April 29, 2026, 1:11 pm | Read time: 6 minutes
Who doesn’t enjoy chatting with colleagues about others? Flight attendants also exchange stories—sometimes about passengers. To keep the gossip private, they use codes, many of which are known industry-wide. Even in real danger situations, there are specific words or number sequences only the crew knows. Insiders have shared them with TRAVELBOOK.
A flight attendant’s need to communicate can be immense, such as when a passenger orders their tenth whiskey or another keeps staring at a colleague. Or when a dangerous situation arises or someone has died—always remember: keep quiet and stay calm! Passengers must not be panicked, nor should they be treated rudely. To communicate on board, the crew uses secret codes.
Overview
A German flight attendant says, “We have some technical terms that outsiders often identify as codes. For example, the galley is our onboard kitchen, the BIN is the overhead luggage compartment, the passenger is a PAX to us, and so on. If we say Delta is broken, it means toilet D. Or if a colleague tells me during boarding that passenger 11Alpha needs extensions, it means the passenger in row 11, seat A, needs an extension belt.”
Another detail you might have wondered about, the flight attendant reveals: “If HC comes over the loudspeaker during boarding, it means headcount. We count all passengers except the babies.”
Also interesting: This is why flight attendants really stand in the airplane door during boarding
For Private Conversations, There Are Signal Words
In most cases, the biggest topic of conversation for the cabin crew is the behavior or appearance of passengers. This was even announced on German television some time ago. Back then, flight attendant Natalie Reis revealed on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” how she and her colleagues secretly indicate when they find a passenger attractive. They would greet customers perceived as attractive with “Welcome aboard,” while the rest would receive just a “Hello” or “Welcome.”
Admittedly, this is a code that could exist anywhere, not just on planes. But there is supposedly another code to assess passenger attractiveness on the plane. A former flight attendant told the Australian radio station Kyle & Jackie O about a code related to the seat number. If you want to point out that you find the passenger in seat 7D attractive, you say to your colleague, “I might do 7 days in Denmark.” If it’s the passenger in seat 5A, you say, “I might do 5 days in America.”
In Germany, this code is apparently not common. In response to a TRAVELBOOK inquiry, flight attendant Simone Achternbosch said she “had never heard of it.” “To talk about such topics, we didn’t have codes. We just retreated to the galley (airplane kitchen) and talked about it there.”
“A lot is conveyed through facial expressions when you want to hint something to a colleague if someone is behaving rudely,” says a 24-year-old flight attendant who wishes to remain anonymous. “You might raise your eyebrows or roll your eyes. It really starts in the galley. Curtain closed, and then you can make a comment or two about the passengers. But even there, you have to be careful because the curtain isn’t very soundproof.”
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What Does the Code “Mermaid” Mean?
If you’re sitting on a plane and hear a crew member say “mermaid,” it’s probably not referring to the mythical creature with a human upper body and fish tail. “To my understanding, it’s a code word among flight personnel or attendants for passengers who take up more space on their seat or ‘spread their legs,'” the online magazine “Travel+Leisure” quotes U.S. pilot Kolin Jones.
“Forbes” describes “Mermaid” as a “passive-aggressive nickname for a passenger who spreads out over multiple seats to prevent others from sitting in their row,” adding that this is “particularly common on less crowded flights where more free seats can be claimed.”
Deceased Passengers Have a Code Name
In Germany, a deceased passenger is called “Hugo.” “In airline circles, a Hugo refers to passengers being transported as a corpse or passengers who died during the flight, according to German pilot Biedenkapp. Hugo stands for “human gone” or, in German, “Heute unerwartet gestorbenes Objekt” (today’s unexpectedly deceased object). Also common worldwide is the term “HR.” The abbreviation stands for “human remains,” in German: sterbliche Überreste.
Some airlines in the U.S. and also in Germany refer to their deceased guests as Jim Wilson: “We actually call the deceased that,” confirms a flight attendant who wishes to remain anonymous and works for a major German airline, when asked by TRAVELBOOK. However, it happens much less frequently. The origin of the name Jim Wilson is unknown.
Read more here: When there’s a deceased on board, the aircraft crew uses a specific code word
Why dying during a flight is often not technically possible
Why Some Flight Attendants Sit on Their Hands During Takeoff and Landing
Jesus and the Miracle Flight
Besides potential date partners and a deceased, there are, of course, various other reasons to talk about passengers on board. For example, when they don’t behave as they should. This includes people who exploit the fact that sick or elderly individuals are given priority at check-in or passport control by initially drawing attention to their illness, which then seems to be “forgotten” or “healed” after receiving preferential treatment. For this phenomenon, which is unclear how often it actually occurs, the term “Miracle Flight” is apparently used, according to “Focus Online.”
Even though it might seem so, “Baby Jesus” has nothing to do with miracles. It’s not a compliment but rather a warning for the rest of the aircraft crew. Allegedly, particularly spoiled children, pampered by their parents, are referred to this way. “Baby Jesus” in this scenario is the child of helicopter parents who let their offspring tyrannize the plane.
Also interesting: 9 phrases flight attendants don’t want to hear
Codes for Danger Situations on the Plane
As amusing as the previous codes are, there are also those with a truly serious background. These are transponder codes used when a crime has occurred on board or there is danger. Professional pilot Patrick Biedenkapp, who blogs about his life as a pilot, has shared the macabre messages with us: “Through a four-digit code set by the crew, the radar controller knows the situation of the aircraft. A transponder code, also called Squawk, is assigned to each aircraft during radar clearance.”
The pilot can change this at any time to send the following messages to the radar station:
7500: If you feel a knife means: Aircraft hijacked
7600: If you hear nix means: No radio communication possible
7700: If you go to heaven means: Emergency
The English phrases for the numbers are mnemonic devices for memorization. “A knife” rhymes with the first two digits 75, pronounced in English, “seven-five.” “Hear nix” rhymes with seven-six, and “to heaven” with seven-seven. Because the meaning of the codes is so important, especially aspiring pilots memorize the numbers this way.