- Getting up too soon on a plane is unsafe and can increase the danger.
- In almost all cases, people should deplane by row.
Flying frequently teaches you that two things can be true at once. In this case, that everyone is desperate to get off the plane as soon as possible, and also that no one ever seems to be ready to go when it’s their turn.
It’s a little infuriating.
As soon as the plane touches down, people start shifting in their seats, desperate to be the first one to unbuckle their seatbelt and get their stuff out of the overhead bin. And I get it – to a point. After a long flight, it’s definitely nice to stand up and stretch my legs. But there’s no benefit to rushing. If you’re sitting anywhere behind row one or two, you won’t (and shouldn’t) be off first, and it’s going to be even more frustrating as you stare wistfully at the boarding door while dozens of rows of people ahead of you gather their belongings.
Rich Henderson, one of the authors of the blog Two Guys on a Plane, told me people only seem to have gotten more impatient about deplaning in the aftermath of COVID.
“I’ve just been seeing so much of it lately. I’m just like, where are you going,” he said. “The seatbelt sign is such an easy thing to follow. When it’s lit up you’ve got to stay in your seat. It really is that simple.”
I sometimes feel like a broken record with this column, but getting up too soon is also a safety issue.
Here’s why it’s not just courteous, but also important, to wait for the light to go off and for your turn to deplane. But also, why you should take the waiting time to get your stuff in order.
Why getting up too soon on a plane is unsafe
Henderson, and his husband and co-author Andrew Henderson, said that time on the ground is actually one of the most dangerous phases of a flight, and it can be even more important to pay attention to the seatbelt sign during ground maneuvers on a plane.
“It’s just such a dangerous time of flight … in reality there’s just as many if not more things that could go wrong on the ground,” Rich said. “There’s so many reasons you could have an evacuation when you’re taxiing.”
Unbuckling too soon can increase the danger, and also make it take longer to get to the gate.
“People forget because they’re sitting in the comfort of it that this (plane) is a giant piece of machinery,” Andrew said. “It takes a lot of power to move it, a lot of power to stop it.” He added that whenever someone stands up during taxiing, the pilot must stop the plane from moving and set the parking brake.
Who gets to deplane first?
In almost all cases, people should deplane by row.
“Why are you not just waiting your turn? Why do you think that you in row 34 should get off before somebody in row 20?” Rich said.
It’s never been a perfect system, but he said people have gotten pushier and more impatient in recent years.
“Post-Covid I think we’re seeing a lot more people traveling that haven’t been regular travelers before,” Rich said. “Just the etiquette of travel, too: respecting other people’s space, the order of deplaning. People don’t understand that.”
Last week’s Cruising Altitude:Stinky seat neighbor on a plane? Here’s what you can do.
On a flight earlier this week, I sighed and rolled my eyes as a passenger a few rows behind me pushed ahead of the crowd to get off just to take her time walking up the jetway once she left the plane.
I’m not totally heartless though. If you have a tight connection or a genuine reason to need to get off quickly, I think you should talk to the flight attendant and get some help to get the people around you to cooperate in letting you off sooner. But if you’re just impatient and self-important, you should calm down and wait for your turn.
Why is no one ready?
Despite everyone’s rush to get off the plane, I often see people who stand up immediately taking ages to collect their belongings when it’s their row’s turn to finally leave.
It’s never made sense to me, and I think it also goes back to a lack of situational awareness, which the Hendersons said is at the root of so many problems on planes.
“Maybe because we’re so hyper-aware we’re noticing these people who are oblivious,” Rich said. “It’s like everybody went into a bubble during Covid.”
Andrew blames a culprit that I didn’t expect.
“Noise cancelling headphones,” he said. “People live in this world of silence with their music and they’re not paying attention to anything anymore.”
It’s still better than music without headphones on a plane. However, paying attention to what’s going on around you during deplaning will help everyone leave faster than unbuckling your seatbelt too soon.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
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