We all do endless Safety Demos, and dutifully attend our SEP recurrents. Today I came across a study that rammed home to me once again the importance of HOW we do these pax-briefings. Thought I'd share a few tidbits with you guys.
Why is it important to get our pax to watch the safety brief?
The way that passengers will behave in an emergency is often dependent on how well they have prepared for the situation. Should an emergency arise, passenger preparedness can be a significant factor in survivability, evacuation efficiency and injury rates.
But we all know that many pax
don't pay attentions to our safety briefings.
Is that because they are too stupid to care about their own lives, or because we present our briefings the wrong way? This is what our pax themselves have to say.
How to get our pax to watch the safety brief?
Pre-departure safety information is effective if introduced appropriately. Tell passengers that the safety equipment on all aircraft differs, and that it is in their own best interests to pay attention. Remind people that the information could save their lives.
The cabin crew should appear to be more interested in the way they present the information.
While operators may be reluctant to include such information in their safety briefings, perhaps arguing that such an introduction would be likely to cause passengers unnecessary anxiety and alarm, this does not appear to be backed up by the research evidence.
This is what our pax tell us, but what do the facts say? Here's another bit of interesting research:
In one study, the US National Transportation Safety Board investigated 21 accidents. They found that a ‘passenger’s risk of injury or death in these accidents
could have been reduced had they:
- paid attention to the flight attendant’s oral safety briefings and demonstrations
- read the safety card to familiarize themselves with the location and operation of safety equipment
- been better motivated and thus better prepared to act correctly during an emergency situation’
OK, so our pax want plain talk, but our companies don't.
Maybe time to write to your company and point them to the link at the bottom of this post?
In the mean time, each of us doing a demo can make a
REAL difference, just by doing it in a way that shows we actually care about what we are doing!
link