The Endgame

Newsletter #30 - Deplaning

Port Medway, Nova Scotia, July 2, 2023

Volunteering

The other day I flew on Porter Airlines from Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a pretty routine journey—I’ve done it many times—but on the journey an interesting thing happened that got me thinking.

While we were waiting in the departure lounge to board the plane there was an announcement: “Due to weather conditions we will have to reduce the load on this flight. We need six volunteers willing to travel to Halifax on a later flight. Each volunteer will receive a $600 travel voucher.” There was sudden activity at the Porter counter. A queue of volunteers, I guessed, all eager to get the travel voucher.

After a while the flight boarded. We sat on the plane. Nothing happened. No reassuring start-up of engines. Then a Porter official arrived on board and there was another announcement: “We are one volunteer short. We need one more person. Please put up your hand if you are prepared to volunteer. If no one volunteers in the next two minutes, one person will be deplaned involuntarily.”

Deplaned involuntarily? There was nervousness in the cabin. Passengers studied their laps, peered out the window, checked their phones, anything to avoid eye contact with the stern Porter person. It looked like nobody wanted to volunteer (even though the offered voucher was now worth $800 and, ominously, hotel accommodation had been thrown in—why would you need a hotel?) No volunteers. Everyone was intent on getting to Halifax sooner rather than later.

Who would airline officials pick to “deplane involuntarily” if it came to that? Surely not me, an old guy with a cane (I hurt my back recently). How would they choose the deplanee, particularly in our fraught age of identity politics—think of the bad publicity and bitter human rights litigation if they chose unwisely (Sexist! Racist! Ageist! Anti-LGBTQ2S+! Etc.). And suppose the person they picked refused to cooperate? Would he be dragged off kicking and screaming? And where does an airline get the legal authority to deplane passengers who don’t want to be deplaned?

By the way, people do get dragged off planes kicking and screaming. Here’s a video of a famous incident (to be clear, it happened on a United Airlines flight, not Porter):

After a few tense minutes an older man stood up, raised his hand, and made his way to the exit. Everyone clapped. “Don’t thank me,” he said loudly, turning around to address the other passengers as his wife joined him in the aisle, “thank the missus.” The older man and his missus deplaned. Voluntarily. Why did they do it? Who knows. I’m doubtful that the travel voucher and promise of a hotel room were the reason.

Everyone on that plane faced a moral dilemma. For the good of all, someone had to seriously disrupt their plans. Otherwise, a random person would be deplaned against his will (it might have got ugly) or—worse—the flight might have been cancelled. We all hoped someone—not us!—would step forward and solve the problem. Everyone (including me) selfishly wanted somebody else to assume the burden for our personal benefit. Except, as it turns out, bless them, the older man and his missus.

This is an example of the tragedy of the commons, individuals behaving contrary to the common good, acting on selfish interest with disregard for the consequences of everyone doing so. It is hard to care for the general welfare as much as for your personal interests, even though civilization depends on it.

All of us on that plane, presumably good people and good citizens, should have rushed forward to volunteer for deplaning. But we didn’t. I wonder, will we all happily pay our increased taxes, go out to vote when it’s pouring with rain, do what we can to minimize global warming and the collapse of biodiversity? Will we deplane in the common interest?