A pilot reveals the meaning of 11 secret flight code words

For most of us, flying is still fundamentally mysterious.

To shed some light on their very own world of commercial flying, NewsABC.net spoke to Patrick Smith, an author and pilot.

Smith, who wrote the book “Cockpit Confidential”, also created a kind of online dictionary with generally misunderstood airline jargon. The collection can be found on the Ask the Pilot website.

According to Smith, some of the terms are highly technological, others are quite humorous, and some are even somewhat absurd.

Here is a selection of the terms.

Editor’s note: The on-board personnel communicate across the airline in English, which is why we have left the generic terms in the original language.

A pilot reveals the meaning of 11 code words that passengers do not understand