Audio By Carbonatix
“So you’re sitting in the back of an airplane,” begins Captain Steve Scheibner, an airline pilot with 371,000 TikTok followers. “And you hear this:” A polite “ding” tone chimes through the cabin speakers. “Is that a random ding? Is there a purpose behind that ding?” Well, turns out they aren’t random at all: They’re manually controlled by the pilot.
What do the subtle in-flight “ding” tones mean on an airplane?
Captain Steve explains that pilots use the chimes to communicate with the flight attendants. “I chime the flight attendants three separate times during the flight on purpose.”
The initial alert sounds off when the pilot receives clearance for takeoff. He’ll taxi out to the runway first, making an announcement to the crew to prepare for departure. A short time later, once he’s cleared, he’ll chime. “That’s their final warning: Take a seat, we’re about to take off.”
That specific tone, by the way, is the pilot turning on and off the “No Smoking” signal
Next, as the airplane climbs up through 10,000 feet, he’ll chime again. This time, it’s to signal that it’s safe to get up and begin cabin service.
The pilot will alert the crew a third time, during descent. He’ll first make an announcement to let the flight attendants know to prepare for landing. “As we’re coming back through 10,000 feet, I ding them one more time.” At that point, the fight crew understands they’ve only got a few minutes to get everything battened down and their own seatbelts buckled. “Now you know!” Captain Steve signs off.
