F3G you have raised a good point re the smoke hoods. Indeed we already have individual oxygen masks and individual life jackets so why not have individual smoke hoods as well? I can't answer that but can take a guess.
etrang also raises very relevant points re 4 point harnesses and rear facing seats. Indeed I sit on and am strapped into exactly that for take off/landing. I feel a lot safer than the SLF should an incident occur at this stage of flight because of this.
However if I travel on a train/coach in which I get the choice I will always travel in a forward facing seat because it is more comfortable for me personally. I know basic crash dynamics so should know better.
Apparently there have been studies done on plane pax which demonstrate they feel the same. I have never seen any of them so cannot offer informed comment. All I know is most pax prefer to travel forward facing regardless of anything else.
What I do know through experience is that most (not all) pax put their comfort above safety. Some pax do not see the importance of fastening their lap belt even in severe turbulence......some will disregard everything and get up and walk around the cabin (usually to go to the loo). What advantage does the 4 point harness have to them here? They will walk pass the CC who are strapped into their 4 point harness and still disregard the CC instructions......
A lot of pax (not all) pay scant regard to the safety brief which instructs them on how to use the masks and life jackets amoung other things. Why would they pay more regard to the instructions on how to use the smoke hoods??
Smoke hoods are provided to all crew to fight a fire and we are trained how to do this and use them. Pax are not and niether would most of them listen to a routine brief on this anyway because after all a fire on their flight would never happen would it??
Fighting fires aside, yes the O2 generated by these hoods would give pax at least 15 minutes of breathable air but then we have to stow them.
On every flight I do I have pax who will throw their handluggage on top of crew/pax emergency equiptment despite large signs saying
no stowage. They will open bins to do this. Even when I explain when doing this why I am moving their baggage a few rows down I get grief for doing this.
Smoke hoods would have to be stowed somewhere and that would probably be in the overhead bins so your hand luggage would then become hold baggage because space would be reduced and CAA regs state emergency equiptment must be unobstructed.
The CAA balance what is
essential for flight safety against what the pax expect and want. What is
desirable is another matter and a matter for infinete debate.
You are correct re "hull losses being bad for business". There are also a lot of potential safety incidents in between that catastrophic event that are risk managed.
Yes profit is something that every airline cares about including my own. I had hoped that my previous post demonstrated how safety takes priority over this. As it hasn't then to pax who doubt this I would say this:
All flight and cabin crew are human with families like yourselves. Do you really think we would fly or operate on a plane where profit would take priority over safety??