Although the cabin crew may seem warm and smiling, their job is not as easy as it seems. They are responsible for meeting the needs of passengers and ensuring their safety and comfort throughout the flight.
If you’ve ever been on a plane, you’ve probably paid more attention to the uniforms, facial expressions, and food and drink brought to you during the flight. However, there is another remarkable situation.
Of course, the reason for this posture is not because it is the most natural or most comfortable posture.
So having your hands behind your back isn’t just about etiquette, wanting to appear calm or friendly. The flight attendant, who greets the passengers at the entrance with his hands behind his back, has a special and important task: to count.
Yes, they count. Officers count boarding passengers because they have to make sure that the number of boarding passengers and the number of ticketed passengers match. The flight attendant assigned to this task usually has a manual click counter that allows for a more accurate count of air passengers, which can range from 100 to over 600 on regional flights.
Flight attendants do not only take this stance while passengers board the plane.
Before the flight begins, you will see some of the attendants walking up and down with their hands behind their backs. This is a second count after all passengers are seated to ensure that the number of people who check-in and walk through the gate with their boarding pass matches the actual number of people on board.
These counts are not only useful to learn the number of passengers. Sometimes it helps determine the weight an aircraft is carrying and recalibrate the cargo situation, and sometimes it helps passengers on smaller planes learn whether to rearrange their seating.
So why are the hands on the back? Can’t they do this to show off?
Although the methodologies differ from airline to airline and person to person, flight attendants do not want to draw attention to themselves or their work. They also believe that this stance has a professional and authoritative appearance. In a way, we can say that it helps passengers to reassure them that they are safe.
In addition to all these, the fact that the hands are at the back also allows other officers to move more easily on the plane. When they stand in this way, they do not hinder the attendant who has any work that requires placing the luggage of the passengers, showing the place or using their hands.
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