United Airlines has become the second major US airline in only a matter of a few months to express alarm at flight attendants leaving passengers on empty planes after everyone else has deplaned, either because they are sleeping in their seats or hiding in a lavatory.
The Chicago-based carrier is currently working with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), which represents crew members at the airline, in a bid to get to the bottom of what ‘human factors’ could be behind this worrying trend.
The issue first came to light in January when American Airlines revealed there had been a noticeable uptick in the number of sleeping passengers that were accidentally being left on empty planes as flight attendants deplaned to go home.
Within the aviation industry, leaving passengers on a crew without any flight attendants present is known as a ‘minimum crew violation’ because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prohibits passengers from being onboard a plane unless there are a set number of flight attendants.
The reason ‘minimum crew violations’ are taken so seriously is that flight attendants must be present just in case an emergency situation suddenly arises.
Of course, there is also the obvious security risk that is posed by leaving a passenger onboard an aircraft without any pilots or flight attendants. The crew union at United described it as one of the “greatest risks” facing airliner safety.
“Even the simplest distraction or loss of focus due to external factors can result in us missing a passenger asleep in their seat or one in the lavatory,” the union warned its members in a recent internal memo.
While the union acknowledges that it is the collective responsibility of flight attendants to ensure they have thoroughly checked the cabin before they deplane, it has also criticized United’s cabin cleaning process.
“One concern we have continued to bring forward is the presence of cabin cleaners onboard and throughout the aircraft at a time when Flight Attendants are trying to conduct the sweep,” the memo continued.
“It has become more routine for cleaners to board the aircraft during passenger deplaning, potentially obstructing our view or creating an inadvertent distraction.”
A similar memo from the flight attendant at American Airlines warned crew members that in the majority of cases, lone passengers who are snuggled up and sleeping in a window seat or using the airplane restroom during deplaning are most likely to be missed.
It’s not just the United States where this is a problem, however.
In 2019, an Air Canada passenger made international headlines when she woke up alone and still strapped into her seat in a dark and freezing cold airplane that had been parked up for the night in Toronto following a flight from Quebec.
Tiffani Adams says she managed to call a friend, but her cellphone ran out of battery after about a minute, and she could not recharge it because all the power was on the plane.
With access to all areas of the plane, Tiffani went on the hunt for something to help attract attention and get help. She found a flashlight in the cockpit, which she shone through the windscreen, flashing an SOS signal to attract attention.
When that didn’t work, however, Tiffani opened one of the plane’s doors but quickly realized that the jump to the ground would be too far, and the plane was parked far away from the terminal building.
Thankfully, a baggage cart driver noticed Tiffani with her legs “literally dangling down” from the plane door and managed to orchestrate her rescue.
Matt’s Take : Time Pressures Likely Contribute To These Incidents
The Association of Flight Attendants has expressed concern about cabin cleaners distracting crew members during their cabin check prior to deplaning, but it’s unlikely that this is going to change.
Airlines are under enormous pressure to get planes turned around and back in the air as quickly as possible, and that means several jobs have to take place all at once – just like below wing.
As a flight attendant, there is, of course, one advantage to being forced to work around a team of cleaners – you aren’t the one cleaning the plane.
My guess is flight attendants are so anxious to be done for the day that they feel just a quick glance is good enough to see if there are any passengers left on board and they are missing people in the process.
Flight attendants don’t get paid until the door closes. They stop getting paid when the door opens.
Sounds like they need a better Union. Also, sounds like they don’t appreciate having such a great job which requires little or no formal education.
Such a great job where sometimes people are disrespectful and can’t follow simple rules. Yes, it may not require formal education to get started but there’s more to being a flight attendant then just smiling and putting up with bs
How rude of you to say that! Flight attendant have to go through a rigorous training process and they probably do love their job, but they shouldn’t have to put with adults that act like preschool children!
How many years does it take to become a waitress on a plane?
Flight attendants go through a hell of a school to be one. The highjacker training and emergency training causes many to fail. And the hours are unreal on back to back flights.
I’ve flown all over the world, many times and have no complaints. And many flight personnel have had my back while I was as sleep on 16 hour trips. Stopped thieves too.
Sounds like you’re the ignorant one. Look up the process to become a flight attendant, then get back with me so I can help explain it to you in …simpler terms
Are the flight attendants paid to be there after the plane has landed and the door is opened? I believe not. So why should they stick around, when they have another flight to catch? United and other airlines need to realize that the “human factors” aspect of this is that they don’t pay their crews to do this. They just expect them to do it for free.
Just what I thought. Our jobs do expect us to do work for them for free.
An absurd and totally unacceptable answer. However, not surprising considering the selfishness, incompetence, and lack of integrity in society today.
I am reminded that when airline CEO’s went to Obama’s White House, hats in hand, to ask for bailouts, they made the trips on private jets costing $10K/hr to run. Only in America can a company be ‘bankrupt’ and unable to pay workers properly, while at the same time able to net millions in PROFIT. But flight attendants and other hourly wage (to say nothing of salaried) workers are maneuvered into uncompensated overtime as a strategy to extract further PROFIT. And you’re ok with that. The shame is on you.
I also remember the CEO of United airlines making new hire by DEI recommendations. He especially points out using them for pilots. Under no circumstances do I want to fly on an airplane flown by someone who is not the best person at the time of the hire. Sexual orientation , skin color or ethnic background doesn’t bother me, if they’re the best. To hire someone just to check a DEI box don’t cut it
So true. As a former aircraft cleaner we sometime would help a passenger off the plane like a m on with kids in tower. Just to get then off so we could clean the plane faster for a turn around.
The lack of morality is appalling
Totally agree. As a pilot and Flight Instructor I did many many countless unpaid hours of non-flying duties because things had to be done and because I care about my profession.
Funny “Truth B. Known” – I find your response absurd and antiquated. People should not be expected to perform work without compensation. There is a difference between lending a hand when needed and continuously being expected to doing a job without compensation. The selfishness and lack of integrity is with the employer who makes millions of dollars sitting by a desk or playing golf, while denying fair wages, and with those that think is ok to perpetuate the abuse.
Absolutely!! I need to add that some flight attendants take there ‘power to a whole new level!! Lazy or a power trip and make people deplane because of a mask mandate or something else embarrassing and completely unnecessary …sign me up! I love that I feel liked I have stepped through the looking glass at a world gone mad !!! God help us. And remember you can only control yourself….to think otherwise.
SPOT ON.
Seems to me that the flight attendants by not doing such safety important duties, should be back to “AIR HOSTESSES” serving tea and coffee and peanuts.
Their main job is cabin SAFETY. Otherwise go and sell cosmetics..
“
Sounds to me like you should VOLUNTEER your time with your employer for a year. Once that door opens the flight attendants are on THEIR TIME, the paycheck STOPS when the passengers are free to leave. The CEOs and the unions want them to work uncompensated.
Get bent.
I couldn’t agree more. The shameful lesson here is that workers don’t matter, profits supersede all other factors. This likely will not change or improve. It’s the “low paid” who are expected to pick up the slack for the “upper class”.
I recently had a flight that I requested wheelchair assistance. The United flight staff waited with me for my wheelchair to arrive. The wait was over 30 minutes after all passengers had departed the plane. One of the attendants left to try and find me a wheelchair. They were so patient and courteous, apologizing for my wait. To know that they were not compensated is terrible.
You are clueless and really shouldn’t comment.
How thoughtless to leave your passengers in a plane sleeping or using the restroom, the human factor is doing your job and taking care of your passengers from loading until unloading. School bus drivers are also responsible for the same care of their passengers.
Bus drivers, however, ARE compensated for their time during the loading/unloading of passengers. Flight attendants, unfortunately are not. They are expected to be their on a volunteer basis, which really is not fair to them. Once they are off the clock, they should be free to leave since they are no longer getting paid, just like at any other job. Teaching and flight attending are both professions that expect you to work lots of hours that are unpaid. For many teachers it’s even worse because they can’t just leave their work at work. They have to take work home with them. There’s the work before work in order to prepare for work, the work during work, AND the work after work.
That would be the problem time can not be doubled you have to set a time for everything to be done and never expect volunteer work in the paid workplace. L
I’m glad that wasn’t me, I suffer from panic attacks inside an airplane specially when the plane is not moving, any employees like flight attendant should haven’t fired immediately, if it was me , no choice, just break a window or something else for attention. Please , CEO, you have to retrainee all employees, before departure you guys count how many customers, why they don’t do the same thing after.
Do you have any ideas how difficult it is to break one of those windows? There is NO excuse for this. It is part of their job to make sure the aircraft is secure. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one of the aft seated attendants should walk up the aisle and check EVERY seat. I was an Air Force crewmember for 14 years and this would have been unheard of. It’s their job, DO IT.
This should be the apoeal: Please, CEO, compensate all your employees for all the time that they work. Do not expect your employees to work during time that is unpaid. That is cruel and unfair to them.
I think United needs to focus on why they are so ridiculously overpriced for airfare!
Why just single-out United? What airline is not ridiculously overpriced? And while we’re at it, ridiculously random and inconsistent. Nearly everyone on a typical flight is paying a different price for their seat; often, the differences are dramatic. This is true without factoring rewards and credits.
Airlines’ pricing across the board is ridiculous.
Sorry but compared to what flight tickets used to cost, it is a bargain. Flying before the late ’50s used to be for the very wealthy only. With the larger jets and competitive fares, flying is now available to most everyone.
Amén!
Amen to that!!!!!
Two things:
First, the multiple writing errors (misplaced words) in this article are annoying and frustrating. This lack of editing is sadly becoming the norm.
Second, while it does not justify being left behind, how is it possible that a passenger is so asleep that they are oblivious to all the noise, movement and chaos of a airplane landing and all other passengers disembarking? I assume this can be due to some people taking sedatives, or alcohol consumption.
Again, not trying to justify the problem, but obviously there must be shared blame by the abandoned passengers who put themselves in the position of needing to be found.
Don’t mean to be a stickler, David, but re: grammatical errors, I believe the word in paragraph 2 line 4 is supposed to be “an” airplane as opposed to, “a”! 🛩️
Yes.
Thanks for telling him! Bad David BAD!!!
Correct. L
Exactly
Winning post!
I was going to say the same thing. If you are so afraid of flying that you have to take medication that most likely will knock you out, it should be incumbent on you, to let the cabin crew know that you might need to be waken, or take a bus. But, I also wondered what kind of cleaning is being done, if every seat on the plane and rest rooms aren’t at least being looked at?
Good point , I wondered that too. Seems like 2 crews of people: 1 flight crew and 1 cleaning crew should be able to see every seat and bathroom. Someone was cutting corners.
I would never blame a passenger for the noncompliant crew. The physical condition of passengers differs. IE deafness, medical problems ect. The crew is totally responsible.
My, oh my. Aren’t we the pompous jerk.
You, however, have quite the puerile attitude. Might want to control that.
I agree with your first paragraph
You must be a light sleeper and a have the audacity to think everyone should br like you. I could easily sleep that soundly at random time. I have never taken a sedative or had any access to them!
Can the cabin cleaners not wake the sleeping passenger? I know that’s not their responsibility but seems they would do that out of common courtesy. They have to clean every row and would definitely encounter the sleeping passenger.
Excellent point, Judy. Sure gives one pause to consider perhaps the cleaners are not being thorough enough. Not only did they overlook that row, but now we realize they didn’t sanitize that seat as well.
That could pose a real health and safety threat especially with outbreaks of deadly viruses running rampant these days!
You would not catch me on a plane with RFK jr in there and viruses running rampant. I don’t even go to restaurants or doctors offices anymore. Too scary.
If you’re in fear of that many thugs, Mary, you are EXISTING not LIVING.
It shouldn’t be that hard to walk through the plane and see a person still strapped in a seat.
It does not matter whether the crew member leaves before or after the passenger; afterward, the cleaning crew will enter the cabin to clean the plane. Any remaining passengers will still be seen by the cleaning crew.
Excuse Mr! Are you Crazy? Have you not heard the word Security mentioned multiple times. Attendants should never leave Anyone on a plane alone for even one second!
This sounds like something that has always been done, and now somebody has realized that this isn’t good security practice.
Bo this is mom you come to me home now and I’m at home now and I’m waiting for you now call me now asp now asp 1-480-669-3415 call me now asp now ok
What do the cleaners do when they find someone sleeping or in the lavatory? Do they not just nudge them or do they simply clean around them?
The cleaning crew draws on the sleeping passengers face with a black magic marker letting them know that they have robbed of their carry on and wallet/purse.
Not surprising. Kids, INCLUDING special need kids are left on school busses has become a common occurance these days and times..
If school bus personnel leave any child on a vacated school bus , that will effectively end their career / job. That’s a gross violation.
All this time I thought that all planes was cleaned inside between flights.
Do you have any ideas how difficult it is to break one of those windows? There is NO excuse for this. It is part of their job to make sure the aircraft is secure. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one of the aft seated attendants should walk up the aisle and check EVERY seat. I was an Air Force crewmember for 14 years and this would have been unheard of. It’s their job, DO IT.
Whatever! This is not Air Force sir, these are commercial flights with ignorant acting passengers! In my opinion…One has nothing to do with the other! They do their jobs, they do not have to put up with the nonsense from passengers with no home training.
NO, leave their ignorant acting selfs.
It is not rocket science just as they board the flight, leave the flight.
Some people are of a different mental capacity. Consideration must be given to those who are a little different. The lack of empathy in society today is also a factor in my opinion.
It is actually entirely possible for a person to simply be exhausted and sleep through commotion. The flight crew should double check that everyone is off AND they should get paid for this very routine task.
They’re probably leaving because so many passengers are acting like lunatics. I’d be afraid for my life.
My friend was a FA. During Covid, he barricaded himself in the galley area and never went into the cabin. The germs and the passengers were too dangerous. He’s retired now.
If you have ever work with female FA, you will understand their lack of common sense.
At one time in my life, I had to talk to 45 FA every morning- I quit and became a Corporate Pilot
Not sexist much?
I was once the last person on a plane as I had gone to the loo just prior to landing and the flight attendant knocked on the door to tell me the plane had landed. I was the last one off.
As checking seats need to check bathrooms if door locked someone is in it.
Maybe pay flight attendance 1 hour more from time plane lands. Why should they work for free how is that legal??
A simple procedural addendum of requiring all passengers be awake during landings. This would be part of preparing the cabin for landing.
Yes it’s a good idea and easy to do as preparing to land checking tables closed seat upright they walk up and down anyway
Install a shock device in the seat to alert passengers that YES the plane has landed now get the Fuc off.
It’s really bad that other passengers don’t see someone sleeping and try to wake them or alert a Flight Attendant. Also, how in the world can the cleaning crew miss a passenger sleeping in the aircraft! There seriously needs to be international security laws demanding flight crews check the planes before they get off.
Cleaning crews do not have to pass IQ tests and are not always English fluent.
You stop paying them when the plane.Hits the ground. Third job is over.
How lazy can you be? Passengers pay attention- it’s not a day care.
Crew- if you are missing sleeping adults, what else are you messing?
First this article is horribly edited. Missing words and wrong words.
Just one example “ Within the aviation industry, leaving passengers on a crew without any flight attendants present…”. Leaving passengers on a crew? Again horrid.
Second the idea that the FAs are being distracted by cleaners is laughable. That is just really a poor excuse. This is nothing more than the FAs being lazy and not doing their job which unsurprisingly is more the norm than not.
There are some great FAs out there but the ones who are lazy and don’t do there job cast a poor shadow on all of them. It would be easy to identify which FAs are responsible for this and take action against them. How hard is it for the FAs at the rear of the plane to check the lavs and all seats as they are moving forward, again checking the additional lavs as they come to them. It is not difficult and not time consuming since they are walking from the rear of the plane to the front anyway.
How do passengers get in the lavs anyway. There are FAs right at every lav during landings so ghe6 should be aware of someone going into the lav.
And another question. How do the cleaners get ON the plane while the passengers are deplaning. There is barely enough room for the passengers to get off much less having people getting on at the same time.
Again this is nothing but poor job performance by some lazy FAs. Take action against the laziness without looking for excuses.
I would suspect that this is some union action to get more pay or differing work conditions that has caused this to be happening across multiple airlines at the same time all of a sudden.
And frankly, I will agree that FAs should be paid the moment they step onto the plane. As it is right now, they have a disincentive to board the planes early when ready and the delays in boarding just cause delays in schedules. This is all due to the idiots running the airlines. Treat your employees well and they will treat your customers well.
Yes
Airline policy says flight attendants get paid once the door closed and stop getting paid once the door opens. If I’m not getting paid why should I stick around? If I was a flight attendant if I was getting paid to walk the plane and make sure everyone has left I’d be happy to do so. But since flight attendants stop getting paid once the door opens why should they?
To see sleeping passenger does not require English
*What! This is an easy reason. Humans? What humans are you speaking on? Flight Attendants are sick of the abuse. Flight attendants are sick of the ignorance of idiot passengers that board their flights to fight, argue, become disrespectful towards the Flight Attendants and crew members. All they are trying to do are their jobs! Each time a video is post on social media it’s disgusting! I do not blame Flight Attendants leave those fools where they are, and go have a seat until they depart the aircraft. If you do not have the home training to FLY, and act as a human being drive your car!
Stay off commercial air planes!*
Don’t they stop getting paid when the aircraft is officially “in”? (They keep track of Out, Off, On, and In.) Not that that is an excuse but…
Wake patients up before the plane lands. Have a locking mechanism on the washrooms, so that once it is announced that the wr can’t be used, they will b locked (prior to unboarding)
The headline amuses me. If there are still people on a plane, how can it be called empty?
Why have the airline standards been changed over the years? I don’t recall this type of thing happening so frequently 20 to 30 plus years ago. Is there not a passenger manifest list that the flight attendants must check upon arrival and departure? It seems that everything comes down to money. If these corporations weren’t busy giving CEO’s inflated paychecks and cutting corners but rushing more flights, errors are bound to happen. We need to return to the 70s and 80’s airline standards of the day.
No one checks the manifest as people deplane no. When enplanning sure, the gate agents check.
When boarding you are checked boarding pass and they see who has not boarding. Coming off you see them at plane door but u are not checked out.
How about you do something about all the dogs and start recognizing the allergy disability that people deal with some of which can actually kill people but you continue to let all these pets on airplanes around everybody not even asking if anybody has any major allergy issues or caring!
So the cleaning crew cleaned and didn’t wake passenger, cleaned bathroom and didn’t notice was occupied? SERIOUSLY.? Then plane was parked and still nothing. Sorry, other than that, I blame the passenger, show some responsibility, slept thru all that?
What ever happened to taking a head count of people boarding a plane and then taking another head count as people got off?
Distracted by the cleaners, who also ignore a sleeping passenger and don’t clean the restroom?
How can they “clean” a plane’s cabin when there’s someone in a seat?
‘Leaving passengers on an empty plane’ …… so it’s not empty then is it, as it has passengers on it……
Flight attendants don’t get paid until the door closes. They stop getting paid when the door opens. I agree they should be able to do a spot check before leaving the plane, but I also think that the airline needs to include this spot-check as a paid within their scopes of duties.
One time I was traveling with my son who was two. During the flight he dropped hi little Thomas the train on the ground without me realising it. When we got to destination and about to deplane I tried to go back to retrieve the toy and this disgruntled stewardess said I couldn’t. After begging her she finally offered to retrieve the toy except, I see putting not effort in finding it. She finally came back and pretended that she didn’t find it. Bottom line is like all the professions out there, there are good people with solid work ethics and then there are negligent and lackluster people who ruin it for the whole category. The fact that in that flight or in a school bus, no employee takes 2 minutes to do a final check in order to make sure that there’s no one left behind, it’s a deplorable action and should come with serious consequences, but that’s not the case, people get away with everything these days and there’s no accountability. DISGRACEFUL!
The FAs and the cleaners each have their defined scopes of work.
Only one group has training and experience to perform deplaning supervision and it is clearly the FAs.
What happens if a fire or other emergency occurs while deplaning? The FAs MUST step forward and supervise accordingly.
Surely this must dictate that the FAs are paid until deplaning is completed and that their payment cut-off is at the same time.
Several years ago I went to Florida and ended up in the hospital on the second day. On the fourth day of being in the hospital I was advised by my insurance company that they weren’t going to cover the $16,000.00 charge and I had to come back to Canada. I couldn’t walk as my stomach was open and needed help. The first flight took me as far as Philadelphia where they were great with me and got me a drive to my next gate. Then they got me a wheelchair onto the plane. When we hit Toronto, ON there was 2 of us on the plane that had just got out of the hospital. The flight attendant told us to stay there and someone would come out to help us off the plane. Then everyone got off including the entire crew. We waited for awhile and then another crew got in that was taking the plane back to Philadelphia. The stewardess says to us “what the hell are you doing on this plane?” We tried explaining to her that someone was supposed to come and get us and she said to get off the plane. We had to get down the stairs the best we could which took a good 10 minutes. We had no idea where to go as we were then standing on the tarmac. Finally the first stewardess came out and asked us why we were standing there and we told her we had been kicked off the plane. She went back into the airport and got a wheelchair and took us to the terminal where my husband was waiting to take me to the hospital in Hamilton, ON. Their solution to this when I complained about how I was treated was to give me a voucher for a future trip which expired a few months later.
Planes land and take off on 45 minute turnaround time during peak hours. This means that all contents from cargo hold, including customer belongings, while passengers and cabin contents, such as food containers and waste, has to be removed. Then new provisions and fuel and baggage for the next flight can be loaded. At this pace, at the end of a day of constant returns, it’s easy to understand the oversight.
Why not use the boarding pass barcode to unboard plane. Should be easy enough for passengers to keep up with and scan as they leave the aircraft
Why would the airline out of contract with the FA union ever ask for their input on the why? DUH, the answer will be that they’re overworked and understaffed, spinning it back on management. Fire them for cause and this issue will go away quickly. Good grief! These airlines can’t get out of their own way.
I was a flight attendant decades ago and I do not understand today’s airlines. Set a standard, then give employees the tools, ability and time to make the standard work. It looks to me like airlines have abdicated their responsibilities and want to blame others for the outcome.
Questions/comments:
>>You mean, either the flight attendants didn’t check, or the cleaning crew didn’t come onboard. If the cleaners missed a passenger still being there, you have bigger problems than just the crew being negligent.
>>How are the crew members paid (by the hr vs flight take-off and arrival time vs by flight, which includes pre and post flight duties).
>>The flight attendants may already be booked for another flight and need to leave asap. This could cause exit protocols being missed.
It amazes me the lack of care, and common sense that is displayed in corporations! They only care about MONEY, to hell with supporting people in need.
The quality of the flight attendants has gone down due to low pay. You get what you pay for.