Luís wrote:Landing a plane without crashing is the norm and pilots do it every day. When the whole plane reacts enthusiastically to a rather normal event, it's almost as if they doubted the pilots would be able to do it properly.
This hinges on the unquestioned assumption that people clap out of relief, and I don't know if I can take that at face value. The people seemed to cheer (unless cheering in Serbian has totally different pragmatics than it does in Greek or English).
I am not in those people minds (so I don't know either way), but I never had the tendency to clap out of relief, eg when I am a passenger in a really bad driver's car (eg my brother or some of my friends) where I actually fear for my life (if we are talking about about transport-related fears, that's mine: private cars/cars driven by non-professional drivers).
PS. Next time it happens, I think I will join the people. They seem to be having fun, and it's humanising the crowd.