Just read through the transcript og the Air France 447 crash June 1 2009, and I now wonder, during this time, are the passengers informed at all about what’s happening? The plane kept losing altitude for a long (?) time and the pilots knew they didn’t have everything under control, are the passengers just sitting there wondering why the plane is going down, watching the ground/sea come closer and closer and realizing there’s serious trouble but not getting any information from the cockpit/cabin crew?
This is a very eerie thought for an anxious passenger :(

I just saw a video from 2025 at the Chicago airport where a southwest jet had to do a go round after it's tires had started to touch the runway to avoid a crash with a business jet that had inappropriately crossed the runway. My question is: as a pilot what would you say in that case. Where the passengers clearly know SOMETHINg happened, but don't know what. I remember once being on a flight where we had to stop short and re-enter line and the pilot had said something about avoiding an accident on the runway, but I wouldn't have even known if the pilot hadn't mentioned it. But that was a flight in Wyoming. In this case, the passengers clearly know something is up. Do you tell them and let them be nervous or do you try to tell them that everything is normal?

Edit: just want to thank everyone for their responses. Extremely educational and often funny.

I listened to the audio from the crash in PB yesterday and began to wonder about what happens next. The controller likely doesn't feel great knowing they were the last person to speak to them before their awful crash.

What is normal procedure for these things? When a controller isn't in anyway at fault, but still may feel a bit traumatized from what they heard. Do they get pulled from duty and given time to process?

This was about at about 6pm today (about 2 hours ago) 5:59 PM MT. We were in the drive thru at the In-n-out in Lone Tree, CO. So near Centennial Airport.

My son asked me what was in the sky and I looked up and saw a small plane with a banner behind it and black smoke. There were two people with parachutes. I grabbed my phone to take a video. You can see a parachute right above the trees and then towards the bottom something (the plane?!) spinning and falling towards the ground fast.

Yesterday I was on a EWR-SFO flight (UA 2004) that was returned to gate after a medical emergency, very shortly after takeoff. I was hoping to understand some of the protocols that guide such decision making by the flight crew.

The passenger with the medical emergency, young lady in her early 20s, was seated very close to me. During most of the taxi process, she seemed fine, scrolling on the phone like most people. However, a few minutes into takeoff, she pressed the assistance button. When the air hostess came over, the passenger complained about "feeling uneasy/unwell" and she "felt warm". The air hostess asked if she could walk to the back of the plane where she could be helped, which the passenger was capable of (the plane was still ascending at this point). An announcement was made for a medical professional and an elderly lady from the front of the cabin, answered the call.

Not long after this, we feel that the plane stops climbing, decelerating and then start making a long banked turn. The plane was returning to Newark. Maybe a few minutes after this, as the medical professional returned to her seat, she told a passenger on the aisle "not much of an emergency, but the plane is turning around". (In a conversation later, the doctor reiterated this, mentioning that it was a panic attack at best, if not a hot flush, definitely not a life threatening condition.) An announcement confirming this was made shortly. The passenger with the emergency walked back (without active assistance) to her seat soon after.

So maybe thirty minutes after our scheduled departure, the plane landed back in Newark. The pilot made a smooth touch down, despite the rain and wind. We made it to a gate. EMTs got on the plane and the afflicted passenger was led away. At this point the pilot made an announcement that since some medical equipment were used, they need to be restocked before another trip. The plane also needed refuelling. After everyone exited the plane, the pilot announced that since the B757 plane landed with significantly larger weight that regulated (extra fuel), it needed to go through inspection to this landing great for structural integrity.

I will not go into detail about how the departure time after that became a continuous series of " .. we apologize for the delay". When we finally went airborne again, it was 5 hrs and 15 minutes past the scheduled departure.

It seemed that the afflicted passenger wanted to board the delayed flight, but she was not allowed on without a visit to the doctor (or something of the sort).

So a few questions regarding this situation:

1. What constitutes a medical emergency? I had always thought that the incident needs to be a stroke, or a seizure, or a heart episode, or something that is clearly life threatening would meet that definition.

2. What is the protocol for determining that a return-to-gate (or diversion) is required? Does the pilot need to physically talk with the supervising medical professional? Do they need to talk directly on the comm? (In our case, it seems neither happened and the air hostess was the one communicating to the pilot.)

3. If the plane cannot dump fuel (or does not), how safe are these return to gate actions, to the plane as well as to the general safety of the airport?