This never ceases to amaze me. It seems to happen on nearly every airline flight I take. And maybe it happens on your trips, too.
The plane lands and taxis to the terminal. Several yards short of the gate, you start to hear it.
Click!
Then another click!
And again. Click!
A few passengers insist on unbuckling their seatbelts before the plane come is parked at the gate and the “Fasten Your Seatbelts” icon is turned off.
I’m curious what the reasoning for this is.
I understand some people are in a hurry to stand up. Maybe get their carryon bags out of the overhead bin.
But Unfastening a seatbelt and removing it from one’s lap takes about one second. Maybe two.
Unfastening a seatbelt before the plane is parked does not get it to the gate sooner. So what’s the most time it buys you? Maybe three or four seconds — if that — when the aircraft deplanes?
I’m generally a Boy Scout when it comes to following rules on airplanes. So maybe I’m just boring. But is there something I’m missing? Can anyone provide any insight as to why it’s advantageous to unfasten a seatbelt before the plane is parked the seatbelt sign is off?
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I can only speak from personal experience. You are right, it buys you little to no time, but the psychological feeling that you have arrived somewhere and it is time to “exit” starts racing in your mind. I liken it to the fact that even before I get into the TSA precheck line, I have already removed ALL my possessions out of my pockets and put them into my carryon as well as wallet with the exception of the ID (passport/DL). The feeling of it is time to “enter” starts before the actual action.
In addition, what is a pet peave of mine is when I board a plane and the First Class passengers who enter 2 or so zones prior to me are still standing up and at times in the aisle going through their bags and pulling out headphones and etc. All that should already be thought of before they board and staged appropriately, I feel. Why block traffic as you plunder through your stuff searching for headphones? Well that’s my 2 cents!
Congratulations! A title both figuratively and literally “clickbait”.
It may ha e to do with where you come from
Are you laid back and chill!?
Are you rushing during subway rush hour to catch that train that’s on the track?
Are you retired sopping mint juleps on a rocking chair?
Do you have kids in the row behind you who are making a ruckus kicking your seat?
I think it depends upon your life style…..
What do you think of This ????
Saves one the embarrassment of not having unbuckled when it finally your turn to get up.
What a luxury to worry about trivial things like this.
Personally, I think it has to do with wanting to be up in the aisle and accessing the overhead bin before the person across the aisle. There are often things to re-pack in your carry on, and getting that done quickly makes people feel less rushed to deplane before someone else get irritated they’re going to slowly. Additionally, as Michael pointed out, gives you a sense of beginning the exit process, which is a nice feeling to have. My wife and I joke “there is not a longer five minutes than the last five minutes of a flight”, getting off the plane can’t happen quickly enough!
Once you are 10 feet from the gate, crawling at 1 mph, what safety issue do you have with unbuckling 5 seconds
early? While still on the runway, I agree. Could be hit by another plane or come to a sudden stop.
@Ray – I have been on many flights where we were crawling towards the gate and then the pilot hit the breaks HARD. Not enough to toss me out of my seat but it gets your attention.
As a retired airline pilot, and trying to be nice, people simply think they are smarter than the airline crew. Or they simply don’t care what we tell them – and if they get hurt when those brakes come on (most likely because someone or something inadvertently got in the way) they will be the first one to sue.
@Ben – You make my point. Wait until the fine folks in the pointy end “DING” us.
Agree, Cheers!
And yet we are then placed on a shuttle bus that drives on the tarmac at breakneck speed with not even a seat in which to secure ourselves. Hmm…
Once was sitting in the way back in the middle seat
An ethnic gentleman was sitting next to me in a aisle seat
The plane was getting to the gate and right before the seatbelt sign turned off, this joker bolts out of his seat and starts sprinting towards the front of the aircraft!!
Made it all the way to 1st class before people in the aisle slowed him down
Never saw anything like it since