Things you never knew about Virgin Atlantic

Whether you consider yourself an aviation geek, or you’re just interested in knowing a bit more about the aircraft that take you off to exotic places, then Virgin Atlantic has you covered. They’re sharing some interesting facts about their fleet and their airline…

1. Screen wipes

On the flight deck of every plane is a small packet of anti-static wipes. Virgin Atlantic’s pilots use these wipes to keep their instruments clean and smear free. The wipes are made especially for aircraft instruments and come in separate wet and dry wipes.

2. Hidden ladders

Some aircraft have a ladder that comes down from the front wheel bay to help engineers access computers and electronics. On the Airbus A330, Airbus A340 and Boeing 747, the avionics bay can be accessed via the self-contained ladder in the nose wheel bay.

3. Cabin crew watches

Every member of Virgin Atlantic cabin crew is required to wear a watch to work – it can be a smart watch but it needs to have an analogue display with a second hand. Some emergency procedures require precise timing and synchronising watches with the pilots. In fact, it’s so important that cabin crew aren’t allowed to fly if they haven’t got a watch on their wrist.

4. Cabin crew gloves

It might surprise you to discover that cabin crew have eight different pairs of gloves that they might wear during their duties on a flight. Galley gloves, oven gloves, food delivery gloves, clearing in gloves, gloves for administering first aid, biohazard gloves, fire gloves, and toilet gloves. These enable crew to deal with any number of situations that can occur on a long haul flight.

Oh and there’s one more pair of gloves cabin crew have – a pair of black gloves to wear with their uniform in cold climates.

For more little facts about Virgin Atlantic’s planes and people, head over to the Virgin Atlantic blog.