cabin crew seating question

[Carnethy]

Why is it that cabin crew sit in rear facing seats for take off & landing?
Was on a flyglobespan flight recently where the seats in row one were reserved for crew at times of inactivity. However, these row 1 seats were vacated in preference for the rear facing seats in the galley.
Also, I can understand the dimming of cabin lights during night take offs & landings but why do the window blinds need to be in the open (up) position? Never heard that before on a flight.

[EK-LHR-LGW-GLA-MAN-B]

**why do the window blinds need to be in the open (up) position? Never heard that before on a flight**

So that in the even of an emergancy pax can see out to see if a exit on that side of the aircraft is safe ie make sure no fire and so that emergency crews can see in.

[Fernando_Covas]

Why is it that cabin crew sit in rear facing seats for take off & landing?

To keep an eye on the passengers.

[egnxema]

Plus - it is a proven fact that rear facing seats in an aircraft are alot more effective in the event of a "bump" hence why RAF crew aircraft all have rear facing seats.

The down side is rear facing seats need higher head restraints, hence giving a more confined feel to the occupant, and the larger percentage of SLF would always want to face the direction of travel. - notice next time you're on the train which seats are the last to be taken!

[bycrewlgw]

It is also a legal requirement that crew occupy the crew jump seats for take off and landing due to their position. they are locate close to the exits, have an interphone with an alert call funtion to alert crew to an emergency and plus are the safest seat on board an aircraft! Window blinds also have to be open and the cabin lights dimmed so that the eyes can adjust to the light outside so that during an emergency evacuation pax and crew are able to see during the hours of reduced light. an example of this is at night when you switch the light off - it takes a few seconds for the eyes to adjust - seconds you dont have during an evacuation! Aslo as stated earlier so that the crew and pax can keep an eye on things for take off and landing for fire etc - thats why on mnost aircraft the 1st blind will push up to close and not down!

Hope this helps !

BYCREWLGW