Without wishing to look like an enemy of safety, I have a few points that I have noticed, that might throw a new angle on it.
1. Good rules of instruction - Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation. Safety briefs are only, necessarily, 2/3 of this equation and knowing roughly where a lifejacket is and how to put it on, is quite different from finding it and doing it, especially in stress.
2. Army saying - No plan survives first contact with the enemy - In a survivable crash, if the CC are out of action, someone else will have to have a go at the doors, for example, perhaps the briefing needs to be extended ? How will pax with crew incapacitated know when it is safe or not to open a door due to fire, water etc. In an emergency situation you are relying on good old fashioned common sense, and leadership showing out from some.
What I am trying to indicate is potentially how little complete application the safety brief may have in serious incidents where there can be hundreds of factors affecting life or death, and not many of them within control of the CC, however well trained.
While the brief itself does not do any harm, it is the psychological impact of seeing an interested, calm and professional crew demonstrating that they have things under control, that will be in forefront of frightened pax minds during an incident. Perhaps the brief should indicate the need to
stay calm, consider options and co-operate with other pax and crew as the most important contributory point to survival.
One more point, some years ago I was on a 767 out of Taipei that after rotation had a loud bang, smoke and loss of power on the right engine. The CC went on the intercom (to the cockpit !!), turned white as a sheet, put the intercom down and then made her straps very tight, I could feel the panick flow amongst the pax immediately. It is the duty of crew to be reassuring and calm to pax (right to the end if necessary, if that does not seem too morbid).
That appearance of reassurance and calm starts from the welcome at the door, and is NOT served by egotistical bleating "if you don't listen to me I will not save you" or easyjets confrontational approach.
Psychology, empathy, common sense please
