Seat Belt Signs Duration

[TG345]

I travel regularly on Low Cost airlines between UK and Spain, and equally regularly on full service carriers between UK and Asia - usually transiting a European hub on the way. Over a number of years I have noticed a difference in the duration that seat belt signs remain illuminated after departure and wonder if any professionals can comment.

When flying on the LoCos, I find that the signs are routinely left on for an extended period after departure - often up to twenty or thirty minutes. This seems to occur in all weather conditions.

On full service carriers, unless there is an obvious weather-related issue, I usually find that the signs are switched off within five to ten minutes after departure.

I wonder if there is a policy of keeping the punters belted in for a longer period on the LoCos to allow the cabin service to get under way?

[AerocatS2A]

I would think it had more to do with the specific company procedures. I.e., the loco company would leave the seatbelt lights on for that time even if they happened to be a full cost company. Chief pilot may have decided that it should be part of the top-of-climb checks or something.

[Final 3 Greens]

I must say that I have not noticed a trend.

Sometimes US carriers can be loathe to unbelt us pax, but I am loathe to criticize them for that as US weather conditions can be violent and I tend to trust their local judgement calls.

[apaddyinuk]

I once flew for an airline who kept the seatbelt signs on until we reached our final cruising altitude and then immediately decent commenced they went back on. As for the airline Im with now it seems to be as soon as its safe to switch them off!

[Rollingthunder]

It's a crapshoot. Most flights - they are kept on as neccesary. Pray you don't get the idiot purser who arranges to keep them on when ever he wants to serve meals or move around the cabin in the smoothest air. 6 hours out of a nine hour flight - don't think so. Wrote him up on arrival as he'd never heard or cared about DVT. Prat in the worst sense.

[apaddyinuk]

Or the idiot passenger who insists on getting out of his seat everytime the cart comes out so to annoy the crew!!!! Is that you rolling thunder!!! :E

[Air-Geko]

Many of the airlines I fly have begun to simply leave them on all the time. I would suppose it's probably on advice from their legal teams -- if the airplane was to hit some CAT and you were injured, it would be tougher to sue as you had (in effect) been told to remain in your seat and '"remain belted." Again it's a supposition, but I suspect it's closer to the money than not.

Air-Geko

[Globaliser]

Air-Geko: Many of the airlines I fly have begun to simply leave them on all the time. I would suppose it's probably on advice from their legal teams -- if the airplane was to hit some CAT and you were injured, it would be tougher to sue as you had (in effect) been told to remain in your seat and '"remain belted." Again it's a supposition, but I suspect it's closer to the money than not. I have seen this on the (one) N- registered airline that I've flown significant sectors on in the last few years. It troubled me so much that I wrote to complain, but of course I only got a fairly standard letter back.

IMHO, this is a self-defeating course of action. If it was done on legal advice, it's the worst sort of short-termism. On any sector of significant length, pax have to get out of their seats for various reasons. If you leave the seat belt sign on all the time, it stops serving as any form of active warning of real danger, thus leaving both pax and crew bereft of the warning that seat belt signs are supposed to give.

When airlines start behaving like this, regulators should step in by requiring cabin crew to be seated whenever the seat belt sign is on (as is required by Australia, for example). That would soon put a stop to this nonsense.

Then again, given that N- registered airlines are involved, maybe not ...

[Sharjah Night Shift]

I'm surprised that some airlines don't have the circuitry modified so that the cabin crew can switch on the signs above the seats behind the curtain themselves.

[Stall Inducer]

The loco I fly for doing a lot of UK - Spain we switch the 'fasten belts' signs off at FL150 (15,000ft) unless we are expecting turbulence. The time to get to FL150 varies, out of London we can be held down at lower levels by ATC for long periods of time so it may take in the region of 15 mins. On the other hand out of the regional bases we can often expect to be switching the signs off after 5 mins as there are less climb restrictions. In general it's not in a loco's best interests to keep the signs on as the Cabin Crew can't start serving hot drinks until the sign is switched off.

[escortmk2]

Flew CIA - Dub with FR in May. This is probably one of their longer routes. We were cruising along merrily about 2 hours into the flight when the seat belt sign came on. There seemed no apparent reason. No turbulence. I thought to myself, they'll probably do a second round with the drinks trolly and bingo, out it came. Once it was parked again the sign was switched off.
Could have been a coincidence though.

[Final 3 Greens]

Escort Mk2

You could also have been passing an area where a previous flight reported turb, or crossing an area of jetstream activity or were you over the Alps perchance? Sometimes turb is forecast there. Just because it is forecast does not mean that you will encounter it and vice versa.

Difficult to know the motivation without asking the crew.

[Engineer]

Seat belt (and in the old days No smoking :O ) sign(s) are switched off i.a.w company operating procedures. This is usually done on the after take off checks which should be completded by 10000'.

As you will appreciate the time to get to this level will be dependence on ATC restrictions, weather avoidance, work load etc hence the variance in time that you have observed.

On the other hand sometimes the flight deck crew forget to switch them off due especially after weather avoidance :{ but at least the error is in your favour in terms of safety :ok:

[Piltdown Man]

Questions, amongst others I ask myself before turning off the seat belt sign:

1. Are we expecting turbulence (or a wake encounter)?
2. Do we have to secure for landing?
3. Is anything un-toward occuring in the cabin?
4. Will the deck angle remain acceptable?
5. Would it be sensible for my grandmother to go for a pee?
6. Are we properly parked on the ground?

Subject to a satisfactory answer on the above, I turn the seat belt sign off.