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Comment by standardUser | Hacker News Reader

A great tip I heard long ago for nervous flyers - whenever their is turbulence, look at the flight staff. If they're going about business as usual and look otherwise relaxed, which is almost always the case, you've got nothing to worry about. Consider them turbulence experts, and if the experts aren't concerned you don't need to be either.

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Bad tip. Case in point: on this very flight, 9 of the 18 crew members had moderate injuries (https://apnews.com/article/singapore-airlines-flight-turbule...)

Most of the crew are usually not wearing a seat belt

In high turbulence situations, the crew will take a seat from what I've experienced.

So I should start panicking when I see them back out and strap in?

Because that's what happened on my last flight. I didn't panic, I just felt sick.

They're just putting on their seatbelts. They may not even have a choice if the pilot tells them to, just like during takeoff and landing. It may also help to remember that flight attendants are, first and foremost, safety personnel. We think of them as sky waiters, but all of their training is for safety.

This tip fails when the flight crew starts to look worried/concerned. But, I guess at that point, you have reason to be nervous. This happened during severe turbulence to me once, but it had the effect of making me a calmer flyer because it really was pretty bad (no one flew into the ceiling but they'd already made sure everyone had seatbelts fastened) and I ended up being fine.

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