Here’s what the the triangle stickers above your airplane seat mean

Ever notice how life is often so busy, with so much going on, that you can miss things that are occurring right in front of your face?

Well, don’t worry if you do. You’re certainly not the only one, in any case. Heck, I’m the type of person who can spend five minutes looking for my cellphone while I’m holding my… cellphone.

In any case, I think the majority of us will agree that in the modern world being perfectly present in the moment can be difficult, as can be processing things that you might swear were never there just a few hours later.

This happened to me recently after an airplane journey, sending me down a rabbit hole of information that I never even knew I wanted to learn…

It all started when I arrived at my brother’s house after a plane ride and he asked me where I’d sat on the plane. A fairly normal question, I’m sure you’ll agree, and yet it set in motion a fact-finding mission that took the better part of an hour.

The long and short of it is that after I told him my seat had been in line with the wings of the airplane, he said I must have therefore been sitting under a black or red triangle sticker positioned just above my window.

I told him that I hadn’t. There’s simply no way I would have missed a sticker above my window. Not to mention the fact that I’d never seen such a sticker before – and I fly a lot.

I was certain he was having me on, but after some researching online it turned out he was telling the truth. There are black or red triangular stickers on the inside of airplanes – four of them, in fact – and since I took the time to learn what they stand for and what they mean, I guess it can’t do any harm to pass on the knowledge.

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While they might seem insignificant to passengers (that’s if you ever spot them at all), the triangles can be important tools for flight attendants and pilots. The markers line up with the airplane’s wings, you see; one points to the front and the other to the back of the wing.

As per Travel + Leisure, when the wings need to be inspected, pilots and flight attendants use the aforementioned triangles as guides to locate the exact position. This is especially helpful when checking the wing’s moving parts, including the flaps and slats, for problems such as ice buildup.

Good to know

Not only that, but the stickers can actually be of assistance to passengers too, particularly those unfortunate enough to suffer from motion sickness. Since the wings mark the center of a plane’s gravity, sitting close to them places you in the middle of the seesaw, as it were, which in turn means you feel the least movement.

Basically, choosing a spot close to one of the stickers can help people get a smoother, less turbulent flight.

Have you spotted these stickers before? Did you know what their main purpose is? Let us know in the comments

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Good to know

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