A surprising by-product of this event is the number of articles in the popular press (even as far down as "Metro", or on the BBC website), about "what to do if the masks come down". All I have seen so far have been reasonably well written, little sensationalism, and probably by aircrew as they use expressions such as the masks "deploy", which I would guess is a word beyond the normal skills of a Metro journalist.
But why is it felt that there will be an interest in this among the general readership, when in the repeated briefings given in the cabin at the start of flight there is such little interest by many of the pax ?
The press still have not worked out that with the aircrew totally preoccupied with managing the descent, and both them and cabin crew on oxygen, picking up a microphone to make a cabin PA is more than a little impractical.
The issue of prerecorded announcements is one for individual airline decision, but those who have these installed have had occasions when the announcement has been inadvertently activated, which leads to panic in the cabin for a short while, and then THAT gets the airline into the press. However the noise in the cabin during the descent, from the speedbrakes, the oxy generators, pressure issues with people's ears, whatever, probably makes them inaudible anyway. It's bad enough with standard announcements. And that is why you are told what to do before the flight commences.