Madness of a service society

As the relatives make their way back to the four corners of the planet I am left with a lingering question, why do people applaud airline pilots on arrival at their destination?

My partner began to explain how Ryanair flights are regularly greeted with a round of applause when the plane reaches its destination on schedule. I began to say how I had never flown Ryanair when my memory banks fired up and recalled the traumatic experience of being almost stranded in Berlin following the marathon in 2011. An experience that Ryanair saw fit to charge me over £400 for, for the pleasure of my company to get back to England. Once I had regained my composure following a Gene Wilder outburst of "WH-WH-WH-WHAT?!" I weighed up the cost of staying in Germany for another four weeks versus having to remain civil for two hours on a plane full of mercenaries. 

One thing was for certain, I was never going to applaud that arrival.

As a younglin the thought of air travel always filled me with dread, until I took my first flight at the age of 16. If I had been told of the time honoured tradition of applauding the pilot for doing their job I may perhaps have never set foot upon a plane in the first instance. It is not something I find fills me with confidence, after all, I never applauded a taxi driver for getting me to the pub in one piece and on time, though I may have come across one or two that deserve a round of applause for getting me home in my younger, more reckless days. So why do people feel compelled to applaud an airline taxi driver?

When you consider that medium to long haul flights will set you back £400 plus, then the very least you would expect is to land safely and comfortably.

Some will cite the precision and skill associated with flying and landing an aeroplane, loaded with passengers and cargo but when you take away the take off and landing what is left? The autopilot mainly, but I do not see people bending over backwards applauding SKYNET for getting to their holiday/work destination on time. More often than not in my limited experience I have found that most pilots seem to wait until they are about a foot off of the ground before they then seem to switch off the engine, smashing into the tarmac, making some men and women scream and breaking glass in the drinks cabinet...yet still some applaud. Though this may have been more of a case of nervous release.

So it is I shall continue to wonder why it is we applaud a pilot for just doing their job and perhaps I shall begin a craze of applauding the taxi driver, bus driver and train driver for coming to a safe stop, on time or not.