When jetting off on holiday, being on the plane itself is often the least stressful part of the experience after going through security and rushing to the gate. Beyond watching the flight safety demonstration, most passengers will go into their own world and watch films, listen to music or read a book.
For those without headphones in, different chimes can be heard over the intercom system throughout the flight. One American cabin crew member has explained what all the sounds mean - and there's one we never want to hear.
Tommy Cimato posted a TikTok explaining all the chimes passengers can hear throughout the flight. He said: "Have you ever heard these sounds on a plane before? Do you ever wonder what that means?"
A high-low two tone chime signifies the cabin crew communicating with each other. The flight attendant explained: "A high-low chime means that one flight attendant is trying to call the other flight attendant or the flight deck is trying to call us.
"If you hear three of those high-low chimes, that means it's an emergency – but you never have to hear that"
"If you hear just one tone, that means that a passenger is calling one of the flight attendants from their seat or they could be calling us from the lavatory," Tommy added in his TikTok with over 12million views.
Three repeated chimes may mean this on Tommy's airline but in the comments other flight attendants chimed in, one wrote: "Flight attendant here! While this may be true for some airlines, it’s not for others so if you hear the 3 chimes don’t go panicking just yet"
Another said: "Six chimes for an emergency for some airlines."
While a third added: "nooo my airline literally does 4 chimes just to indicate passing 10k feet. This is gonna scare people lmao."
Tones can also be heard as the plane reaches cruising altitude and the seat belt sign is switched off and other commenters reassured potential passengers that it does depend on which airline you fly with.
Some commenters shared their experiences hearing three chimes, with one writing: "I'm actually being unfortunate to hear the three Bells it was in Sydney about 10 years ago lucky the plane landed with one engine safely."
Another passenger said: "Heard three tones once and all the fight attendants froze. Turns out it was an accident but I overheard them talking about what it meant afterwards."
A flight attendant added: "I called with three tones many times in a row, wondering why nobody is answering. Pilots freaked out. It was my first flight as a flight attendant".
