this question is for frequent airplane travelers. what percentage of the time do people clap when the plane?

Question

lands? in my life, i have probably flown a dozen times, not enough to really make a generalization about how often it occurs. does it occur more on international, domestic, or shuttle flights?

Answer 1

I have been travelling around the world for the past 4 1/2 years and I have yet to be on a plane where people claped upon landing. If it does occur, I would assume that it happens after an in-flight emergency or some other crisis that is adverted by the pilots and the plane lands safely.

Answer 2

Good question. I don't think there's a rule. As a question of flight etiquette I would guess the clapping is just something you have to kind of sense in the air and apply when appropriate, like if the flight was particularly well managed (this would fall into the category of magnanimous and/or possible faux-hearty clapping, obviously), or the circumstances difficult and the pilot/crew overcame them - delays, storms etc. I don't think it happens all that often, really. Maybe scattered clapping, but a plane-wide ovations is pretty rare in my experience.

On the other hand you likley to get occasional sarcastic clapping i.e. the plane has been sitting on the runway for a few hours when finally they fix the valve or seal up a broken wing or something and they finally start the old belated runway taxi...

Answer 3

I fly a lot for business & on commuter flights it doesn't seem to happen. Similarly international scheduled flights.
There are lots of clappers on British charter flights, the usual week in Greece brigade.
Also people clap after landings in bad weather ( once on Xmas flight to Australia).

Answer 4

I have flown a ton for work (mostly) and vacation, both international and domestic. I have probably only heard clapping about twice and it was when we had a difficult landing. I believe they were both domestic flights, too.

Answer 5

The only time I've heard it is when there was a lot of turbulence or there was a hard-to-make landing. Ex: I was on a plane from Hawaii and they had to turn around because the landing gear wouldn't go up. They said it was going to be a faster landing than usual, and it was! Scared the crap out of me, but the pilot did it, and I applauded him.

Answer 6

For some reason, almost exclusively on international flights. A pilot friend I know says he believes it's because in the past the passengers were relieved they had crossed the ocean safely.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

I've seen it a couple of times after a rough landing.

I've also seen it when they welcomed some soldiers returning from Iraq (including folks who gave up their First Class seats for them). I've seen a Flight Attendant propose to his girlfriend and a Flight Attendant announce a couple of their honeymoon.

Answer 9

I have to agree with the others, I've seen this once or twice after a rough landing.

I was once on a flight from Atlanta to Orlando, as you might expect it was full of vacationers going to Disney World. The flight crew made us raise our hands on take-off like we were on a roller coaster.

Answer 10

once or twice i've heard people clapping but i think its rather an old tradition. probably dates back to the good old days when it was pretty uncertain as to whether passangers would live to tell the tale each time they flew, so landing was a big thing to celebrate cos it prob wasn't a guaranteed thing :)