As with so many terms and customs in aviation, "Souls on board" has nautical origins. It's been around since the Wright brothers. It's one of the bits of information included on every flight plan, whether VFR or IFR. The purpose is to make sure everyone is accounted for in an emergency. For example, when Sully went into the Hudson, they make sure that the number of people picked up matches the SOBs.

I'm not sure why this phrase persists, but perhaps it eliminates exchanges such as:

ATC: "How many people on board?"

Pilot: "185"

ATC: "Does that include crew?"

Pilot: "Uh, no, we also have a crew of four."

ATC: "So you have 189 people on board."

Pilot: "Yes, plus the pilots."

ATC: "Oh, so that's 191 now."

Also, we sometimes have "infants in arms", i.e. with no assigned seats (aka lap children). They don't count for weight and balance, but they do figure in the SOB count.

^^ Thanks for the info. Although now I'm kind of disappointed that they don't use the abbreviation SOBs.

That could lead to all sorts of confusion, though:

ATC: How many SOBs?

Pilot: Well, the person in 9A has been kind of a dick...

I always thought "souls" on board was just a common slang term. I say "POB" cause I don't want to get into spiritual debates with ATC.

Would an emotional support pony be include in the SOB count?

I assume you're asking that as a joke, but just in case...the answer is no.

If I'm in an emergency situation and it's time to declare fuel state (reported in time, not volume, as in "two hours, 30 minutes") and souls on board, I'd give them the number of humans, but I think I'd also add a remark about any animals I know about. (I add the disclaimer because I only have direct knowledge of animals in cargo. I may or may not know of any animals in the cabin. There is no requirement for me to know that.)

I always thought "souls" was for differentiating between people and bodies.

Man, just after you jump into the 737...

I just assume that it's standard lingo so everyone worldwide uses the same term for the same thing for clarity.

Yes, sorry - what I meant was that I thought the lingo had evolved to "souls" in order to express the number of lives still potentially at risk.

Not to take away from Woxof great explanation but this article I came across today explains everything as well for SWA 1380

http://blogs.harvard.edu/philg/2018/...ht-attendants/


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Excellent article.

I love the joke about the airline pilot renting a single engine Cessna (which I will be doing tomorrow afternoon):

One of the things that really gets hammered during training is CRM, crew resource management. It's strongly suggested that the Captain should turn over the flying duties to the First Officer, which allows the Captain to manage the emergency, talking to ATC, flight attendants and anyone else that it makes sense to include, e.g. maintenance, dispatcher, medical resource (called STAT MD for Delta, a direct link to the University of Pittsburgh). If the Captain elects to remain the PF (Pilot Flying) it will distract from his/her ability to manage the event and there will probably be a lot of situations where the FO, talking to ATC or others, has to check with the Captain when faced with a question. Just not optimum and, after all, the FO is trained to the same standards as far as ability to fly the plane.

We rely on the FAs for information about what's going on in the cabin. Pre-911, one of the pilots could actually go back into the cabin if it was deemed to be necessary and appropriate, but now we lock down the cockpit in any emergency (although the Captain has ultimate authority and could override this if it's in the best interest of safety in his/her opinion).

Once the Captain has a plan, s/he communicates the essentials to the lead FA, including time remaining until landing, whether an evacuation is planned or likely, and any special instructions (e.g. “use right side exits only”). The FAs have different preparation plans depending on the amount of time allotted.

How much of this stuff do you have to know as a pilot, and how much of this was this guy looking into it to answer viewer's questions?

I knew everything he talked about in this video and I think most pilots could say that. I think he did a very good job of explaining the subject matter. I would be surprised if there are any pilots who fly the 737 that don't know what those "pods" are under the wing (they're actually called flap fairings), but there may be some who would stumble if asked to discuss the workings of the FSEU.

Stumbled upon this very good video of a 380 aborting and going around. Any idea of the reason?



Here is a comment on the video from a passenger.

Same flight, not quite as close of a view.



I've seen comments that suggest the plane floated past the touchdown marks and possibly would have run out of runway by the time they got it down.

That was my first thought when I saw the video. To go around after getting that low over the runway means that either (1) the tower said to go around (which they would do if a vehicle or other airplane was on the runway) or (2) the crew determined that the plane would not touchdown within the touchdown zone, which is defined as the first third of the runway or the first 3000', whichever is less. Runway 08L at Vancouver is 9940' long, so the TDZ is the first 3000'.

It does irritate me that the pilots didn't make a PA about the go around. Maybe they didn't want to admit what happened.

Haha. Maybe like the "deer on the runaway" PA announcement they gave us when we did a go around at the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport?

You'd be surprised how much wildlife gets on and around the runways. Deer are crafty mfers!

That one could be true. I had deer on the runway late at night at Martinsburg, WV while doing a training flight with new hires.

I would be curious to hear your take on so-called “fume events” (e.g., https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4b6eb830&opt=0). Is this something you worry about as a pilot? Do you feel your company would support you if you delayed or diverted due to complaints about fumes? Is this issue discussed openly among pilots?

That was an interesting article. Thanks for giving me something else to worry about.

I've never heard this as a topic of discussion among pilots and I don't have first hand experience with any fume events that I recall (of course, lack of memory is one of the symptoms, so...?). After reading that article, I will be on the alert for any smell of old socks.

If there was a situation where a smell was so bad that I felt the need to divert, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get in trouble for that decision. In every case I can think of, the company has backed up its Captains when they exercise their command authority.

While nothing to that extreme, I've gotten nauseous while waiting to take off and we were sucking in the fumes from the taxiing plane in front of us. Can you control whether you are recirculating internal air and when the plane is taking in outside air?

....unless the pilot works for Allegiant Air

Anytime the airplane's packs (pressurization and air conditioning systems) are on, the air being used is supplied from either the APU or the engine(s). In normal cruise flight, engine air is the source and is tapped off of one of the compression stages in the engine (exactly which compressor stage varies with engine design). Thus, the source air is high pressure and temperature. The air is cooled by expansion and then supplied to the cabin.

There are recirculation fans which aid in distributing the air, often drawing in air from the cargo compartment. For that reason, we sometimes have the recirc fans off on the ground if it's a hot summer day, because they defeat the benefit of any conditioned air which is hooked up to the plane.

Since the only source of air to the packs is via the engine intake, it's going to be affected by whatever the ambient air contains and there's little we do about it other than try to avoid being too close and directly downwind of another planes' exhaust.

After getting de-iced, we purposely delay turning the packs on for at least a minute after application of the glycol, to avoid that "maple syrup" smell of the glycol.

My first and only experience with de-icing was coming out of JFK the morning after it got closed during the so-called Bomb Cyclone in mid-February. They warned us about the smell so as not to freak us out.

Another somewhat amusing aspect of that flight was that part of our departure delay was due to waiting on the water truck because the water had frozen in two of the three trucks that normally service the planes.