legends · 4 min read ·
Seat 14C
A purser's report on seat 14C describes a passenger who orders a meal for a wife who is not on the manifest.
**Cabin Safety Report — Flight 417 (overnight), Long Haul. Filed by: J. Moreno, Purser.**
**Aircraft: wide-body, 3-class. Sectors: outbound 22:40 departure; return same aircraft.**
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**Section 1. Event summary.**
During the meal service, approximately 2h40 after departure, a passenger in 14C (Mr. R. Dalby, 58, travelling alone) rang his call bell and asked the crew member, Ms. Singh, whether his companion could be given a vegetarian meal. Ms. Singh asked which companion. Mr. Dalby indicated the empty seat beside him, 14B, and said, "My wife."
14B was unoccupied. The manifest showed no passenger. Ms. Singh said, politely, that the seat was empty. Mr. Dalby looked at the seat and laughed in an embarrassed way, and said he was very sorry, he was tired. He took the tray.
**Section 2. Further events.**
At 04:10 (cruise) I was in the aisle doing a cabin check when Mr. Dalby, still awake, asked me quietly whether I would mind adjusting the air vent over 14B. His wife felt the cold.
I said I would. I reached up and adjusted the nozzle. I want to record that the nozzle was already angled away from the seat, and had been, according to the flight log, since the aircraft was cleaned.
I then felt a flow of warm air against my wrist. The vent was set to cold.
**Section 3. Action taken.**
I asked Mr. Dalby, privately, in the galley, whether he was feeling well. He said he was fine, but would I be so kind as to bring his wife a blanket. He said it as one says a thing in a long habit of saying it, no strain.
I asked how long they had been married. He said thirty-one years. I asked, as gently as I could, whether his wife had been travelling with him on this flight. He said, "She always travels with me. She hates to fly. She likes to hold my arm on the descent."
I brought the blanket. I put it on 14B. I did not know what else to do.
**Section 4. Passenger statements.**
Passengers in 13B, 13C, 15A and 15C were asked, in the course of routine service, whether they had any concerns. The passenger in 15A, a Ms. T. Heron, said unprompted, "The woman in 14B is very quiet." She said the woman was in a blue cardigan and had been looking out of the window for the whole flight, and that she had a nice face.
The passenger in 13C said he had seen no one in 14B.
**Section 5. Landing.**
On the descent at approx 06:50 local I made a walk-through for seatbelts. All were fastened. Mr. Dalby had his left arm held out stiffly beside him on the armrest, a little away from his body, in the manner of a man who is offering it.
On landing I stayed with the seat until the cabin had cleared. Mr. Dalby, the last to go, took down his bag, thanked the crew, and said to the seat, in the gentlest way, "Come along, love."
The blanket on 14B was folded. I had not folded it.
**Section 6. Post-flight.**
Engineers examined 14B. The seat cushion was warm. The seat belt was done up, with the buckle in the correct position, as if for a person of about my size.
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**Supplementary note (Purser, three weeks later).**
I have flown the same aircraft four times since. The seat map shows 14B sold on each. On each flight it has been empty, and on each, at approximately 04:00, some passenger has pressed the call bell from the surrounding rows to say that the lady in the aisle seat looks unwell.
I attended each call. Each time there has been a gentleman in 14C. A different one every flight. Each travelling alone, each in his fifties, each in the same grey wool jersey.
I asked one of them, a Mr. Hayes, what he thought of the woman beside him. He said, "I don't mind her." Then, after a pause: "She's very familiar. I can't think where I know her from."
I've decided not to put any of this in the report. I have told the company that 14B has a faulty belt mechanism and recommended that it be blocked from sale. The request is with Engineering.
I have also, in the pocket of my uniform jacket, begun to carry a small blue cardigan, in a plastic bag. I don't know why. It was handed to me, folded, at the end of the last flight, by Mr. Hayes, with the words, "I think this belongs to the lady." There was no lady. It smells of lavender. It is exactly my size.