Originally Posted by
jportzer
This service was single pilot, no flight attendant. Each passenger was issued a belt mounted life jacket which you had to have at the ready during the flight (though you didn't actually fully don it). My understanding is this was a condition of approval for single engine operations in RPT - you must always be within gliding distance of a landing area, and the ocean counted but it was presumed an ocean landing would not necessarily be upright, hence the life jackets.
If you aren't wearing it when you hit the water, it may as well be stuffed inside your left boot for all the good it will do you.