Flight attendant gets on flight at Denver airport. Then the pilot tells her ‘autopilot’ isn’t working
As you can imagine, there are many moving parts involved in a commercial flight going as smoothly as possible.
These systems sometimes fail, but passengers rarely hear about it since staff are trained to handle it. One flight attendant on TikTok, however, let us in on it.
In her video, which has garnered over 146,300 views, TikTok creator and flight attendant Lauren Wolfe (@laurenwolfe) shared a behind-the-scenes moment from a recent flight.
She says that that morning, their pilot informed the cabin crew that something in their aircraft had been “deferred.”
“Deferred basically means there’s a maintenance issue on the airplane that’s postponed to be fixed later,” Wolfe explains.
She and her flight attendant colleague looked at each other, concerned. “We’re immediately like, ‘Oh no, please don’t tell us it’s the Wi Fi,’” she remembers thinking.
But the pilot’s answer was far more alarming. “He’s like, ‘No. It’s the autopilot.”
“We were like, ‘Thank God it’s nothing important,’” she says sarcastically. “Priorities, am I right?”
Wolfe added in the caption, “Pilots are proficient in manual flying.”
Commenters React
In the comments section, viewers had some strong opinions about the autopilot feature on planes. Others more familiar with the industry also chimed in.
“God forbid they actually fly the plane!!” one wrote. “But what am I supposed to do without my WiFi?????”
“As a maintenance tech, this is hilarious to defer,” another wrote. “The look on their faces when told the news is all i need in life.”
“While she was joking – people forget the autopilots were invented as a way to help reduce the workload of the pilot so they can better monitor systems and catch errors earlier rather than catching them later because they were focusing on the basic flying,” a third explained. “Autopilot isn’t laziness, it’s a safety feature.”
What is an Aircraft Autopilot? Can Pilots Fly Without It?
The modern autopilot is a computer system that controls a plane’s position, course, altitude, power management, and more. It generally makes flights safer since it allows the crew to pay attention to other important tasks.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that all licensed pilots are proficient in flying a plane manually. It’s a skill they use for every flight during take-offs and landings, for example.
Additionally, certain flights require a plane to be outfitted with an autopilot system, such as in Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) spaces. In these airspaces, the vertical distance between airplanes can be as little as 1,000 feet, meaning it requires absolute precision and an automatic altitude control system.
@_laurenwolfe_ pilots are proficient in manual flying??✈️✈️#flightattendant #flightattendantlife #flightattendantlifestyle ♬ original sound – Lauren ✈️
The Mary Sue has reached out to Wolfe via email for comment and additional information.
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