Gaurav Taneja, aka Flying Beast, reveals eight airline secrets he’s not allowed to; toilet water and tea water is same, mobile phones safe to use

Mobile Phones Are Safe to Use

Gaurav revealed that mobile phones ‘are actually safe’ to use on a flight, but the no-phone rule was first implemented for old GSM devices that would operate at the same frequencies as the aircraft, and could therefore cause an interference in communication. He said that modern-day 4G and 5G phones can’t interfere with aircraft communications, but to avoid that minuscule chance of something going wrong, passengers are asked to switch their devices off during takeoff and landing.

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Pilots Aren’t Allowed to Eat Same Meal

He said that both pilots aren’t allowed to eat the same meal. If one pilot asks to be served a certain food item, the other pilot will be given a separate item. This is done to avoid a situation where both pilots don’t fall ill after eating the same contaminated meal, and end up putting the aircraft and passengers in jeopardy. Gaurav said that aircraft meals are prepared days in advance and frozen; they are heated on board and then served to passengers and the crew. “The pilots need to be able to make a mayday call in case there is an emergency,” he said.

More Masala in Airline Food

He also revealed that airline food is seasoned differently to regular food, because a person’s smell is impacted at 35,000 feet. And if their smell is impacted, their taste would be too. So, to combat this issue, caterers season airline meals differently. Airline meals, Gaurav said, have extra sugar, salt, and masalas.

Commercial Aircraft Can’t Dump Fuel

He said that commercial aircraft don’t have any procedure to dump fuel. Unlike certain military aircraft have this capability, but not regular aircraft such as the Boeing 737 Max and the Airbus A320 Neo. He said that this is an important point, because laymen often wonder why a pilot didn’t dump the fuel ahead of an emergency landing, because they assume that this would reduce the chances of an explosion. Gaurav said that this is simply not possible.

Oxygen Masks Only Last 15 Mins

Addressing the safety protocol of wearing an oxygen mask in the event of a loss in cabin pressure, Gaurav revealed that each mask has oxygen for only 12-15 minutes. But nobody tells the passengers this because it could cause alarm and panic. “This is done because you will die if an aircraft loses pressure at 35,000 feet, and it will last only long enough for the aircraft to descend to a safe altitude,” he said.

Pilots Are Allowed to Nap

Gaurav revealed that it is legal for one of the two pilots in the cockpit to take a 30-minute nap during a flight that’s over three hours long. This is called a ‘controlled rest’. He said that the pilots can’t sleep during takeoff, landing, climb or descend. “At cruising altitude, the pilots don’t have much of a workload, so as long as everything is in order, it is legally okay for one of them to sleep for 30 minutes,” he said.

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Pilots Can Turn of A/C

Gaurav said that many passengers complain about the temperature inside an aircraft prior to takeoff, but this isn’t a mistake on the airline’s part. This is done deliberately to divert all the fuel and energy to the engines for takeoff. He said that certain airlines might also turn the air conditioning off during a flight to save fuel, but this doesn’t happen on ‘full-service airlines’ such as Etihad or Emirates.

Toilet Water and Tea Water Comes from Same Tank

Finally, Gaurav revealed that there is only one water tank on commercial aircraft, which means that the same water is going to be used in washrooms, and to make tea for passengers. He said that the water tank is supposed to be cleaned regularly, but there is no information on how often this happens. He also said that the procedure to clean the aircraft tank is very cumbersome, and suggested that engineers and airlines might be cutting corners.