American Airlines pilot gives passengers lecture about manners in video

The pilot said he had to tell passengers on ever flight how to behave. Photo / Unsplash, 123rf

An Instagram video has gone viral of a pilot making a stern announcement to passengers about how they should treat crew and fellow travellers.

Passengers are often called out for being rude, irritating or downright abusive to both crew and fellow passengers on flights.

One American Airlines pilot appeared to have had enough of the unruly behaviour on flights and issued a directive on manners before the flight, captured by comedy writer Anna Leah Maltezos.

“American Airlines Captain Has Had it With Ya’ll,” read the video’s text overlay.

At the start of the video, viewed 5.5 million times, viewers can hear the captain address passengers and clarify that flight attendants’ primary concern was safety, followed by making the flight “enjoyable”.

“They’re going to take care of you guys but you will listen to what they have to say because they represent my will in the cockpit or in the cabin, and my will is what matters,” he said.

However, he didn’t stop there and went on to tell passengers they should be “respectful” and “nice” to one another and treat each other kindly.

The pilot said it was common manners and people shouldn’t need reminding but revealed he was required to remind people on all of his flights.

“I have to say it on every single flight because people don’t, and they’re selfish and rude, and we won’t have it,” he said.

Passengers were then reminded that each of them had “paid for a space”, so they should respect other people’s personal boundaries.

“Don’t lean on other people. Don’t fall asleep on other people. Don’t drool on them unless you’ve talked about it and they have a weather-resistant jacket,” he said.

Next on the agenda was loud music or movies, which the captain said must be listened to with headphones or AirPods.

“The social experiment of listening to videos on speaker mode and talking on a cellphone on speaker, that is over,” he said.

Ensuring others couldn’t hear your devices wasn’t just a kindness to others but “just part of being in a respectful society”, according to the pilot.

Wrapping up, the pilot acknowledged that passengers in the middle seat had it the hardest, so declared they could “claim” both armrests.

“That is my gift to you,” he said before launching into take-off processes.

Maltezos, who posted the video, suggested the impassioned speech sounded similar to those one would here at an inspiring conference.

“Thank you for coming to his TED talk,” Maltezos wrote in the video’s caption.

Hundreds of viewers commented on the video, many applauding the captain on speaking up about rude passengers.

“He’s not wrong. For him to say this, that means he’s fed up with all these childish adults,” wrote one person.

“The people complaining about his speech are the people that need to hear it,” another added.

Some suggested the speech should become a norm across all flights.

“I’d appreciate this speech on every flight because people really act up on flights lately and don’t know protocols,” one person suggested.

When asked how people responded on board, Maltezos told People that most passengers seemed mildly entertained by the situation.

The flight was then unusually silent right after the speech.