Slip and turn - do you read the posts or just have difficulty understanding English?
A rapid depressurisation is not a planned part of any flight and it is therefore impossible to prepare the public for such a sitaution. Confused or not, Penn Haddow ( is that his real name) clearly understood the safety breifing sufficently to don his O2 mask. In doing so he was saved from the effects of Hypoxia.
According to some sources the time of useful consciuosness after a sudden depressurisation at FL38 might be as short as between 15 and 45 seconds. Within this period the flight crew have to perform immediate actions and don masks. The deployment of pax O2 is automatic and triggered by barometric control.
Pulling the mask releases the supply via the manifold. Therefore, if one mask works at any station they should all have the potential to work - i.e. there is a supply.
Had any of the masks NOT been working - some of the passengers would have fallen unconscious during the descent. No -one was reported to have been unconscious - otherwise how would they have known their masks weren't working?
With emergency O2, Passenger announcements are impossible - the forest of masks is usually the only indication of what has occured and any pax announcement might distract and actually serve to confuse and disorientate some passengers.
On the basis that Penn Haddow clearly understood that there was an emergency - what was he hoping to glean from any announcement?
" Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Speaking, we're sorry that you've spilled your coffee but we had to stand the aircraft on its nose because the cabin air has suddenly gone and we need to get back down to a breathable atmosphere.. if we don't level out you can assume that we have a much bigger problem ... but don't worry ... we'll be in touch to let you know... Oh, and remember , for those of you who weren't actually watching or listening to the safety brief... pull the mask towards you to release the oxygen supply, fix your mask before helping others.... and , is Penn a real name?"
No, I don't know what casued the depressurisation and actually,at this stage, I don't really care . What I do know is that this can happen on any flight at any time and if you don't prepare you won't be ready.