An experienced pilot has confessed he is often left as baffled as the public by one common question.
The TikTok user @PerchPoint boasts more than 15,000 followers on his account where he shares tales and insights from the cockpit, but admitted people often ‘overestimate’ the knowledge of pilots and crew when it comes to navigating an airport.
“The general public overestimates what pilots and air crew actually know,” he conceded. “If someone stops me and asks for directions to their gate, or maybe information about their flight, I am happy to help because, obviously, we are more familiar with the system and understanding how this stuff works.
“But, in the grand scheme of things, we don’t have special access – or necessarily more information about someone’s flight, other than our own.
“So, 99.9% of the time, what ends up happening when someone asks me about their flight all I do is pull out Google and ask ‘hey, what’s your flight number? ‘ [and relay the information from there].”
Many of the pilot’s followers were surprised to discover he had the same information as everyone else in the airport regarding different flights.
“They probably believe you pulled that information from a cool, super secret Pilot App! ” one follower commented.
The pilot elaborated: “If someone approaches me and their flight is delayed, and they’re a little curious about it, I’ll go a step further and I’ll pull it up on FlightAware and [on the app] you can click ‘where is my flight now?’ We don’t have special access to stuff or infinite knowledge – we just use Google.”
The American pilot also creates content on a variety of topics requested by his followers which includes everything from the necessity of phone’s airplane mode to queries he has for his more seasoned colleagues in the field.
FlightAware is an application that allows for live tracking of flights offering current flight statuses as well as updates on airport delays.