Passenger pressed the call button during takeoff because the Wi-Fi wouldn’t connect — then followed it with a request no one expected
Not every request during a flight is an emergency, but some passengers still expect immediate attention for non-urgent needs. That’s what Jon Jeffrey Frederick, who prefers pronouns it/its, experienced on a recent flight when the woman sitting next to it asked the flight attendant an unusual question while the plane was climbing. Frederick, who goes by @jonnyharlow on Instagram, shared on August 11, 2026, that the woman asked it to press the call button for a flight attendant shortly after takeoff. The traveler was happy to help, but when the flight attendant arrived, the woman’s request left the fellow passengers puzzled.
The plane had just taken off when the woman asked Frederick to press the call button. The passenger agreed and pushed the button, expecting that she needed urgent help with something. When the flight attendant arrived, however, the woman said, "I just can't connect to the internet." The flight attendant quickly told her that the issue was not an emergency and that she could not stay there to help her with it. But the woman wasn’t done with her request just yet. She next asked, "Oh, okay, well, could I have a Diet Coke?" which left Frederick and the flight attendant amused.
Frederick shared the video in amazement, especially because the woman had used the call button shortly after takeoff for something that was clearly not urgent. The story became a funny reminder that you never really know what someone might ask for, even in the middle of a flight. Frederick joked about the situation, saying, “It’s everybody’s first time everywhere, every day.”
The story also caught the attention of other Instagram users, including people who appeared to have some experience with flying or working around passengers. @cabincrewcouple commented, “This job is not for the weak,” while @sparklinggem joked that “Everybody’s first time everywhere, every day!” was one of the reasons they retired. @mrcarlwaldron summed up the situation by saying, “People wake up brand new, right out of the packaging.”
Sometimes, the flight attendant call button gets used for requests that are a lot less urgent than passengers make them seem. In a closely similar story, a passenger pressed the call button during turbulence even after the crew had asked travelers to wait until the service pause was over. When the flight attendant finally made his way over, the supposed emergency turned out to be a simple request to have the passenger’s trash taken away. Like the woman in Frederick's story, the passenger had the crew responding to what was ultimately a very ordinary request.
You can follow @jonnyharlow on Instagram for more stories.