When we flew from Girona (Spain) to Brno (Czech Republic) for my brother’s wedding, the Spanish passengers clapped when the plane landed. It was a picture perfect day weather-wise, no mid-air bumps worth noting, and the landing was “brisk” but uneventful. Tim and I were confused by the celebration. But we chuckled, muttered how cute it was for them to applaud your basic, by-the-book landing.
The cheers erupted again when we touched ground on the return trip, a flight peopled by a whole new set of Spanish passengers, a handful of Czechs, and us. Once more we’d had blue skies, smooth flight, your basic landing experience. Is this something that Spanish do for every flight, we wondered? If there’s turbulence, do they throw a block party all the way to the gate?
We’ll fly out of Girona often enough that I suppose we’ll find out.
A couple weeks later I mentioned this little story to a friend who saw the whole thing completely differently. Her response, which I quote, “everyone should clap and cheer when a plane lands successfully.”
You know, she’s on to something.
