Worried pilot asks passengers to pray

[Dave Noble]

A worried Iranian airline pilot asked passengers to start praying after his plane was hit by a technical glitch early on Thursday, highlighting once again the notorious record of Tehran's aircraft.

The Aseman Airlines Boeing plane had taken off from Tehran airport after a six-hour delay, but had to return following a technical fault, the ISNA news agency quoted a passenger as recounting.

Full article at Worried pilot asks passengers to pray

Dave

[dede]

Perhaps this is similar to Alaskan Airlines and the printed prayer they give you with your meal in First Class.
Or perhaps the Qantas Club before 2pm where you're expected to turn water into wine!

[Flying Fox]

Well in 2000, I was on a domestic Egypt Air flight and the pilot announces the usual stuff about where we are going etc but then says, 'but before we take off I would like to read a few words from the Koran.'

That got me a bit worried and I don't worry about flying... normally.

Just before landing he also announced that we would shortly be landing in Luxor, God willing.

Not really something that I wanted to hear from the pilot.

[drewbles]

Perhaps this is similar to Alaskan Airlines and the printed prayer they give you with your meal in First Class.

I was wondering what the heck that was for as well. I don't need a prayer, I just need more Gin

I'm all for respecting customs of countries you visit, but not sure if prayers should be put onto cards on trays or words from any religious text read over the PA to passengers. Sometimes it's just better to say nothing I reckon.

[Flashware]

Royal Brunei is another airline I can think of that has a prayer on the main screen IFE before the flight takes off.

[docjames]

If I was on board an Aseman flight, i'd be praying before takeoff. And at the same time wondering what i was doing!

[MrHyde]

Both Jazeera Airways and Bahrain Air have a short Arabic prayer before take-off. I think it is just a feature of Middle Eastern airlines. The first time, that caught be a mid off guard, but am used it now.

[harvyk]

Meh, depends how it is said...

If it is said in a way of "this is routine" then I'd have no problem with it (I'm not religious, but I have no problem with someone else incorporating religious into their lives)

But I'd probably get nervious if it was said in a way of "say your prayers as this plane will never be able to take off again..."

[samh004]

Full article at Worried pilot asks passengers to pray

Dave

The thing to take from this article is that the US and EU and blocking them from buying the parts they need to fix their existing planes, and thus you get accidents.

Sure, they're a bit dodgy, but should you really be telling them they can't have the right spare parts and condemning all their passengers to a worrying flight?

[codash1099]

The thing to take from this article is that the US and EU and blocking them from buying the parts they need to fix their existing planes, and thus you get accidents.

Sure, they're a bit dodgy, but should you really be telling them they can't have the right spare parts and condemning all their passengers to a worrying flight?

There's no excuse for an airline operating A/C that are in need of repairs to the extent that prayer is needed to keep them up.

And regrettably, sometimes the populace has to bear the cost of the decisions of their government.