Sex and air travel doesn't work standing up
2012-12-17 07:54
Chris Moerdyk
I was fascinated by a story on CNN a while
back quoting Ryanair CEO, Michael O'Leary, saying that seatbelts in aircraft
are pointless and that on short trips planes should be allowed to have
cut-price standing room only.
He was deadly serious.
As Ryanair - an Irish airline, which
explains a lot of things - mostly flies around Europe on very short hops, it
might just make a lot of sense because as O'Leary says, it is very rare that short
haul flights there encounter serious turbulence.
Unlike South Africa where, for example,
summertime afternoon flights between Johannesburg and anywhere and especially
Durban can produce turbulence that without seatbelts would have the majority of
passengers ending up in the overhead lockers.
It would be interesting to see, however,
whether frequent commuters in Europe would choose to stand for an hour or so,
hanging onto hand-straps like those you get in buses and I suppose if the
standing room in a plane was crowded enough they would all provide protection
for each other during take-offs and landing.
Think about it. How often have you got out
of a plane at an airport and had to be ferried to the terminal in a crowded
shuttle bus?
I've often found that to be a lot bumpier
than the flight itself particularly when you have a gung-ho driver who likes
testing his brakes to full capacity and taking corners like a F1 driver.
But then, that trip is only a few minutes.
I am not sure that I could manage even half
an hour standing in a placing let alone an hour or two but then I am not
exactly a teenager anymore.
It would not surprise me to see cut-price
standing room only becoming very popular among the young and agile - students,
backpackers and so forth. The sort of people who get their kicks from
bungee-jumping or parachuting would not be the least bit worried about standing
in an aircraft.
But, I reckon O'Leary is dreaming if he
thinks that Europe and the UK are going to allow this to happen. The UK particularly, being the world leader
in the most ludicrous health and safety regulations.
I mean if they won't allow firemen to wade
into a knee deep pond to save a drowning toddler because they did not have the
right protective kit for that particular job, or if they insist on farmers
having railings in their strawberry fields to stop pickers injuring their backs
when they bend down, the they are sure as hell not going to allow anyone to
stand up in an aeroplane.
Statistically of course, standing up in a
plane is probably the safest way to travel. A lot safer that the journey by car
to the airport.
Would you fly standing up? Do you like to
have sex standing up? Would you have sex in a plane standing up?
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