Editing 1660: Captain Speaking

{{comic
| number    = 1660
| date      = March 25, 2016
| title     = Captain Speaking
| image     = captain_speaking.png
| titletext = Oh dang, you have to pay? Hey, has anyone else paid already? If so, can I borrow your phone for a sec?
}}

==Explanation==
At periodic intervals on a commercial flight, the captain of the plane will address the passengers with information about the flight. Typically this will begin with "This is your captain speaking..." and go on to describe the progress of the flight, expected arrival time and other information about the flight such as if or when refreshments will be brought to passengers.

This comic takes this cliché and inverts it. Instead of the captain providing information, the captain tells the passengers that he has apparently forgotten everything about the flight, even down to what kind of plane he is supposed to be flying – although he does think it is a {{w|Boeing}}. He at least discovers the flight number and then plans to use the consumer app {{w|Flightaware}} that is made for tracking flights. He thus hopes to be able to find out what the destination of “his” plane is. But Flightaware requires {{w|Wi-Fi}} access, so he goes on to ask the passengers if anyone know how to access the Wi-Fi. This app was earlier referenced in [[1363: xkcd Phone]].

This even gets worse in the title text where he realizes that you have to pay for using the on-board Wi-Fi, which means he is trying to access the same Wi-Fi that the passengers have access to instead of using the on-board Wi-Fi that must be in the cockpit (to which he is supposed to have free access). Instead of just paying he then asks the passengers if someone has already paid, because then he would like to borrow their smartphone so he can check the Flightaware app to find out where they are going.

Options for explaining this scenario are:
#The "captain" is not a genuine pilot, but has somehow found himself in the position of being in charge of an airplane (this could be a reference to this earlier comic: [[726: Seat Selection]]).
#The captain has genuinely fallen asleep and has forgotten what plane he is on...but he has thus also forgotten how to navigate, determine his flight plan, or communicate with air traffic control. In the USA (where xkcd cartoons are normally set), there is normally at least a first officer and a flight attendant on the plane to support the captain.
#The captain has been drugged and shanghaied onto the plane. He is now expected to fly and land it for his "employer", but he has chosen to disclaim this fact to his passengers in the least reassuring manner possible.
#After taking-off, the captain enters a {{w|dissociative fugue}} state losing his personal identity.
#The captain had been possessed by some external entity, such as {{w|Sam Beckett}}.
#This may be in the future, where auto-pilot is so smart and do so much of the previous job of the pilot that future pilots might forget how to fly altogether.

Seeing as how planes cannot take off on {{w|auto-pilot}} (nor can they taxi, but some can actually land), and require a skilled, awake human at the controls, it is unlikely that this captain was responsible for take-off; which must mean this auto-pilot is much more advanced than current models, likely a future model, or that their first officer took off and then went away or asleep. In the event a pilot falls asleep, on medium sized planes, ground- or proximity-, radar would set off an alarm waking the captain if they are on a collision course.

Whilst it is normal for the captain to sleep part of a long flight, this can only occur if there are multiple pilots on the plane. Most flights are on auto-pilot for hours at a time, and the pilots serve primarily for takeoff, landing, and emergencies. They are completely clueless, having to use a consumer app and asking the passengers to get flight details, instead of radioing for help as he probably should. They would easily be able to get the information of where they are going by just asking any of the passengers though.

The fact that the captain is not sure of the flight number is not hard to imagine. Commercial pilots fly multiple flights per day and the numbers all run together after a while. Every radio communication starts with the flight number, but if the captain has been out of commission for some time, the flight number could easily be forgotten. However, he would probably know the aircraft type, as commercial pilots are type-rated for a specific aircraft type and with rare exceptions (e.g. Boeing 757/767) the type is specific to an airframe type. This makes it more likely that he is not professionally qualified, although he could just be rated for so many types of aircraft that it takes him a moment to determine which one is at hand (though such a veteran pilot would be unlikely to have slept through takeoff or forget how to look up flight information from the cockpit).

Three weeks later another plane related joke was released with [[1669: Planespotting]] where it is also an open question if the plane in the comic is actually a Boeing plane...

==Transcript==
:[The text is written above a Boeing 737 Next Generation seen from below as it turns left. The text emanates from the cockpit.]
:Captain: This is your captain speaking.
:Captain: Gonna be honest-I just woke up and have no idea where I am. Looks like a Boeing of some kind?
:Captain: Oh, hey, it says the flight number here.
:Captain: Okay, I'm gonna check FlightAware to figure out where we're going.
:Captain: Anyone know how to get on the wifi?

==Trivia==
*Real World Parallels:
**This comic coincided with [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-man-goes-out-for-quiet-drink-in-essex-wakes-up-in-barcelona-a6951756.html a newspaper story] of British man, Alex Caviel, who after a night out had a vivid dream of being on a plane only to wake up to find himself on a plane landing in Barcelona.
**The comic was also published shortly after the [https://www.rt.com/news/337113-flydubai-scandal-leaks-fatigue/ Flydubai scandal], in which many pilots and former pilots accused the airline of overworking its pilots and causing massive fatigue and stress, shortly after the crash of the flight FZ981. These claims were later waged against the FlyDubai airline. The comic could portray a scenario in which one of the fatigued pilots wake up mid-flight, still suffering from lack of sleep.
**The comic was released a year and a day after the {{w|Suicide by pilot|suicide by pilot}} crash of {{w|Germanwings Flight 9525}} on 2015-03-24. This is probably a coincidence as there is no real relation to a pilot that forgets where he is, and then one that deliberately decides to crash a passenger plane killing 150 people, himself included. But for this particular flight the first officer, who crashed the plane, was left alone in the cockpit by the captain, and this was what enabled him to commit the deed. This event thus lead many companies to adopt a rule that there should always be at least two people in the cockpit at all times. But this was not always the case before, and this could explain the situation of the captain in this comic being alone in the cockpit when he "wakes" up.
**Though rare, pilots [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47691478 sometimes may not (correctly) know where they are going].
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Aviation]]