If you’re like Gumbo, you’ve spent a fair amount of time on planes, looking around and wondering ‘What is that?’ or ‘Why is that handle there?’ or ‘Why is there a little hole in the window?’
And if you’re like Gumbo, you probably didn’t ask about too many of them, but others have, and Britain’s Telegraph newspaper has provided a handy guide to about a dozen of them.
Among those covered is the reason for those little yellow hooks and loops on the wing above (to thread rescue ropes) and for the little black triangle over one seat on each side of the plane (it marks the ‘William Shatner’ seat, the one that would give Capt. Kirk the best view of a problem with wings, flaps or engines).
My favorite? I never realized that most planes have a sort of handrail built into the bottom edge of the overhead compartments so when you need to head for the head in the middle of the night, you don’t have to wake others by holding onto their seatbacks for support.
Photo: Arpingstone/Wikimedia
