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CNN’s Richard Quest: Is Airline Safety Declining?

Published Apr 16, 2024, 10:00 AM

This episode attempts to answer the question… “Are airlines putting dangerous planes into the sky?” Recently, a Boeing 737 Max 9 had a door plug blow out at 16,000 feet, creating a gaping hole that sucked out, among other things…the shirt off the back of a startled teenager. Really, no Really!

That incident (along with a few others) reminded us of that Netflix documentary exposing the egregious decline of Boeing, a once great American manufacturer. 2023 was considered a travel nightmare for many and 2024 looks to be no better with shortages of air traffic controllers, pilots, and planes.

To enlighten us about the current state of air travel, Jason and Peter invited CNN’s, always entertaining - aviation expert and correspondent- Richard Quest. Richard has interviewed every major airline executive and covered the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, and the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Aviation’s surprising “Do Not Pair” list!
  • Safest seat on the aircraft is…?
  • Ailine pilot statistics you hope aren’t true.
  • Richard breaks down why Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 & Lion Air Flight 610 went down and what’s changed.
  • Why airlines outsource critical maintenance overseas.
  • What happens when a plane depressurizes at 35,000 ft?
  • Are pilots being pushed to the breaking point?
  • True/False: Water and ice on an airplane are safe to drink?
  • Is it possible to be sucked out a broken window?
  • “Sully” Sullenberger’s genius!
  • Jason’s favorite Seinfeld plane episode.
  • GoogleHEIM: How far can a commercial airline glide without engines?

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FOLLOW RICHARD QUEST:

X @RichardQuest

Quest Means Business, airs weekdays at 3pm ET / 12pm PT on CNN International

Pick up Richard’s book: 'The Vanishing of Flight MH370: The True Story of the Hunt for the Missing Malaysian Plane'

***

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Really Now, Really, really.

Now, really Hello, and welcome to Really No Really with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who remind you that once you subscribe to our show, the sky's the limit and the sky is where we're heading today, because this episode attempts to answer the question are airlines actually putting dangerous planes into the sky. Recently, a Boeing seven thirty seven Max made an emergency landing after a door plug blew out at sixteen thousand feet, blessing a massive hole in the fuselage, and though no one was killed or injured, a startled teenager had his shirt literally sucked right off his back from the sudden pressure change. Really No, Really, twenty twenty four may well be a nightmarish year for air travel, as there are major shortages of air traffic controllers, pilots.

And planes.

To enlighten us, Jason and Peter invited CNN's always entertaining aviation expert and correspondent to Richard Quest to explain why Boeing aircraft are having so many issues where the actual safest seat on a plane is located pilot statistics you really hope aren't true and if it's okay, to drink the water or ice on a plane. So fasten your seat belts. This one could be bumpy. Here's Jason and Peter.

All right, so here we are. We're back.

So you know, we had an option today we could have flown to each other's locations. But how dangerous would that be? That's really the question of the day, right, we're talking about that.

While we were recording, we had a sound effect that'said forced segue.

Well, we can put that up, we can, we can?

You know, no, actually, you know, you and I've been doing the fair amount of traveling lately, and because of that, I guess we're bumping into more and more stories that at least catch our eye about.

What the hell's going on on in aviation.

And we saw a story where both of us kind of stopped in our train.

Wait wait, wait, everybody saw this watching stories come on, Bolts falling off, doors, doors popping open all.

The one that got me that an Alaska Airlines flight and on a seven thirty seven Max nine. Seven thirty seven Max nine is that sixteen thousand feet or so, And apparently what they do is they refit this aeroplane so that which was a doorway they took the doorway off and put in what they're calling a plug. Now, the only plugs I know going to outlets and bathtub drains and they come out really easy.

And also into hair into into bold heads, right, and they sometimes work, sometimes they don't take And this plug on this seven forty seven, seven thirty seven, sorry, Max nine at sixteen thousand feet decided to give it up.

It just kind of popped out.

See you later.

And I believe while no one was hurt or killed, thank god. I love this line. It sucked the shirt off of a nine year old boy, just took the shirt.

Right off his body. And I'm going, was it an over the head? Was it a button up?

What? And you know what's amazing? The next time that kid has to fly with his mother, how does she say, nothing's gonna happen because the kid's gonna go and you can bleep this.

Yeah.

So producer David reminded me of this documentary about Boeing and the Max airplane and how it came about and what it is. And we're going to talk about that a little bit with our guests. Who excites you because you love Richard Quest, who was the CNN aeron Onyx corresponding.

Now, can I just say I don't think I stand alone in this right I Richard quest The man could be talking about ice melting somewhere, but the enthusiasm and a passion, the excitement makes me go, I should be caring about this. This is important stuff. There's something about him that I just find.

So, So today's question that we're gonna get to and then we will decide if we got an answer, is yeah, are they putting unsaved planes in the sky? And I've got some stuff to tell you to start this that airlines some secrets. Airlines may not tell you.

By the very nature of a secret, Why would they tell me that's there?

You go? Okay, So we're gonna we're gonna do this.

Go ahead, captain, We've done.

Oh my gosh, here we go. They're stingy when it comes to fuel because it saves money keeping low levels of fuel. So if you hit an unspected weather delay, yeah, or something happens there's rough weather, they gotta go down. They gotta land because they're running out of gas. They didn't anticipate another twenty five minutes in the air. So it's like we got to put it down.

That begs the question how long can they glide?

You know what? Right that down? For Richard. I'm curious if there is how long?

Because there I know on smaller planes the engine they do it whole thing with the engine. They turn the engine off, and then you gotta fly it while it's gliding and deal with it.

Well, it's playing.

But if the plane weighs seventeen tons, does it also glide?

We'll find as ask Richard, I will ask her this is my favorite, and you'll hit the really really bell if you had it there.

I don't have sound, David, don't hit it later.

There is a do not pair list? Do you know that pilots and co pilots fill out a list of people they don't want to fly with because they don't want insanity and two adversaries flying in the cockpit constantly, So you put down on your list you don't want to fly with everything pun who they don't want to fly with.

That's very interesting.

I wonder if I could get that in my uh in one of my clauses in my contract's hair.

Do not pay Yeah, fascinating because you don't want two guys who hate each other's guts because.

It's absolutely I like it. I actually I think that's pretty good.

Safest sea, you know, safe, see I I have been told the safest seats are over the wings, so that sort of like the front seat that's still over the wing is the most stable, and in the event of a inopportune landing, that that section of the plane is the most likely to stay intact.

You know what, you just did it, David. If you can mark that down, I think we submit that to the I mean to the airlines. An inopportune landing. Hello, everybody, please put your your head between your legs. We're gonna have an inopportune land stop. Inopportune landing is such a nice way to put it. So here's the deal. They studied in the analysis of seventeen plane crashes over the last thirty five years. They found the back of the plane out of sixty eight percent average chance of survival compared with sixty one in the middle, sixty two in the front, and and the middle seats, especially near the rear of the plane, are absolute safest. I guess I hate to say this, because your two companions are acting as padding and package packaging. You're keeping you Here's the one and I'm sure you're going to want to bring this up with our guests. Do you know where most airplane repairs are? A lot of the airplane reshll you.

Tell me, so I'm going to play stupid.

Where be there? So the answer for those listening they really not really is Costa Rica, China, Ethiopia, Argentina, Kenya, Al Salvador, Indonesia among the countries the mechanics who deconstruct and reassemble planes. This is where they take take them apart and put them back together, and overwhelming are not certified by the FAA. And the majority also don't speak fluent English, which wouldn't normally be a problem except all the technical manuals for airlines are written in Airplanes and wiring stuff are written in English, as are all flightingpials, so they don't have Wait, they also don't have inspect but they don't have supposedly they don't have enough FAA inspectors over there whatever, so they're outsourcing to other countries. Yeah, and it's increasing. We got to ask Richard about that.

I got to push back on you with the manual because my Dustbuster came with a manual that's in seven languages.

I find it.

Hard to believe that a bone seven didn't come with it with more than one language. Who's the pilot that when they land the plane and they go, yeah, this baby needs a check up. Hey, Phil, fly it over to Ethiopia. We got to check this fuck. Yeah, that's a fun flight. That love being the captain of that flight. It's probably okay, but just get it over to Ethiopia. So clearly you and I have a lot that we don't know and have experienced in the wonderful world of aviation. And you went and got us a gentleman who really is well versed in an expert in many many areas. But Richard Quest is among his many other credits credits, he is. He's basically the airline and aviation correspondent at CNN. He's covered a number of breaking aviation stories like like the downing of the Malasia Airlines flight in the Ukraine and the Virgin Galactic Spaceship two crash and the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight. He wrote a book about that called The Vanishing of Flight MH three seventy, The True Story of the Hunt for the Missing Malaysian Plane so I find him fascinating, as I know you do too. He began his career and still has a huge career as a business correspondent. I actually adore his travel show on San So let's welcome mister Richard Quest.

Welcome to really no relation.

Thank you, gentlemen. I'm Julia.

I don't know how or why he found time for this. I don't understand it, but I couldn't be happier.

Yeah, So Richard, first of all, airline, because you are the guy you've interviewed all the CEOs. What are you that fascinated with flying? Is it something that you love so much? I know that you've probably come back and forth at least once or twice month.

This week, I've done. Over the last couple of weeks, I've done Mexico to buy Doha, Sydney, and then I got back into New York yesterday, a grave risk of ruining. Just sort of just bear with me a minute. So can you see the planes?

Oh we do yet?

Tabletop that there are plane souvenirs all round my office and whenever.

And the reason is simple that I can give you a.

Practical reason why, Because they are vast economic engines. You don't have one person answering the phone. You have hundreds of call.

Centers that plane.

Think about it.

Let me just take one, let me take a Let's just do it. Now. You think about that corn aircraft.

It's got to get the right crew with the right passengers and the right luggage and the right meals in the right place for the right slot at the right time.

And you've got to do it hundreds of times a day.

And if you're talking about they say Unite or a Delta, thousands of times a day.

And I was just.

Looking only yesterday because I really am that sad at the number of passengers that United flew in to twenty twenty three.

You're talking about over one hundred and sixty million.

And if you look at Ryanair in Europe, one hundred and eighty million odd passengers. I mean, they are so these these machines. Besides being beautiful, they fly.

I mean just look, Oh, if you're not watching on YouTube, Richard richardid just created a beautiful flight, a beautiful parabola.

These things are magic. They fly.

They are vast economic engines in their own right. They are geopolitical. One other industry gets affected by war volcanoes, economic growth, and pandemics in manifestations, and the aircraft industry or the aviation the airline industry simply touches every tentacle of the global economy, and that I find fascinating.

But the question today, I guess to get right to it and I'll let you get everybody listening up to speed. So there's incidents that keep happening, bolts falling off, et cetera, and problems. We have one one executor who said he won't fly. He actually got off the Max seven would have seven thirty seven Yeah, Max, because because he said, it's just they should be grounded based on this software program that they didn't allegedly or maybe they proved it didn't tell the pilots about. So we watched the documentary. We've seen what happened with the merger of the two airlines McDonald Douglas and Boeing, which was the gold center. I guess, but can you get people up to speaking?

Of course, said the seven three seven the Max. The decision to create the Max they had a choice bout they were falling dangerously behind Airbus, which had the eight three to twenty family of planes, A three twenty with the Neo, which is the new engine option, which is basically the engine was giving about fifteen to twenty percent better fuel efficiency, and it was going to cost too much money for Boeing to redesign the seven three seven from scratch. This is a plane, by the way, going back to the nineteen sixties. So they did what they always did. They bolted bits on, they changed things around, they extended it, they did this, that and the other. But what they did was unconscionable because they added a piece of software that was perfectly legitimate. Absolutely. In fact, Airbus has always had this software. It basically means that the plane can't crash. It basically means that if a situation happens, the aircraft will.

Do something in its own right to.

Prevent you from stalling and crashing and bowing and always got haha.

Will never put that on our planes.

We will never have to lord, no law, We'll never do it because we believe at Boeing the pilot in charge. We believe that Boeing that if you know, sorry, I think all excited at the prospect of this.

We believe at Boeing.

You know the famous saying, if it ain't a bowing eye, ain't going well.

Guess what?

With the seven three seven, they redesigned the plane in such a way that the engines were further forward and were higher up, and were more powerful, and there was a real risk that the plane could stall. Exactly what they did was sow. They put into place this little bit of software called encast maneuvering something something something. But what this bit of software did was say, in a certain situation, if certain circumstances happen, we will.

Fly the plane regardless, all right.

So with both the Ethiopian and the other one, that was what happened was in both of these cases, in both crashes that the pilots or the first crash they didn't know. The first crash they didn't even know this thing existed, and the second crash they knew it existed, and they did realize it was this situation, and they did it, and they still crashed. And the reason was you had ten seconds. You had ten seconds to do it before it was irrecoverable.

When all was said and done and the changes were.

Made, and we saw what they did to m Cass.

Do you know what they did?

They made m Cass, They followed their own creed. They made it so it was never too powerful for a pilot to overwhelm. They made it so that it wouldn't do it far again and again and again, so that pilot could take back control. They added redundancy to when it would kick in. Instead of just having one sensor, they added two sensors, and they made sure pilots knew about.

It and how to counteract it.

Now, those sound really simple, but those things were the creed of Boeing going back to when they air to when they started making planes, and it was the creed that they had forgotten.

And we know the reasons why.

Because they didn't want pilots to have to retrain on the seven thy seven Max, because they'd committed to airlines that no retraining would be necessary.

So if I'm on a seven three seven Max tomorrow, am I reasonably assured that the pilots have the training and they know how to deal with the system.

I was on one last week. And what a magnificent aircraft it is. It is beautiful, it flies comfortably, it's got tremendous power.

M CASS is still there.

But MCASS has been now put into its proper box so the pilots know about it. The pilots have been trained on it. And even if, even if if mcass fires wrongly, mcass was pushing the nose down. It was such a force that the pilots physically couldn't pull it back. Now it can't do that, It can only push it down a bit. The pilots can pull it back up. If it goes wrong, it'll do it again. The pilots can pull it back. After three goes, mcass switches off. M cass can no longer be the runaway frankenstyle that it was. Pilots are back in control. The seven three seven. Boeing built a beautiful plane, and if my anger with them is anything is that they root it up for themselves by not telling the pilots and telling people, and of course by lying to regulators.

In the opening, Jason and I were talking about things that you may not know about airlines, and that they outsource repair to countries. I don't know how much, but it seems like they're doing it more and more to save money. Where the first language is not necessarily English, and all the manuals are English, all the services English, and they may not even be FAA regulated because they don't have the people there to actually oversee the work. Is that still happening, Richard? Is that growing? Is that? Is that diminishing?

I'm going to stop you there.

And they may not even be FAA regulated because they don't have the people there to actually oversee the work. Is that still happening, Richard? Is that growing? Is that? Is that diminishing?

I'm going to stop you there. It's an absolute load of old bollocks.

Oh good, No, No, of course.

There aren't sourcing.

Of course they aren't sourcing to places where it can be done more efficiently, where it can be done cheaper. But your question doesn't go to that. Your question goes to standards of the.

Repair, right and right?

What Western arrogance that says, oh, no, we can't send it to those countries because they may not be able to understand how to repair.

Absolute bollocks.

No, the United sends its planes off, Delta sends its planes off. You send your planes off to where the repair can be done in the most cost effective, efficient and safe way. Now, can that always be done in home in the United States?

In the EU?

No, because cost of labor is higher. Your next question Jason is ah, but how can we be sure that if it goes to Malaysia comar on. The answer is you have to put in place in these places proper protections, proper safety regulations, and these places have to be certified to do the repairs at the same standard. But this idea that somehow a plane can't fly to Singapore to be repaired.

No, Actually, my next question was going to be doesn't it disturb you that Peter would just be so dismissive.

Of you know, no, no, I can hear. We all heard, we heard.

The tone and.

Chooses to outsource it's and it tends to be the heavy maintenance, the big stuff.

You know it's going to take.

A month where they choose to outsource heavy maintenance. Then, yes, the regulator does have a duty to make sure it's being done to but.

But don't make that.

Against the sheer arrogance.

I had an obligation to end.

If I had a bell, I'd be ringing a shame ship. I'd walk you naked through a crowd. There it is, there, it is by.

Tomorrow, will be on seeing it. He'll bet an Ethiopian factory. It was charged with sixty yard plans has cut again.

And now and now trying to assimilate an accident that you are not qualified to do.

The fuselage on the seven three seven Max was built by Spirit, It was transported across to Bowing's factory. It was assembled in Bowing's factory. The door was removed, the door was put on, the bolts were left off, and the rest is history.

So yeah, I mean, and a little boy's shirt was lost. No, that's that.

That's what happened, Jason. That shirt wasn't lost.

That shirt was was dragged off by wind.

Can you imagine?

I know we know this.

From either way.

I don't want to get really unpleasant about this, but we know this from plane crashes which have depressurized a height that often the bodies are naked.

God forbid. And it's because.

If if.

The seat belt sign had been switched off and the plane had been higher, and people had been able to walk around the aircraft, we would have lost people.

We would have had a cad So, Richard, so.

You have reassured me that the planes are now sound, the maintenance is now sound, so and the pilots are in control, which now begs the other thing that Peter and I have been listening to in the articles that we've read, that there seems to be an increase or a preponderance of pilots being asked to work truly stressful hours, stressful situations, that mental health among pilots, poor mental health or mental health that it requires some sort of attention, has increased, and that there is really no system in place to assess, that there is not an environment in which it is encouraged for them to come forward with any of their own concerns, and so that the real possibility of pilots who are struggling are up in the air. What's the take on that?

It's a really, really tricky one. Listen, Okay, it goes like this. There are an entire raft of rules. You've got the regulator first of all, with an entire raft of rules that you have to follow in terms of mental health, physical health, et cetera, et cetera. The FAI which pilot wants to go to the company and says, actually, I'm having a few, you know, mental difficulties. I might need six weeks off to go and do it, but I'll be fine afterwards. Oh you're going to put him back in the you know, any form of substance or alcohol abuse. It's very difficult for pilots to come forward, admit the problem, deal with it, and easily get.

Back in the air. It's possible, right, it is possible, but it's not easy. My point is.

We vest these men and women at the front with tremendous authority and power, but I sometimes question whether we give them the mental and physical health and space necessary so that they can also be human beings.

Yeah, this is why my mother and Peter knows this well. Back in the days when she was a flyer, a very nervous flyer. Those were in the days where the cockpit door was open to the captain oft and greeted the passengers as they boarded the plane, and my mother would stop and have a conversation about how's your family, Everything good with the wife, You're good? Any any physical mental problems coming out? Because she would interrogate him, so she was comfortable that this man was qualified to fly her, you know, the thirty minutes she had to get me.

Sometimes you do look at them. Sometimes you look at Captain Donut going into the cockpit and you're thinking, yeah, you're you're currently waiting to happen.

Yeah, jeez, so let me let me switch to this. So now let's go into the cabin. Maybe I'm just aware of it because those stories break through. But there seems to be a greater preponderance of passenger outbreaks or passenger rage in the air.

And I understand we live.

In stressful times, and so there may be more people flying with mental health issues and whatnot. And then but there also seems to be no you know, everybody's got a system. If this happens, you do this. If this happens, you do this. But there doesn't seem to be a quantified protocol for when somebody loses it up in the air.

Am I right?

Two times of losing it.

There's losing it because of the mentally disturbed or the challenge. There's losing it because we are now seeing just simple rudeness, right, rudeness. This A lot of what you're talking about can be put down to courtesy. This is this is this is what your mother taught you to behave with courtesy.

And I flew back yesterday.

From I went Sydney to Doha, Doha to charge Dubai to New York and it's a fifteen hour flight from Dubai to New York. But everybody was very respectful. I'm Terribus, of course, I'm British, so if you if you step on my foot, I will apologize to you. Of course, yes, it just requires a bit of courtesy.

All right, So I'm going to now let's let's do the fast ones, Pete. You ready, safest place to sit on the plane average on.

Average, statistically safest places to the back and facing backwards, facing forwards. It makes no difference the reality. The reality is if you go into a mountain, it won't matter.

Never drink the unbottled water on an airplane, not even if it's coffee or tea, live or not. I am told that they are kept in these tanks that are never really routinely sanitized or cleaned. Bollocks. I love that because I'm drinking a lot of flicking tea for people who are are still wearing masks on the plane. Is it true that the the interior atmosphere has recirculated something like every seven to ten.

Or four minutes three minutes?

Uh?

True or false?

If a if a typical airline window were compromised at thirty thousand feet, let's say blown out and I'm standing nearby. I'm not buckled in. Am I really going out that window?

Is there?

Is there a theoretical risk if you're sitting next to it that you will be sucked out the window? Yes, if the plane is at thirty is at full pressurization. Yes, it has happened as somebody who has been pushed and squeezed out of the window.

But I'm looking at you, gentlemen, I think that m right.

It would have to be forty.

We're I'll give you another quick myth, good myth?

Can you open the emergency exit in flight?

No?

What happens if my phone is not an airplane mode on takeoff and learning?

Is it truly a dangerous bullets?

No, of course it's not.

What will happen, god blow?

What will happen if your phone is not on an airplane mode? Is it will literally search for a signal for the whole flight, and when you get there, it will be dead.

Sully Sullenburger, Jason and I go, Praisin. The man landed a plane. No one died on water. Never been done before.

Or could anybody? Is any pilot trained to do this? Theoretically? Yes?

Absolutely, absolutely, they're all trained to land on water completely. Solemburger's genius bearing back. First of all, he was a training captain. Secondly, he was a specialtiest specialist in safety, so he thought about all these things.

It's not like he was your average pilot.

He was a training safety person who actually was a consultant on safety, so he knew all about this.

His genius genius was not doing the landing.

His genius was deciding to do the landing because is he's been.

Told that Teterborough's there?

Could I get back to La Guardia there, there's Westchester there?

What do I know?

He says, no, I'm not going to make it, but there's a perfectly straight stretch in which I can prepare myself to land. And by the way, if you look at the report, you know the reporter obviously has to go into the in depth of it. If you look at the Airbus report, there was about four or five things they did not do. According to Airbus, they didn't lock off this particular water tight compartment, they didn't close that, none of which was totally significant. But you have to dottize and cross teas. They didn't do this, do that. But what he did do was prepare the aircraft and himself mentally for what he was about to do, which was an on water landing. Now this wasn't an on water landing, by the way, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in darkness, in the middle of the night. This was in as near perfect conditions on a smoothiece of water, not taking anything away from him to do it. But his genius was to basically was committing to it and saying, I'm going to do it.

May well, thank you, thank you for thank you for being on a treat.

Thank you.

Well, there you go.

We actually this is one of the few times that we actually set out to get the answer to a question and cleanly got it. I feel better now about I would get on a seven thirty seven max.

He told me. I'm good.

He told me where to sit. He told me, I am not likely to get sucked out the window. I can drink the water, and I and I can go. Took us first across the person next to me, as long as I say, I beg your pardon.

It is funny, though, when you have an expert on and you're asking questions about on the plane. Yeah, I'm sitting with the girl I'm the grotesque populos for ninety nine percent of the right. Right when your business class, you're going, No, it's not, it's better than it's been. Yeah, you got your own bedroom. If the people in the back knew how you were living, they'd be even right.

As we said on Seinfeld, my one of my favorite life was Jerry. We did an episode where Jerry was booked in first class and Elene is in coach and she goes up to talk to him and she's barred and they draw the curtains, right, and she gets upset and she turns to the economy crowd and she goes, you.

Know, they're getting cookies up here, and that's why they have the curtain. Yeah, you right, when you can't put your seat back.

Well, all right, very good. This is what we've accomplished.

The skies are safe, ladies and gentlemen if you make them so.

And by the way, we should have known that from the number the number when he gave the number of people fine, it is staggering. How many successes.

And you know what, seriously, in our research it did say I was looking at the numbers of fatalities and crashes over the last.

Year down every year, down every year.

They're doing an amazing job keeping all of us relatively safe up there and getting us where we're trying to get.

Also, not good for pr when things fall out of the air, when that's your business.

So no, no.

Google time, What do we got? What didn't we cover? What did you say that was wrong?

One thing that you guys actually did bring up Peter had suggested asking Richard about is how long can a plane glide?

Oh damn, yeah, like a commercial plane? Right, yes, so I have the answer to that now. Obviously it depends on the type.

Of aircraft, how heavy it is, how much gas you know, But assuming that you're cruising at thirty three thirty six thousand.

Feet in a regular size plane, a regular.

Size plane lose all of your engines, you could go anywhere from sixty to one hundred miles before hitting the ground, which will be about twenty to thirty minutes.

That's a long time to go, oh boy, this isn't good.

Accept that.

That gives the pilot, it gives me time to try and fix it and.

Talk down Yeah wow, yeah right.

I always used to say to my I had a family member who was a commercial pilot, and I always used to say, because I also have a fairy fights, I feel better the closer we get to the ground.

He goes, you shouldn't. He goes.

If something goes wrong at one thousand feet, I got no time to fix it. At thirty thousand feet, I can think about it for a while.

So yeah, so google him any last words.

The only thing I will say is that, according to Airline Ratings dot Com, if you're looking for the most safe airline in the world, it wants honest almost Air.

New Zealand.

Was was beaten by by just a hair So there you go.

Well back when they made what was that? What was the movie with Hoffman and uh and Tom Cruise where Hoffman plays the autistic brother rain Man.

That was what they think quantas quantas safe?

Remember that Qantas?

Really things have changed.

Yeah, Remember he didn't want to fly and and Cruise says to him, is there, what's the safest airline?

What's the Raymond? What's the same want?

Wow? So they've had a record since rain Man.

That's oppressive. All right, I'm out of here. I got to get out of flight. Goodbye, That's all I know. David. Good to see you.

Thank you, Producer, Laurie, thank you very much, and Richard Richard, it was what a great call Jayson, right character.

I want to go through one minute of my life the way he goes through every day of his It's just.

Can you and man who comes home and mashed potatoes, potatoes we're having man is dancing and it's unbelievable. Got to live his life like like somebody who's at Yeah, every minute he is a seven.

Thirty seven Max.

I'll tell you that, right, Yes, I want to joy, Thank you, Thank you everybody.

Now, Really as another episode of really no really, he comes to it closed. I know you're wondering, what are some of the most bizarre things people have done during a commercial airline flight. Well, I've got a doozy of an answer for you in a moment, but first let's thank our guest, Richard Quest. His daily program Quest Means Business Airs on CNN International Mondays through Fridays. You can find his fascinating investigation into a mysterious flight in his book The Vanishing of Flight m H three seventy, the true story of the hunt for the missing Malaysian plane, and you can follow him on x where he is at Richard Quest. Our little show hangs out on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and threads at really No Really podcast and of course you can share your thoughts and feedback with us online at reallynoreli dot com. If you have a really some amazing factor story that boggles your mind, share it with us and if we use it, we will send you a little gift. Nothing life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts. Check out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and tick that bell so you're updated when we release new videos and episodes, which we do each Tuesday. So listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And Now, what are some of the weirdest incidents ever to occur on commercial airline flights?

Well, here are a few documented.

Once, a man on a Southwest Airlines flight attempted to air drop nude photos of himself to other passengers on the plane. As a result, Apple now recommends turning off the air drop feature during flights. Authorities dragged a very drunken pilot off a Jet Blue flight. When questioned, the pilot said he'd had ten twenty two ounce tall Boy beers. The night before, his blood alcohol was four times the fit, which begs the question why does the FAA have an alcohol limit that is not zero. In February twenty twenty two, life imitated art when an actual Burmese python was found slithering freely among the light fixtures of a Malaysian airline's flight. Where's Samuel L. Jackson when you need him? And lastly, in August twenty ten, a fed up flight attendant on a Jet Blue flight called it quits with a flourish after being hit by an unruly passenger as the plane was taxing to its gate. The stewart smacked the passenger with a coffee pot, grabbed the intercom, and cussed out the entire cabin, then grabbed a bottle of veer, deployed the emergency exit chute, and slid off the plane. Fun fact, that's the only time that one of those shoots has ever been used by a real human being. Really No, really is production of iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment

Really? no, Really?

Every Tuesday best friends Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden are joined by experts, newsmakers and ce 
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