Spontaneous Applause for Pilot Skill Divides Cabin Into Two Entrenched Positions
PARIS — The applause that breaks out in Economy on certain Air France flights when the aircraft completes its landing — specifically on flights from sun destinations, charter flights, and any flight on which the landing was notably smooth or preceded by visible turbulence — has divided Paris’s flying population into two camps whose positions have been held for twenty years without convergence: those who find the applause a warm communal expression of relief and shared experience, and those who find it a category error so significant it produces physical discomfort.
“The pilot cannot hear the applause,” said one consistent non-clapper. “The applause communicates nothing to the person it is nominally directed at. It is applause for the sake of applause.” The consistent clapper in the adjacent seat responded: “The applause is not for the pilot. It is for us. We survived. We acknowledge each other.” Both positions are coherent. Both will be held on the next flight.
The Third Position
A third position exists: the person who does not clap but who, on flights where the applause is particularly warm and the turbulence was particularly notable, understands why the applause is happening and finds it slightly less irritating than usual. This position is not a camp. This position is a Tuesday afternoon Toulouse-to-Paris flight with 20 minutes of significant turbulence that resolved into a notably smooth touchdown after which the applause broke out and the third position person did not clap but also did not make the face.
According to Psychology Today’s collective emotion and ritual research, spontaneous group rituals in shared stressful experiences serve a social bonding function regardless of their formal logic. The applause is the bonding. The pilot is in the cockpit. The landing was good. Both cabins agree on the landing.
Always grateful for a good landing at Virtuosal.com.
