V-Flyer

I was on the VS002 out of Newark on Friday on board Emmeline Heaney.

Just as the crew started the dinner service in Premium Economy there were three fairly loud single BONGS.

Not heard this before - the crew in the cabin all glanced at each other and one started to put the trolley away an then thought better of it. The meal service continued and nothign elase was said.

What did that series of three bongs mean?

As a mere passenger I take 3 bongs to mean "prepare for take off"

If they were in the air already no wonder they looked at each other!!! Maybe they wondered if the Captain was going to engage warp drive and visit another galaxy....

We were already in the air. The prepare for take off sound is different - that is two bongs and is accompanied by the no smoking sign flash. This was three bongs in quick sucession and sounded louder.

Each airline is different, but I think I read somewhere that it means that a toilet smoke alarm has been activated - BUT, that might not be the case on VS...

Vis a vis "Emmeline Heaney". Interesting to see VS's definition of "one year".

Just to add to my previous post - there are various signals incorporating numbers of "bongs" and in fact the pitch - there is a high and a low "bong".

As far as I understand it, 5 bongs in a row is the one to take notice of!

I am fairly sure that 3 bongs in quick succession on VS means that a toilet smoke detector has been activated.

This has been asked before here

Is a ping different from a bong though?

Very different

I foolishly googled "3 bongs in flight" and got more results about drug paraphernalia than aircraft procedure.

but the best answer I could find was here saying it was an "unplanned circumstance"

Decker wrote:Vis a vis "Emmeline Heaney". Interesting to see VS's definition of "one year".

Well the fact they said the entire fleet would be in the new livery in 2 years about 18 months ago says they work on different timings to the rest of us!