Superstitious

the 19 Boeing 777-300ER that Singapore Airlines ordered last year (and due to arrive later this year) have already been given designated registrations. i was looking at the list and found something rather odd.


the B777-300ERs have been given the "SW" series

if you look at the table, its 9V-SWA, 9V-SWB and then on to 9V-SWD and so on... why did they skip 9V-SWC?

i seeked to find out the reason behind this mysterious phenomena and the information i got is bent more towards the superstitious side than a practical one.

Singapore Airlines is extremely superstitious. i also noted that no aircraft has "X' in its registration, and that there is no row 13 on any aircraft on its sitting plans. of course SIA is not the only airline that does this. China Airlines' registration do not have the number 4 or 13 on any of their aircrafts, for example.

so what does WC stand for that is considered such a taboo? based on wild speculations, if you consider the fact that it's standard practice for SIA to paint the last two letters of the registration on the nosegear doors, then painting WC would imply that the entire aircraft is...


nosegear of 9V-SMA

A TOILET!!!

WC is short for "wash closet" and to paint WC on something which the airline spent nearly $200 million for would be extremely degrading.

or worse, WC can also stand for "wash chamber" (a place to clean/wash up dead bodies), and painting WC on the aircraft would imply that the aircraft is flying a planefull of dead people!

this practice of avoiding the acronym "WC" is mostly exercised in Western countries where it is considered bad luck.