Plane Talk Soothes Flyers

While everyone is ultimately bound for the same "final destination," air passengers may not want to hear their pilot use this term during a turbulent white-knuckle flight through a thunderstorm.

To avoid passenger anxiety and anger, airlines such as US Airways, TWA, Delta and United are providing pilots training on how to talk to customers, reports USA Today.

Instead of using words like "turbulence," "thunderstorm," and "fog," they are encouraged to say "bumpy air," "rain shower" and "mist" or "haze."

Terms like "final destination," "terminal" and "aborted takeoff" are avoided. Pilots are urged to use less permanent words like "destination," "gate" and "discontinued takeoff."

Despite a record number of flight delays this year, passengers may never hear the word "late." The preferred forward-looking industry parlance focuses on the "new arrival time."

Some euphemisms aren't covered in training manuals.

Frequent flyer Stan Laegried tells USA Today that four years ago, during a flight into Denver, the pilot advised passengers of "a very interesting natural phenomenon" on the left side of the jet.

"It was a tornado," Laegried says. "They brought it to our attention because I think they figured we would have seen it anyway… But given that they brought it to our attention and they said it calmly, I didn't see anyone panicking."