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If you’re a nervous flyer, I’m pretty sure the only thing you want is to get on a quick flight, glide through the air without drama, and get off the second those wheels touch the ground. And if turbulence or mechanical issues pop up, you’d hope the crew has been trained to deliver the news with soft, calming reassurance, right? Because truly, nothing destroys the spirit faster than a pilot who believes in “radical honesty.” Well, unfortunately for one woman heading from Charleston to New York, her pilot did not get the memo about using gentle phrasing. Instead, he delivered the kind of preflight speech that could make even a calm traveler reacquaint themselves with prayer.
The Pilot’s Announcement
The pilot got on the speaker and immediately started sharing updates no passenger actually wants to hear said out loud. He explained that the airline had flown in parts from “all over the country” to fix the plane and that maintenance crews had been standing out in the rain the night before to get it working again.
Then, as if he were reading from a script titled How to Increase Passenger Anxiety in 30 Seconds, he warned everyone that the flight attendants would be handing out water and snacks before takeoff because they wouldn’t be getting up during the flight due to turbulence they might experience “the whole way into LaGuardia.” And right when passengers might have hoped he was done, he delivered a line that pushed this woman over the edge, announcing that “the ride is going to be not the greatest at all,” followed by a reminder that he wasn’t going to promise a smooth flight because “it’s not gonna happen.”
Meanwhile, the woman recording looked like she could not properly process what she was hearing, or perhaps she was calculating how fast she could legally get off the plane. Even in her TikTok captions, she wondered why the pilot thought she needed this level of honesty before takeoff. But despite the pilot’s brutal transparency and her own panic, the flight did eventually make it to New York. According to her update in the comments, they landed safely, though she confirmed that yes, the turbulence was exactly as bumpy as advertised.
Netizens’ Reaction to the Pilot’s Announcement
People in the comments could not believe the pilot chose to reveal that kind of information in such a blunt way. One person said, “He didn’t have to be THAT honest 😭.” Another asked, “WHY WOULD HE SAY THIS? I would have gotten off.” A third wrote, “Not just a simple ‘we’ll be expecting turbulence’?? 😭😭😭.” A fourth joked, “Pilots really need some sensitivity training my god 😂😂😂😂.”
Some viewers also sympathized with the woman filming, with one writing, “I would’ve been hyperventilating so hard… you’re so brave for staying on that plane, like seriously, I commend you!”
