No, it’s not a joke. It turns out pilots on Emirates A380s can’t sleep due to passenger noise penetrating to their resting area. In any other aircraft, engine noise will drown most of this out, but a new A380 is much more quiet – which apparently isn’t always a good thing.
So, what do you do? You can’t insulate the doors and walls, as that would weigh too much. A possible option is to install ambient noise generators. One wonders what ambient noise would work best, probably revving A340 engines.
In hindsight, perhaps telling Airbus to place the resting area in the aft instead of immediately behind the cockpit, wasn’t a great idea from Emirates.
December 12th, 2008 on 10:35
This I like, finally an airline that has it’s priorities straight. What’s more important passenger comfort or pilot comfort? It’s a no-brainer