You are in a flight…

Seconds before landing…

It is dead silent in the airplane’s cabin and the captain has just welcomed you in your new destination…

Everybody is looking so relaxed, sleepy, happily bubbly about the new destination…

The young student, the professional, the old couple, the family…

Even kids and babies for some funny reason seem silent and have stopped pounding with their feet your seat that have fiercely been doing for the whole of the flight. Unstoppably…

And then…

Once the plane’s wheels barely touch the runaway…

HAVOC occurs…

It has to be some kind of informal conspiracy or competition that all people have agreed to embark on…

or it might be that all are part of a University research project on behavioural issues…

Funny ringtones, bips, songs, music fills the plane’s fuselage…

Trrr Trrr. Bip Bop. Uit Uit, Heavy metal, Soft pop, Iron Maiden or Puff Daddy…

I sympathise…[sic]

How can they all wait for 5 more minutes until the plane comes to a stop before they switch on their mobile phones? Why should they wait? …

They absolutely must inform their mother, who is waiting anxiously in the waiting lounge – or back home – that they landed safely…

As if the airport screens would never have said if the plane fell over the Pacific…

As is their mother cannot stand 5 more minutes – compared to the 3-12 hours of the main flight – before she gets informed from you that you made it safely to your damn destination…

And this is not all…

They will chat about the weirdest things on earth…

Like if they want their meatballs with red sauce or just a well-done steak for their supper…

Or if their dog has missed them…

Or that they forgot their flip-flops under their bed and they are just so sad and they just cannot live without them in their new destination so their mother must send them with the next flight…

…

…

And then, once you feel everything has returned back to a more serene and tranquil mode – after all callers have stopped speaking, there is another cast of people who embark on another weird competition called

“Who will stand up faster and get from overhead compartment their luggage.”

I mean for the love of Gog…

If speaking on the phone is – let’s say for the sake of the discussion – a more personal thing – and I will go with it, I surely don’t want you hanging and jumping over my head trying to open the overhead compartment and start offloading tones of liqueur or your must-have-been-checked-in bag carrying your full wardrobe…

And if you are sitting on the aisle, I will still go with it. But if you are on the window seat I would surely punch your nose if you just consider walking all over me to get to the aisle and start offloading your funny DutuFree bags…

And I will still, still, still go with it if you are in the 2-3 seats close to the exit…

But if you are in the middle of the fuselage it makes no damn difference if you stand up from the moment the plane takes off or if you just patiently wait until the plane has come to a still, the doors have opened and some people infront of you start moving into the aisle…

I would surely consider that airlines spend some time to educate travellers about such things.

It is surely about safety.

But it is mostly about good manners.