So could you imagine if he'd got to the plane scanned in? Right. And then all of a sudden you're like, you're missing one. No, he doesn't. We brought him on. Wait a minute. At that point, complete freak out.

G 27:33

So here's another part of the story that um I had to throw in there that this is the most um sobering feeling I've ever had of being Mr. Insignificant.

Shawn 27:45

You didn't matter.

G 27:46

I didn't matter.

Shawn 27:47

Well, that's it. Nobody missed me. That's what I was saying. I would cry right now. Listen, you were working with these people all the way from Newark to Tokyo, right?

G 28:00

Exactly.

Shawn 28:00

So you made such an impression on the on your crew that you're working with that nobody was like, we're Sean.

G 28:07

Everybody really cared and missed me. Yeah, exactly. All these thoughts are going through my head.

Shawn 28:14

I'm just like, it literally I'm you know that you know the one thought was going through my head.

G 28:18

What's that?

Shawn 28:18

It wouldn't happen Billings. Billings, Montana. We only have four of them. I'll make sure that there's four on board that van.

G 28:29

You could be left in the field with some elk, some caribou.

Shawn 28:34

Yeah, maybe. But and that shit, and everybody speaks English in Billings, right? So I can I can Uber right to the airport.

G 28:43

It is that and it's easier to count to four than 15.

Shawn 28:46

That's the worst. That's the worst, that's the worst. That's the worst, right? But you know something. I had an incident though, the flight attendant, I we were down there. Yeah, they left early.

G 28:56

Right.

Shawn 28:57

That pisses me off too. Yeah, because now I'm calling, I'm calling the room, checking on them, and they left early. That takes me back to our incident.

G 29:04

Yeah. Do you remember what I'm talking about? Yeah. In Boston? Yeah. Well, well, crew that left early. Yeah. Panick me that I was late.

Shawn 29:14

Yeah. We're gonna we're gonna have to we're gonna get into that. No, we've already talked about that in previous episodes. No, yeah, but I I I guarantee you, I guarantee you that anyone that's gone through that has gone through all those emotions that freak out.

G 29:28

Yeah, everybody's even listening to the story. They're like, whoa, what would I have done? Like, how I mean, honestly, think about this. Like, be prepared. And I will tell you the one mistake that I made, this is my personal mistake, and I tell everybody, like, make sure if you're in a foreign country, get one person's number. Yeah. I did not have one person's number. Yeah, and that was the like, that was the link that was like, I could have called or text or somebody that had been like, hey, what a buck.

Shawn 29:53

And if you're on an international crew, go down 20 minutes early. Not 15. Not 15. I wouldn't, I'd do 20. I'm strictly.

G 30:02

The problem was like everybody was so senior in this crew, too. Like, everybody was like, they're done with this layer. Yeah, you know, because we were delayed the whole nine yards. So people were down there like 30 minutes early, like they were just sitting around, and everybody was like, you know, let's just get out of here. And then they get on the run. And then this is how it happened. Like, this is the why it happened because people are probably wondering that too. Yeah, we had a deadheader, so we had an extra crew member that was deadheading back home on that trip. So they thought he they thought and he did the count and he forgot that there was a deadheader, so he's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, 14. We got the number. Let's go early.

Shawn 30:39

Perfect.

G 30:39

See ya.

Shawn 30:40

Yeah. You didn't make an impression on anybody, Susie, John, Sean. So you didn't make an impression on the captain who was in there, you didn't make an impression on the flight attendant you work with, you didn't make an impression on the purser, right?

G 30:54

I hear you. You made no impressions on anything. Zero. Zero. Perfect, man. Mr. Insignificant. Yeah. That's horrible. It was terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Don't don't don't do that, people. I don't care where you are.

Shawn 31:15

Don't make someone insignificant.

G 31:19

Whatever you do, don't make them insignificant. I'm gonna make them make a shirt. Yeah. Mr. Insignificant. No, I matter.

estaurant Service Gone Off Rails

Shawn 31:26

I matter. I matter. I'm part of this crew. As it goes back to the Stuart Smalley daily affirmations, right? I'm good enough, I'm smart enough. And gosh darn it, people like me. And people like me.

unknown 31:40

Yeah.

G 31:41

So, gee, what have you been up to? Anyway, my whole thing.

Shawn 31:44

Nothing is as exciting as you. Good lord. Went out to eat a couple times. I had to tell you this. So go go out to eat, you know, which you know I don't do a lot.

G 31:53

Right, no.

Shawn 31:54

So I go out there and um, I'm not even gonna say the restaurant this first one, but show up. They first of all lost us our place in line. Lost you? Yeah, you know how when they're sitting seating you and you're waiting for the So we're sitting over there for like 45 minutes. I'm like, they haven't even freaking called a name out. So go over there, find out, oh uh yeah, we were on this list. I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? We've been sitting over there 45 minutes, these people came in. So anyway, we go sit down. We get a waitress. Have you ever had a waitress forget everything?

G 32:26

Dude.

Shawn 32:27

Flight attendant and everything, dude. I mean, they forget everything.

G 32:30

Yeah, that's a bad way to say.

Shawn 32:32

No, we sat down, sat down. So she comes out, she's like, hey, you know, everything's you know, seems like she's real nice, and I'm like, okay, this goes, this will be good. She's got a great personality. She comes out and they you know how they set the silverware down and everything. So um comes out, gives Deb uh the Diet Coke, and then forgets my water. Right? Right. I'm like, okay, you forgot my water. She's like, oh I'm sorry, I'll go back and get the water. And then she comes back and I'm like, you forgot you forgot the bread. You know, the stuff and she's like, oh, dang it. And she goes back and you know, like 10 minutes later. Every stage was uh she was forgetting comes back, comes back, only has one thing of bread. I was like, Did you have all those other kinds of bread? Yeah, we don't have those right now. They're cooking. I'm like, so we only get this little hard piece of bread. I'm like, okay. So I already knew what we were ordering, right? So goes goes gets the meals, brings the meals out, forgets to bring Deb's out. The meal. Yeah. Nice. And then she brings it out, it's burnt. Completely burnt. Dude. Burnt. I mean crispy. I go to bite mine, cold. You know what I do. I know, but I'm you know what I do. But you know me. I'm sitting in this, I'm like, I'm totally disbelief. Right. So anyway, she can she forgets everything. There wasn't ever a time where she's there. There wasn't anything. She didn't forget anything. I mean, she forgot everything, she didn't remember anything. Is she young or old? No, she was she was like mid-twenties. This wasn't like dementia or anything. No.

unknown 34:06

No.

Shawn 34:07

But this whole time I'm sitting there, I'm I'm like, I'm in disbelief.

G 34:11

Yeah. I mean, I mean, it it all it is is like a pasta meal. Yeah, this is your this is your job. Yeah. All you do is take orders and serve them.

Shawn 34:20

And and then put it down. But okay. If you if you're a waiter waitress and you're put bringing out food, if that shit was burnt, yeah, would you bring that out?

G 34:31

Dude, it's the same thing on a plane. Like, I don't serve stuff that I won't eat. No, exactly. Like, that's the rule. That's the golden rule instead of it.

Shawn 34:38

Exactly. Because if if if you had, if somebody gave you like a plated dish and that shit was like burnt onto the ceramic, you're not taking a shit out. You'll be like, you take it out. I ain't I am not delivering that, right? So she brings out she brings out the the the things that's all crusted. So then they bring her meal back out again and they forgot the onions. So they had the I'm like, are you kidding me? I'm like, just can I just have the bill? So and so she goes in there and what'd you think she forgot to do? Took off whatever the meal. Yeah, I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, she didn't take anything off. Right. I had to my credit card sitting right here for like 10 or 15 minutes. She's walking around, I'm like, excuse me. I'm like, the bill, and she's like, Oh, I forgot. Like, so you forgot everything.

G 35:25

Yeah.

Shawn 35:26

The whole thing. And now I'm supposed to tip you. Are you going back to this restaurant? No. This is good.

G 35:33

It was horrible. This is good. It was horrible. This is but then our live and learning experience.

Shawn 35:38

Okay, so so I hate going through, but all right, but then I I thought, okay, I'm gonna just give it another try. So you know me in Mexican restaurants. Right. So I went to another Mexican restaurant, sat down, just ordered some cheese enchiladas. Yeah. Dude, they were like, they would clog your arteries. Uh they were so bad.

G 35:56

And then it was cold again. I'm gonna tell you this the Mexican restaurants, to me, like they're hit and miss. Yeah. Like there's a million of them, right? They're they're everywhere. But there's only a few good ones to me. Like it's like you go to you go to them and like, eh, it's okay. This is okay. This is terrible. This is okay. But every now and then you'll find one that's like, okay.

Shawn 36:20

The only thing I've seen that ever okay in the Mexican restaurants is the salsa and chips. They can mess that up too. That's it.

G 36:27

I haven't had those messed up. Oh, yeah. You can I can have some bad chips.

Shawn 36:30

Well, no. You ever had bad chips? Yeah, no, because they've been cold.

G 36:33

Yeah. You can't just or or like they're just like bland and there's no salt in the chip.

Shawn 36:38

Did you wonder like if they brought cold ones out if it was like somebody else's table?

G 36:42

Dude, who knows? Yeah.

Shawn 36:44

I don't know. I try not to think that way. Well, thanks for giving me that thought now. Yeah, so so my my eating adventure wasn't as exciting as you're being lost.

G 36:53

Dude, did you um go to that new Mexican restaurant I told you down the street? That uh, you know, I was like, we Yeah, I did.

Shawn 36:59

Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't like it. And you didn't like it? No. Really? No, I didn't. Why is that? The food was cold. You said it was gonna be hot. The food was cold, yes. The shit was cold. That's weird. Yeah, so we love that restaurant. I know, but I and I know, I was looking forward to it.

G 37:13

Yeah, I mean, they give you huge portions of the stuff.

Shawn 37:16

They do, but I I don't care what the portion is if it's cold, though.

G 37:19

It's cold. I don't yeah, we didn't have that. Not supposed to be cold.

Shawn 37:22

We had our plates were like, Did you ever notice like they make the plates so damn hot because they stick them in? Well, no, do they stick them in those ovens? Yeah, they put them in the whatever that like brick oven thing.

G 37:32

Oh no, no, they have those like warmer things. You know what I'm talking about?

Shawn 37:36

No, I'm not talking about that, but they you know how they slide the plate in one of those ovens.

G 37:39

Oh, they might, yeah, you know, but it they do make it so hot that you can't even touch the.

Shawn 37:43

Exactly. It's like it seems like a sizzling, but then it's not, it's cold, Sean. They wrap that shit up cold and they put it on that plate and they shove it in that oven.

G 37:51

Yeah. Well, it's not good. That's too bad. Yeah. Like that restaurant.

Shawn 37:57

All right, let's go around the globe. You know what amazes me is I was watching this video, and it it just it blows my mind how you you've seen this group of these three thugs start bringing a beat down on this guy on the street. Yeah. Okay, no, didn't he didn't do anything. They said something to him, and then they just jumped on him, started beating the crap out of him. And there was a video of this. Yeah. So they were playing in this. In San Jose, in San Jose, California, right? And they they bring the beat down on this guy. Nobody helps him. They just they it goes back to what we were talking about, even in the evacuations. Nobody was helping this guy. All they were doing was filming him getting the shit beat out of him by three guys. There's no way. I'm sorry, there's no way. If I seen somebody was getting the shit beat out of him, and you too, you jump in.

G 38:49

Here's my thing all this video stuff, every all this stuff needs to start being having repercussions. Because to me, you know how like in uh in law, like um you go and you're with a buddy and you drive down the convenience store and your buddy robs a store, and you're like, oh shit, what the fuck? Yeah, but guess what? Who goes to jail? Both of you. Yeah, both of you. That's how the video should be, too. Right. When everybody's getting mad at it, whoever's videoing the thing should get in trouble just as well. Because they're an accomplice to it because they're not assisting, and they're actually enabling their this behavior because they're promoting it, right?

Shawn 39:26

But you seen Sean in this video, if you watch this, you seen the guys that were sitting right there where this guy was getting the crap beat out of him. They just let him, nobody did anything.

G 39:38

It's crazy, man.

odybuilding Truths And Steroid Costs

Shawn 39:39

They didn't do anything. They they just sat there and they they let this guy get the shit beat out of him. It just made no sense at all. Yeah. But what I loved, I seen uh, did you watch any did you see any of those highlights with Arnold Classic? You know, the Arnold Classics going on right now with bodybuilding? No. So Arnold Schwartzman. Is that still in Columbus? Yeah, it was it was during the I think it's sixth and seventh, something like that. Okay. But it was cool though, because Arnold was like walking around everywhere and they're taking all these pictures and things with him. And you know how steroids are always huge for you know for bodybuilding. And one of the guys was like, hey, Arn, do you have any uh suggestions for me? You know, how I get uh better, and he goes, he goes, yeah, he goes, uh up your diet and then up your dosage. I love that because I was like, finally, somebody comes out and just sits there and goes, Yeah, yeah, you gotta you gotta put more steroids.

G 40:29

That's the only way you're gonna get there.

Shawn 40:31

Yeah, well, they had Ronnie Coleman, they had uh Jay Cutler and all these other guys in there. And Coleman is such in bad shape. What a cool dude. Yeah, Ronnie Coleman is such a cool guy. One one uh that that numerous times, but man, is his body just beat the shit out of it.

G 40:46

Dude. I mean, it's the repercussions of doing all that stuff like later in life, when you stop doing it, that's what you see, right? Yeah, that's what you're seeing. Ronnie Coleman's result.

Shawn 40:56

It's so many operations. I mean, it's cost him millions and millions of dollars in operations because of his body is just wrecked.

G 41:03

Yeah.

Shawn 41:03

I mean, when you put when you put like freaking eight, nine hundred pounds on your back, and now you can barely walk because you're you're you're using these things to actually assist you.

G 41:12

The young guys that are out there and gals that are weightlifting and doing all this type of exercise and stuff, remember this. The one golden rule is all this shit's gonna catch up to you.

Shawn 41:25

Oh, yeah, yeah.

G 41:26

Your body will remind you. Yeah, especially when be careful on what you're doing and understand there's repercussions to what you're doing. I have two knee replacements getting ready to happen. Like this is this is because I was screwing around when I was young, you know, doing too much stuff. Yeah, and so you just gotta take care of yourself in your entire life.

Shawn 41:48

Yeah, and if if you if you wonder about steroids and these guys that do them, if you wonder about that, go check out Ronnie Coleman, man. And and that that should steer, if that doesn't steer you away from it, I don't know what would, but right, but anyway, um, TSA, shut um, you're not getting paid again.

G 42:04

Dude, again, what do you mean? Have they even started any? No. This is this is the uh what second time now that government shoved down TSA with uh because of their their feuding. Yeah, this is my thing. Government service workers in any of the industries that are servicing the entire United States for security, for whatever, uh safety, any of that stuff, nobody should ever be able to have leveraged their careers, their lives because you're trying to dispute a political bullshit. Absolutely. This should never ever happen. Yeah. I mean, uh so here's the thing.

Shawn 42:41

That's the same thing in the military, right? Yeah. I mean military, no, your ass gets paid.

G 42:46

Yeah, everybody that is servicing this country to keep it safe, police officers, fire workers, TSA, homeland security, uh all military, all that stuff. Nobody should ever go unpaid because politicians are arguing. That's BS. Right. And and to me, too, and like how many times have we heard this? Everybody suggests, you know, well, the politicians shouldn't get paid too. But guess who's got to make that law? The politicians. They're not gonna make a law that says that they're not gonna pay for that. Oh, yeah, yeah, right.

Shawn 43:18

We'll just decide that nobody else gets paid. Right.

G 43:20

And here's the other thing like today, I just uh went through uh came in international, you know, global entries shut down. Yeah, no more global entries. So you pay for this service to be able to be expedited. That's just a face scan, yeah. Then they have one guy working the thing. No, they hold shut down the whole system. Um because so now coming in, you can't get it. Well, and you what now it's spring break, yeah. And spring breaks getting ready to happen. Yeah, and warn everybody out there listen, if you think it's gonna take two hours to get through, times it by two.

Shawn 43:51

Yeah, and you might see you might see some videos that show airports and like, oh, it only took me like three minutes. Like, mm mm. Don't sit there, don't don't buy. Into that one, man. Especially at the big ones. It's better, it's better to be at your gate waiting to board an aircraft than to be on the other side of security waiting to see if you get through.

G 44:10

Yeah. This morning in Newark, I walked into baggage claim. In the downstairs of baggage claim, it went from one end of the airport to the other end of the airport was the TSA line that went up to the next level that still wound all the way around.

Shawn 44:26

That's gonna cause some. That's gonna, you're gonna see more videos on that fights and just in that alone.

G 44:31

Right.

Shawn 44:31

Because there's gonna be a lot of frustrated people. Lots of front. Missing flights.

G 44:36

Yeah, you need to be aware, people. So if you are traveling, a lot of stuff coming up to time. And and also they're talking about like, you know, raising the prices of all our tickets and stuff because of the oil stuff happening. That's coming too. That's coming. That's getting ready to come too.

Shawn 44:48

Then we had, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go on about this, but you had two more bomb threats. Oh, peace. These ding dongs that that keep doing this stupid shit. I hate that.

G 44:57

Yeah.

Shawn 44:58

Dumb, stupid. And then um, you had uh, oh, though you see the woman that got escorted off the plane for the you know, they started that you gotta have headphones. Gotta have headphones. Oh, yeah. When you're listening on a plane, right? Yeah. I mean, we we've always had that. Yeah. But they they kind of like, okay, now you're getting taken off.

G 45:17

Well, if you don't want to like abide by it, like, especially if she gets told, you know, put headphones on, and I'm not putting headphones on, and you keep telling her. Yeah.

Shawn 45:27

I love that when they do that, when they take them off the airplane, because what it does is that, you know, at least when they put it out in the social media that these people get taken off the aircraft for doing something stupid, right? Then you don't have to deal with it again. But again, again, every time we say this, it's just like that one person, right?

G 45:42

Yeah.

Shawn 45:42

That like 0.1% that decides to get on. You went through all that shit to sit there and think, I'm not listening to you. Yeah.

G 45:50

And you're, excuse me, this is my bubble. Yeah.

Shawn 45:53

This isn't uh you're but she took her bubble, she took her bubble and kind of left.

G 45:58

That bubble just floated right off board.

ilot Fight After Taxi Speed Dispute

Shawn 46:02

That like Glenda, remember the good witch, right? Glenda the good witch, she's like exited stage right. But this last one, before we get out of here, this this one killed me. So uh a captain was taxiing too fast. Okay, and the first officer was telling him this is this is the report.

G 46:20

Okay.

Shawn 46:20

So he was taxiing too fast, and that was like their their taxi speed speed's like 30, 34.5 miles per hour. Okay. Right. So the first officer was like, You're you're going, you're exceeding the taxi limit. And Captain is just ignoring him. He said, You're exceeding it. So the first officer hit the brakes. Oh, dang. And then the captain was trying to do it again. He hits the brakes, and the captain turns over, starts punching the first officer. Oh, no doubt. He so could you imagine a brawl going on?

G 46:51

Here's the two the two uh um the two pilots, and they're brawling in the cockpit. In the cockpit. Yeah, and they're locked in there.

Shawn 46:59

Yeah. Well, it's it's actually the captain just punching the first officer. First officer were like, damn. Damn, is there's video of this?

G 47:06

No, they had they it's it was it was reported, an incident that was reported. Yeah, Captain, like who how did this happen that they have a video?

Shawn 47:15

Yeah, no, no, it wasn't a video. No video, no, but it was reported, and the captain is is currently suspended. Imagine that. Going through maybe you think he'll get his job back? Maybe. Anger management? Probably. He'd be like, well, we you know, we're short on captains.

G 47:36

Yeah, we you need to learn to know how to work with others.

Shawn 47:39

Yeah, work well with others.

G 47:41

Communication. They're gonna work on your communication, yeah.

uote Of The Week And Farewell

Shawn 47:44

But right now, you'll have a shirt that says suspended, right? All right, inspirational quote. You can't change this is good. All right, you can't change the cards you were dealt, just the way you played the hand. True, true, right? Because today you couldn't change, right?

G 48:04

Yeah, it was hey, this is you were dealt some shitty cards. A shitty hand, right? You had to deal with it. Exactly, right?

unknown 48:12

Right, good copy.

Shawn 48:14

All right, guys, man. We had a lot of fun this week. I hope you guys have a great week and come back and see us again next week. Don't leave me! Yeah, don't leave me. Or you know, or anybody else. Yeah, and and make sure that everybody is significant. Yeah, yeah. Care about it. Exactly. See ya.

G 48:35

Thanks for watching or listening to Cabin Pressure with Sean and G. If you had fun with us today, help support the channel by liking, commenting, and sharing this episode. We'd love to hear your feedback too, so jump into the comments and let us know your thoughts, your travel stories, or topics you want us to cover next. Be sure to subscribe and we'll see you on the next episode.