Sunfish
My asking the pax concerned "Do you realise the danger you put yourselves in by standing up?" was not about assuming they have a level of knowledge, it was about educating them of the danger that they had put themselves and their surrounding pax in. I never assume that pax know anything about flying, which is why my PA's always go into more detail than the standard issued PA's by my airline.
I have had pax comment in the past that my PA's are very good as they explain everything that is going to happen / is happening / will be happening. Why do I do this?, well I think back to the days of when I first flew as a pax before I became crew. I used to sit there in that long tin can and not have a clue what was going on.
There was a saying that was taught to me many years ago, which is "In aviation never ASSUME anything, because if you do, you will make an ASS out of U and ME" and I live by that saying, hence myself always trying to be educational on my flights.
The key element of my previous posting was the paragraph which stated:
Now, this goes to show that even when the cabin crew do try to explain, some people just will not hear what has been said. It's like putting a pair of blinkers on someones head, things are happening around you but you can only see what is directly infront of you. Perhaps on this flight in question that the thread is originally about the cabin crew did give a decent explanation over the PA, but the pax were too involved in their perceived fear to actually HEAR what was being said and therefore their primal survival instincts took over and they felt that they had to take action themselves.
Read that paragraph again, what it is saying is that in a perceived emergency some pax will not do as they are told, because they can not hear what is being told to them, they are for all intent and purposes deaf and can only see the perceived danger and want to get away from it, or have someone assist with it.
My PA to the pax saying to sit down, crew will come in a few seconds when we are on the ground is all that I could do - I do honestly hope you don't think I had time to say or do anything else?