easyJet video reveals secret hand signals flight crew use to talk about you

The airline's video includes the signals for a stag do, an unrecognisable celebrity - and a croque monsieur

If you always wondered whether cabin crew were talking about you on a flight, easyJet has answered: they are.

The airline has released a video on YouTube running through some of the secret hand signals they use on flights.

Many are for customers ordering from the inflight menu – especially dishes that need to be heated in the galley or might be stored in another trolley.

A request for a bacon baguette will see cabin crew flattening their nose into a pig’s snout, a croque monsieur gets them snapping their hands like a duck quacking, and a vegetable wrap sees the crew spinning their hands around each other like some bizarre kind of dance move.

Asking for a chicken caesar baguette means an infamous funky chicken-style move.

EasyJet produced the video after Virgin Radio DJ Jamie East noticed staff doing the chicken dance on a flight yesterday, and tweeted the airline asking what was going on.

But it’s not all about the food you’re ordering – sometimes, the airline has revealed, staff are talking about you.

Noticing a stag party, cabin crew will make antlers with their fingers and raise their eyebrows. If there’s a celebrity on board but they can’t think who it is, they’ll do an old-school film-making movement. And a passenger stuck – or, possibly, spending too long – in the toilet is flagged up with a classic boxed-in mime.

EasyJet serves over six million passengers per month, and the airline says the hand signals speed up onboard service. Perhaps the beleaguered British Airways, still coming under fire for its slow service since introducing paid-for food in economy this year, can take a leaf out of its orange rival’s book.

There are, of course, even more secret hand signals flight attendants use when they want to communicate something more personal about you. But don’t expect easyJet to be revealing those any time soon.