Your stuffed carry-on bag may be too big for the overhead compartment, but there’s apparently enough room for a flight attendant to lie inside as a part of a flight crew “initiation”.
China’s Kunming Airlines said it had no knowledge of the alleged hazing new flight attendants underwent after photos, showing a female flight attendant lying inside a narrow overhead compartment, were shared on the social media site Weibo over the weekend.
According to the original statement from the airline, posted Monday on the verified Kunming Airlines Weibo account, said the incident took place on a plane of its sister airline, referred to as Queensland Air, and happened after the crew wrapped up its duty and the incident “did not affect the safe operation of flights and passenger services.”
“The company attaches high importance to the incident,” the statement read, adding it will “prevent such things from happening again.”
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Some flight attendants, however, reportedly have a different story to tell.
“Multiple stewardesses have consistently filed complaints to the company. However, their request for further investigations was ignored, and the ritual continued to exist for nearly five years,” read a post on the English-language Facebook page for state-run CCTV.
“Though many of them were annoyed by the ritual, they still went through it in fear of being edged out by other colleagues. In fact, a few stewardesses were labeled ‘asocial’ and ‘cocky’ after they refused the ritual,” CCTV reported, citing another article.
The original Weibo post, from an account called Civil Aviation Tabloid, indicated the new flight crew members were “forced into lockers by security staff upon completing 30 to 50 hours of service,” BBC reported.
But a separate post appeared to say the facts of the story have been “distorted” and that the crew is “very harmonious” and the stunt was just “spare time joking with each other.”
Apparently, flight attendants crawling into the bins on empty isn’t unheard of. Several photos can be found on Instagram and other social media sites having a laugh by stowing themselves into the overhead compartment.
Here’s a handful of the photos shared on Instagram using the hashtag #overheadbin.
And here’s a video of an American Airlines flight attendant climbing not so gracefully out of the luggage bin.
Some compartments have room for two.
https://instagram.com/p/ydiSvvmyIK/?taken-by=sandiegoskygirl
And, yes, the compartment can still close even with a person inside.
Even some passengers take the opportunity to try it out.
Global News reached out to American Airlines and JetBlue, two of the airlines whose flight crew were seen in photos posted on Instagram, to confirm what policies they had with regard to staff climbing into overhead bins to pose for photos and whether that poses any risk to the integrity of the compartment.
Global News was still waiting for a response at the time of publication.
As far as what passengers are allowed to stow in the overhead compartment, the baggage size is somewhat smaller than your average flight attendant.
For American Airlines passengers, as an example, the specifications are 56 cm in length by 36 cm in width and 23 centimetres in height. The maximum weight, according to a travel tip guide from USA Today, is 40 pounds.
JetBlue’s website states the allowable dimensions for one carry-on bag must not exceed 55.88 cm in length, 35.56 cm in width and 22.86 cm in height. The maximum weight for a piece of carry-on luggage was not specified.
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