An experienced pilot has confessed the one question he is repeatedly asked by the public that leaves him just as stumped as them.

The pilot, who goes by @PerchPilot on TikTok, has an account dedicated to sharing stories and tidbits from inside the cockpit. More than 15,000 people follow Perch Pilot for his aviation advice and anecdotes.

But he admitted the general public ‘overestimates’ his and his fellow pilots’ knowledge when it comes to navigating an airport.

“The general public overestimates what pilots and air crew actually know,” he confessed. “If someone stops me and asks for directions to their gate, or maybe information about their flight, I am happy to help because, obviously, we are more familiar with the system and understanding how this stuff works.

“But, in the grand scheme of things, we don’t have special access – or necessarily more information about someone’s flight, other than our own.

“So, 99.9% of the time, what ends up happening when someone asks me about their flight all I do is pull and Google and ask ‘hey, what’s your flight number?’ [and relay the information from there].”

Many of the American pilot’s followers were surprised to discover that he had the same information as everyone else in the airport when it came to different flights. “They probably believe you pulled that information from a cool, super secret Pilot App!” one commented.

“If someone approaches me and their flight is delayed,” the pilot continued, “and they’re a little curious about it, I’ll go a step further and I’ll pull it up on FlightAware and [on the app] you can click ‘where is my flight now?’ We don’t have special access to stuff or infinite knowledge – we just use Google.”

FlightAware is a flight tracker app featuring live tracking maps, flight status, and airport delays. Perch Pilot’s other videos cover many talking points raised by his viewers ranging from why it’s important for passengers to switch phones to airplane mode to questions he has for other, more experienced pilots.