Clapping when an airplane lands: Why people do it and the reason why you shouldn’t

You’re probably opening this link thinking that I’m going to ask you not to clap when the airplane lands, that it’s a ridiculous thing to do as the pilot is just doing his job, that only a very small number of aircraft in the modern age actually suffer mechanical problems and even fewer manage to fall out of the sky and kill us all in a fireball of death and bones.

Then you’d be absolutely right. I am going to do that.

Society has become a cesspit of nonsense when we take a step back and look at it from a wider lens: universities banning student protest, post-truth politicians saying ‘that wasn’t me' (yes, it was) and people clapping on planes. Can we just not do this? You don’t clap the milkman when he drops off your bottle of semi-skimmed every morning, or ruffle the hair of the check-out person scanning your beans, so why applaud George when he makes an fully-assisted ILS approach into JFK?

Being a pilot is indeed a stressful vocation: the 100+ lives on board are their responsibility and tricky weather can make things wobbly, but it’s likely that nobody else on that craft is certified to do what they do and nobody has had such extensive training coupled with hours of flight time to make it as easy and smooth as possible for those sat behind, with no skill, to later patronise them with applause.

You wouldn’t break out into ferocious clapping at an art gallery or after thoracic surgery, because you are not qualified to judge them. Have you ever responded to a diagnosis of a chest infection by whooping in the face of your GP? Why do pilots have to suffer this nonsense?

It’s just embarrassing. The average odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11 million - at those odds I’d have my lottery ticket and party poppers out if we did hit a bit of turbulence 37,000 ft in the air.

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Instead of clapping, show some appreciation to the flight crew by, I don’t know, being well-behaved and kind-mannered on the plane, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to flight attendants, not being drunk and disorderly, making sure the bathroom is clean before you leave, not standing up when the ‘seatbelt’ light is on, and taking your rubbish with you when you depart. Don’t listen to your music out loud and please, for the love of everything holy, don’t bring a tuna sandwich on board.

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