by expat » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:36 pm
The more I look at that photo the more I think it's a fake.
Problem is the general quality of the picture is too bad to say either way.
Matt
SteveM pointed out that he appears to be sitting on the arm rest. Unless these are fixed on this particular type of seat does that seem likely? I think not.
As I said before, I'm surprised that nobody else has suggested it's faked. Anything slightly out of the ordinary in a photo is questioned nowadays, even if it's genuine. It wouldn't be a difficult edit. Any of our regulars in the Edited Screenshots forum could do it standing on their heads. Even I could make a passable job of it.
I did notice the arm rest thing and thought it would be a bit strange if they had to sit on/crush that to be able to get into their seat.
For that reason alone it is probably edited, but if they corrected that then with the general shading/lighting, it looks quite real.
I was waiting for this point to come up. Now if you think about the last time you flew did the isle armrest raise up. I think you will find that it did not. As a general rule the isle seating of aircraft do not raise up. This is to keep you in as the catering trolleys come past. It is possible to raise them, but involves "fiddling about". These look like Recaro seats and my day to day experience is that the outer arm rest does not raise. On the fleet that I work on, I can count on one hand the seats that have the raise function and that bis because they are defective and awaiting parts.
Matt
I last flew on an airliner in May this year but to be honest I can't remember if it was possible to raise the aisle armrests or not. The ones in between seats definitely were. I've since been on luxury coaches where all the aisle armrests were adjustable so I could be getting confused with that.
However, I think this is irrelevant. I don't care which airline it is, I'm quite certain that no passenger would be allowed to sit like that during a flight. Apart from obstructing access down the aisle he doesn't appear to be strapped in. It's also quite possible he would damage the seat by sitting on the arm rest. No airliner I've ever travelled on would take off without all the passengers seat belts being done up. The flight attendants check that everyone is strapped in & have seat belt extensions for anyone that needs them.
I agree with you, but the aircraft is not in the air. If it was then the overhead bins would be closed as they are required to be during flight. One thing of note, the seat row behind him is empty. Perhaps this chap is flying with the guy next to him and he is not yet sat in his own seat.The manner in which he is sat slightly to the right and the other guy is looking at him as if he is showing something, a pre business meeting last chance chat or so.
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA
People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.
