Have you ever wondered what that ‘ding’ sound is that echoes in the cabin throughout a flight, making some unnerved flyers suddenly look up and around to check if everything is okay?
Well, the dings are not usually something passengers need to be concerned with, as one American Airlines pilot has explained.
Captain Steve Scheibner, an American Airlines pilot who goes by the name Captain Steeeve on TikTok, filmed a video explaining the meaning behind these mysterious chimes, amassing over 10 million views after posting the explainer on 25 November.
Captain Steve revealed that the ‘dings’ you hear are actually a code language understood by flight crew to communicate with each other.
“I chime the flight attendants three separate times during the flight on purpose,” he said.
On the first occurrence, passengers will usually hear it as the plane is taxiing onto the runway and will be able to hear the announcement “flight attendants prepare for departure”.
Shortly after that, Captain Steve said that when he is cleared for take-off, he gives the attendants a quick ding, using the ‘no smoking’ switch he has in the cockpit by turning it on and off again quickly.
“That’s their final warning to take a seat we’re about to take off,” he explained.
“Then as we’re climbing through 10,000 feet, I reach up and I grab that ‘no smoking’ sign again, I give them [the attendants] another ding to let them know it’s safe to get up now out of their seat and start their service.”
The third chime, which the pilot will ring out towards the end of the flight, occurs when the plane is about to descend past 10,000 feet.
After broadcasting the announcement “flight attendants prepare for landing”, Captain Steve then “dings them one more time and that way they know they’ve only got a few minutes left to get everything cleaned up and put away because we’re about to land.”
While these chimes can be heard aboard various planes, another pilot TikToker explained last year that dings and chimes can vary between different airlines and even different aircraft.
Gary B Pilot agreed with the three dings that Captain Steve explained but added that passengers may hear dings when a flight attendant in the back calls a flight attendant in the front, when turning the seatbelt sign on and off, and even when a passenger pushes their call button for a flight crew to come to their seat.
“Some of those dings could be Suzie asking for an extra bag of pretzels, so please don’t panic,” the pilot said.
“It’s normal to hear dings going off all around because that’s how we communicate.”
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