Ronald Culberson visited Southwest Airline’s people department and came away with some really great stories including this one:
…a senior executive spent a day working at the ticket counter and with the ground crew to have a better understanding of their roles.
While she was helping direct a plane to the gate using those long orange directional devices, one of the seasoned ground crew members told her to rotate her wrists in a circular manner.
When she did this, the plane did a 360 degree turn! She began to scream thinking she had sent a confusing signal to the pilot.
In reality, the ground crew had contacted the pilot and told them they had a “greeny” directing the plane and that they wanted to have some fun with her. The pilot enthusiastically agreed to play along. Very cool.
That has to be one scary moment – when something you do makes a fully loaded airline jet pirouet right in front of you.
Leave a Reply