A Wizz Air cabin crew instructor has disclosed that flight attendants employ a confidential acronym while greeting passengers at the aircraft door, a practice rooted in safety protocols rather than mere courtesy.
Secret Acronym for Safety Checks
Gabriel Randone, a Wizz Air Cabin Crew Instructor, told the Mirror that cabin crew conduct a "mental scan of passengers" to verify everyone is fit to fly. He stated that crew are trained in a secret acronym used during this process, though the specific acronym remains undisclosed to passengers.
The instructor explained that crew assess whether any passenger appears aggressive or intoxicated, and remain vigilant for medical conditions that could prevent safe travel. "The goal is safety," Gabriel said.
Emergency Exit Row Seating
Passengers seated near emergency exit rows may notice crew lingering nearby for similar reasons. Gabriel revealed that staff are trained to evaluate travellers because certain "categories of passengers" are not allowed to sit adjacent to emergency exits.
Wizz Air's website states: "For safety purposes, regulations prohibit passengers under 16 years old, overweight passengers, individuals with special needs, expectant mothers, and those travelling with infants (under two years old) from occupying Extra Legroom or Front Row seats." Those seated in these rows must be capable of opening exits during an emergency and receive a briefing confirming this.
Able-Bodied Persons (ABPs) for Emergencies
If emergency exit rows are unbooked, crew select an "able-bodied person" (ABP) to relocate there. "Sometimes, because the flights might not be fully booked, there would be no one close to the emergency exits," Gabriel explained. "So what we need to do is to select someone who we call an ABP, an able-bodied person, and select them and to move them close to the emergency exits so that they can help out in case of an emergency."
In an emergency, the passenger would remove the safety cover from the door and pull a lever to open it. Gabriel emphasised the urgency: "In an emergency, our priority is to get you out as quickly as possible. We only have 90 seconds to evacuate a full cabin with 239 passengers."
