If you are a frequent traveler, the familiar sounds of being on an airplane can ramp up anticipation for the trip ahead, lull you into a nap for your long flight, or simply be so familiar that you tune them out completely. Those sounds and phrases that you've heard dozens of times have meanings, however, and learning about what flight attendant phrases mean can make you look at your flight in a new way. For instance, you may have heard flight attendants announce "cross-check" over the intercom or state
that cross-check is complete. But do you actually know what it means?
To find out, Islands spoke to Barbi, a journalist and veteran fight attendant. She told us that a cross-check is a standard safety check that flight attendants do on every flight to ensure that the doors of the plane are armed. That means that if there is an emergency and someone has to open the doors unexpectedly, the evacuation slide will inflate automatically. She explained, "We arm our doors, the one next to our jumpseat and maybe across the galley or cabin. Once it's armed we do a second check to confirm that yes, indeed the doors are armed and ready for the aircraft to push off of the gate."
Read more: The Four Unspoken Rules For The Airplane's Empty Middle Seats
Cross-Check Doesn't Mean That Anything Is Wrong With The Plane Doors
When you see a flight attendant checking the doors, you might feel your anxiety spike and wonder stuff like what you're supposed to do if the airplane door comes flying off during your flight. Try not to let cross-check make you nervous, though. This is a routine procedure that happens before take-off and landing, no matter what, and definitely isn't an indicator that something out of the ordinary is going on. In fact, not only is it a good idea for flight attendants to check that everything is functioning correctly with the emergency evacuation slides, but it's also a hard and fast requirement. Both airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration mandate that cabin crew check all emergency equipment as soon as they board. Your flight attendants are just doing their job and double-checking that everything is ready to go in the extremely unlikely event that there is an emergency.
To settle your nerves even further, you should know that it's called "cross-check," not just "check," because it's the second confirmation. That means that by the time the flight attendants announce a cross-check, all the doors have already been inspected and armed. When flight attendants say "cross-check complete," they are saying they've now made sure the plane doors are ready for an emergency twice, so you can relax and enjoy your flight, confident in the knowledge that the emergency slide would be there for you if you needed it. Barbi assured Islands in an exclusive interview, "It's also the last link in a safety chain that starts the moment we board the aircraft. When you hear 'cross-check complete,' we're telling the flight deck -- each other -- and ourselves -- that we're ready to keep you safe."
Is There Anything Passengers Can Do To Help With Cross-Check?
For flight attendants, cross-checks are no big deal. They do this routine check on every single flight, so for experienced flight attendants like Barbi, cross-checks are second nature. Just like you can keep things running smooth by making sure that flight attendants can see your seat belt is buckled, now that you know about cross-check, there are a couple things that you can avoid doing so that you don't make their jobs any harder. Barbi told Islands in an interview that the most helpful thing you can do is "please keep your feet out of the way."
It's also important to not distract the flight attendants during this important safety check. "Unless it's a serious emergency, please don't interrupt or try to engage the flight attendant while they are doing this procedure and make sure all of your bags are stowed all the way under the seat in front of you," Barbi said. While you shouldn't bother the flight attendants during cross-check, Barbi suggested that passengers in the exit row, who are most likely to see them doing cross-check, should pay attention. "This is when we're doing our final mental check that you're someone we can count on in an emergency," Barbi said, "so please look alert and available, not buried in your phone."
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Read the original article on Islands.
