Do flight attendants tell passengers when Air Marshals are on board?
How did she see Downtown LA if she were sitting Row 17 A,B or C which is on the left side of the plane. On approach to LAX from the east going west Downtown LA could only be seen from the Right side of the aircraft.
I've seen things out the right side of the aircraft while sitting in seat 'C'. So long as everyone else to your right isn't rubbernecking, it really is not that hard to do.
On a flight in from Detroit the plane may have approached on a path to the north of downtown LA, then flown out over the Pacific Ocean and made a sweeping left turn to land from the West. In that case she could see downtown from the left side windows. I used to live in the LA area and I watched planes land from the West on several occasions. You see four or five planes lined up approaching from the west seperated by 1-2 miles. They look like beads of light on a string. So that part of her story is credible. I don't think flight attendants normally tell people about air marshals, but maybe she looked petrified with fear and the attendant bent the rules to make her feel better. (Although that information may have made her feel worse...)
1) She mentioned that the attendant knew she was making a faux pas by telling her their were air marshals on board.
2) You can easily see out the other side window, across the aisle, but also, I don't think she necessarily meant just the 7 or eight blocks of skyscrapers.
They might if they they thought the passenger were about to panic and they wanted to reassure them, or if they thought the passenger might do something that could create a problem.
They also might tell the passenger in hopes of calming them so that they will consider their airlines for future trips. If the passenger feels threatened, unsafe on their airlines, the passenger just might book their next flight with a different airlines.
Perhaps there weren't any onboard.
They are not suppose to, in this case the flight attendant probably feared the passengers panicking and informed her to calm her down. Even the flight attendant acknowledged she could get into trouble for telling her.
How did she see Downtown LA if she were sitting Row 17 A,B or C which is on the left side of the plane. On approach to LAX from the east going west Downtown LA could only be seen from the Right side of the aircraft.
If she is familiar with the LA area she would not have to see downtown to know where it was relative to the planes position. Or she could have just glanced across the plane and looked out the window.
Not if they were landing on Runway 18.