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View Full Version : Virgin Blue trivialisation of cabin safety announcements


Centaurus
5th Mar 2006, 01:57
Soon after descent into Sydney the FA makes a PA for everyone to raise the window blinds. It is 0700 and the sun is blinding, reflecting from the top of layer cloud with a painful glare to the eyes. . When asked why the blinds need to be raised at high altitude, the FA said it was a CASA safety requirement in case the aircraft crashes and the passengers need to look outside to see where the fire is.

Another operator required only the blinds over the window emergency exits to be raised for take off and landing. Other airlines have no policy. If all window blinds must be raised during take off and top of descent in case of a crash fire, it could be argued it would be logical to require all passengers take up the Brace position for take off and landing "just in case the aircraft crashes". Of course that is ridiculous.

The same Virgin Blue flight had the male senior FA making light of serious safety announcements with such gems such as:
:Cabin crew arm doors and cross-dress"
"Pull the oxygen mask over your face and stop screaming:"
"On your lifejacket there is a whistle which you can blow to attract passing sailors".
"Cabin crew take your seats and hold hands for blast-off".
"Turn off all electronic devices and the dishwasher and raise your window blinds".
Welcome to London Heathrow where it is Bikini wearing 20C".
"Welcome aboard where my award winning crew will be at your service - and I am lovely, too".
"Anyone caught smoking in the toilet will be asked to immediately leave the aircraft in flight"
"We are about to take off WHooooooosh, here we go".

This clown had a captive audience to himself for an hour and he never let up until the engines stopped and we were released to run from the fun flight. And that was only one Virgin Blue flight. Similar "fun" PA's are heard routinely on this company's flights. A light touch of appropriate humour is one thing, but this full on crap must be embarrassing to the flight crew whose professionalism is not in doubt.

The giggling trivialisation of vital safety announcements as Virgin Blue passenger cabin policy, risks passengers disregarding the real message while awaiting with baited breath the next amusing episode from a clown FA.
I can just imagine an FA announcement of "Evacuate. Evacuate, Go, Go, Go and I'll be right behind you, Dearie...

MInd you, it sure would be an incentive to ski down the escape slides and run like hell...

pakeha-boy
5th Mar 2006, 02:11
Mate, your point is well taken ...I have on several occasions had to "discuss" issues with inflight on certain announcements myself.....my question to you is....did you personally say anything to the crew about your concerns????....even as a pax,you are entitled to voice your opinion....it may be a small point,but you are paying their wages

psycho joe
5th Mar 2006, 03:40
Welcome to London Heathrow where it is Bikini wearing 20C".


If you heard this on a Virgin Blue flight then I'd suggest that something has gone seriously wrong...

Was the FA wearing a balaclava and brandishing a pistol and a dodgy middle eastern accent?....Did they use the word "infidel"?

Or...Was it a case of a pilot slipping a pocket knife past security and then saying mid flight... "Bugger it, I feel like going to London".

PammyAnderson
5th Mar 2006, 03:44
Yeah, but they are still heaps better to look at, than the Qantas boilers! :ok:

ratpoison
5th Mar 2006, 04:04
Other airlines have no policy.
Oh really, obvious you haven't travelled much with international operators.

Tom Sawyer
5th Mar 2006, 05:32
Trivial they maybe, but they get peoples attention which with the safety stuff is what it is all about. Not a big fan of it myself, but then I suppose it is more polite than one I got on a Qantas flight out of HKG a few years ago..."Lights on, belt up."

sinala1
6th Mar 2006, 03:47
Hmm sounds like someone has an axe to grind... if it REALLY were that bad, and at that time of morning when DJ crew are more than aware to keep the tone professional and friendly, then a complaint should be made to the company. DJ crew have been informed long ago that all safety-based announcements are "no-go" areas - they are to be given exactly as scripted; and to use discretion when having a laugh with the pax (ie 7am is clearly inappropriate).

As for the window blinds, well thats DJ policy - so the crew can check the outside conditions before commencing an evac should it be required - have you ever tried to look out the window of a B737 cabin door? They are miniscule! (although perhaps this reasoning could have been described somewhat more subtley) - no apologies being made for that.

:ok:

Buster Hyman
6th Mar 2006, 06:41
Besides, blinds up allows you to see any critters on the wing!

You're comparing a "painful glare to the eyes.." with a potential problem of raising the blinds after some incident which, possibly, could render a closed blind inoperative when you need to open it...

I dunno...not a big fan of the "fun" during such announcements but, if you do get everyones attention and its easier to remember to stop screaming & how to attract passing sailors...well...dunno.:confused:

Animalclub
6th Mar 2006, 06:51
Was on American Airlines out of Washington DC very early in the morning. Cabin PA started with the jokes (Captain Cliff Hanger... Purser Linda Lovelace... that's how long ago!) as the Purser said "now that I have your attention" gave the actual Safety Announcement straight.

PammyAnderson
6th Mar 2006, 07:02
Yeah, but they are still heaps better to look at, than the Qantas boilers! :ok:

Disco Stu
6th Mar 2006, 07:43
That now makes a bit more sense than it did before.

Blondes !

Disco Stu

Lord Snot
6th Mar 2006, 07:50
Well with Mardi Gras coming only once a year, these flouncing, minving poofs need another outlet for that quaint, charming character which we all find so amusing and light-hearted, during the rest of the year.

Irritating a 737-load of normal people with their outraaaaageous queenisms could be the next best thing for many of them.

Turbo 5B
6th Mar 2006, 07:54
I think a bolier is a french woman that is past her prime.;)

SilverSleuth
6th Mar 2006, 10:20
"Disco Stu" old buddy you may want to check your spelling
ditto "turbo" man. or maybe im not getting the joke ?????

one thing though, I will agree that they are a fair bit better to look at than the old QF gals.

Disco Stu
6th Mar 2006, 10:34
I see 'Pammy" has edited her post, it seems her spelling was a bit off in a blonde moment. Oh well, I suppose you can't have big er um jugs and a brain as well:ok:

Disco Stu:p

Centaurus
6th Mar 2006, 10:45
Passengers on an RPT airliner are entitled by law to sober professionally delivered flight safety announcements - not a bloody floor show.
Re the window blinds. They are there to keep the sun glare out at high altitude. Very few passengers choose to keep the blinds down for take off and landing so any crash involving fire outside the aircraft will be easily visible to the vast majority of passengers.

bullamakanka
6th Mar 2006, 11:01
I have to agree with Centaurus, some of the S**t you hear come from the Virgin Cabin Crew is ridiculous. I am amazed at how lame and trivial it is. Yes it does occur during safety briefings.

Sinala 1, it sounds like you work there. Do the flight crew have an influence on what the cabin crew say. If they are talking s**t does the captain ask them to quit it? I cant be bothered complaining to the company, just fly with the other operator when I can instead.

Bulla

Disco Stu
6th Mar 2006, 11:03
Doesn't matter to me which carrier I travel on anywhere in the world, I SELF BRIEF as a matter of self preservation.

I will admit to finding the post pubescant pimply version of what should be a mature adult flight attendant fails to engender any confidence in me, especially should the "manure hit the oscillator".

This sort of thing does little to engender confidence in the whole singing, face painting, amateur hour standup comics masquerading as flight attendants or does it.
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=213183

Disco Stu

PammyAnderson
6th Mar 2006, 13:36
Yeah, but they are still heaps better to look at, than the Qantas boilers! :ok:

I LIKE EM..... I LIKE EM A-LOT!

Taildragger67
6th Mar 2006, 19:04
Settle, Pammy.

Sunfish
6th Mar 2006, 19:39
At least the VB cabin crew are trying to inject a little enjoyment into air travel these days. The last flight (all those years ago) I had on Qantas, the crew were a sullen, uninterested lot, who made it obvious we "SLF" were a nuisance.

The cabin crew spent their time talking about their terms and conditions and their holiday plans. When I intruded into the galley to ask for a glass of water, they made it quite obvious that I was a nuisance.

That was on LAX - MEL, business class, and also a long time before I had a PPL either.

To put it another way, the QF cabin crew were just "going through the motions" of proviiding service, and believe it or not us poor ignorant "Self Loading Freight" can actually tell the difference between someone who is actually interested in providing us with a pleasant flying expereince, and the rest.

To be fair to Qantas, I saw some fantastic cabin crew service in the mid 70's. What caused all that enthusiasm to evaporate???

One of the nicer things about VB is that they do care about semantics - calling us "Customers" which underlines the reason I prefer them.

Buster Hyman
6th Mar 2006, 19:53
QF has never shaken off it's Public Service mentality. Always was a problem & it seems to be passed on to each new generation of FA's & ground staff.:rolleyes:

Sandy Freckle
6th Mar 2006, 21:37
The Qantas crew were probably right, Sunfish. You ARE a nuisance.

sinala1
6th Mar 2006, 22:00
Passengers on an RPT airliner are entitled by law to sober professionally delivered flight safety announcements - not a bloody floor show.

Absolutely - I agree 100%! Which is why, IF the safety demo was delivered as you say, you should report it to the company so the individual concerned can be 'performance managed'...

Bulla mate Yeah I do work for DJ, have done for about 4.5 years. I can gaurentee you now the vast majority of crew have toned it down since when we first started - at that time we were encouraged to make it a bit of a laugh - a lot more antics than you get onboard these days. The idea of Virgin Flair is to make the flight memorable in a good way for each passenger - that does not necessarily mean forcing 180 pax into a group activity -it can come down to the little things like sitting and chatting with the little old lady, or making sure Mr Jones who is running late for his meeting has the chance to have an expedited departure from the a/c upon arrival.

Re The window blinds thing, again no apology being made for what is part of our safety requirements.

And finally, again IF this flight really did occur as you say, and especially at this time of day (when one would presume the flight was full of businesspeople and others who just wanted some quiet time and a cup of coffee) then say something to the company instead of getting on here and whining about it - as I tell my crew, be proactive rather than reactive! :ok:

Centaurus
7th Mar 2006, 01:34
Sinala1. I'm way ahead of you. I sent correspondence via the Virgin website and made a couple of recommendations. Received a pleasant reply to say they are looking into it - which is all I asked. CASA were also interested stating they had been concerned about the frivolity for some time. They also said the window blinds raised on all windows is nonsense.

The success of Virgin Blue in Australia is undoubted, so the company must be doing something right. Whether or not that means the FA pansy antics pays off, or the all around Virgin image is successful in getting bums in seats I don't know. Could also be the cheap fares and on time performance. Surely it wouldn't be the attractiveness or otherwise of the male FA's? Whatever turns you on, I guess.

I also have a suggestion for you (pilot?)that may enhance passenger comfort when the window blinds are raised on descent. You have my permission to pass it on to your cabin services department and I don't mind in the least if you take credit for the idea which I think is brilliant. Issue each passenger with sun-glasses or sleep masks to keep the sun out of their eyes. Company policy is oviously to allow the FA's to make peurile fun of safety announcements and to raise the window blinds for "safety". Both are crap.

sweetpollypurebred
7th Mar 2006, 01:48
Sounds like you could do with a Virgin Enema kit!!:ouch:

dmussen
7th Mar 2006, 01:52
As self loading frieght on a recent QF flight into KTA I witnessed a very appropriate bit of PA humour. The 73 had landed a bit long and had also been dropped on Navy style by one of the drivers up front. This was followed by a fair bit of reverse thrust and lots of braking.
As we exited the runway a sweet lady's voice piped up on the PA.
"Ladies and gentlemen Qantas would like to welcome you to Karratha where the temperature is 28 degrees. (pause..........) We were going to shoot through but decided we would just drop in for a while".
This anouncement was met with appause and cheering. Timing is everything!

sinala1
7th Mar 2006, 04:38
I also have a suggestion for you (pilot?)that may enhance passenger comfort when the window blinds are raised on descent. You have my permission to pass it on to your cabin services department and I don't mind in the least if you take credit for the idea which I think is brilliant. Issue each passenger with sun-glasses or sleep masks to keep the sun out of their eyes.

I have a much better idea - bring your own! :) :ok: And even then, you will still be asked to take it off for landing anyway - we want you to be able to see where you are going in an evacuation! You may well say that the chances of an evac are very low, which they are - but tell me ANY passenger or crew member who has been turned up for a flight knowing that that day would be the day that the poo would hit the proverbial... Flight attendants prepare the cabin with the mindset that that take off or landing may well be the one that requires an evac.

Every airline that I have worked for has had this policy in place - why dont you have a chat with any flight attendant who has ever been involved in an evacuation, and ask them if they were able to gauge an accurate perception of what the conditions were like outside their door, and in the area they are about to send potentially hundreds of panicked, screaming, clueless passengers. The chances are, they would have said they can see very little. 99.99% of pax are happy with the reasoning they recieve re raising their windowblinds, and VERY few ever question it let alone argue the point. Those who do question it are usually just curious as to why.

Company policy is oviously to allow the FA's to make peurile fun of safety announcements
The safety demo, as mentioned in a previous post, is a 100% no-go area for any humour - this is a company ruling, based on advice from CASA. Other announcements inflight (eg turning off electronic equipment) are allowed to have 'personality' injected into them, however the key is Within Reason and the obvious one - choose your audience! This is allowed, so long as the message delivered is still clear and understandable.

I sent correspondence via the Virgin website and made a couple of recommendations. Received a pleasant reply to say they are looking into it - which is all I asked
Great, I hope they deal with it and get back to you - let us know the outcome!

I also have a suggestion for you (pilot?)
Not yet - currently I am one of the
attractiveness or otherwise of the male FA's
Although I think I definately fall under the 'otherwise' section :{ :O

HotDog
7th Mar 2006, 05:55
Thank God we don't have LCC Ryanair operating in Oz!

THE budget airline Ryanair is ordering a fleet of stripped-down planes to cut the remaining “frills” from its service. Out will go reclining seats, window blinds, head rests, seat pockets and other “non-essentials”.
O’Leary is ordering the changes to a fleet of aircraft from Boeing. Ryanair now has to fix about 40 broken reclining seats on each plane every year.

By replacing them with non-adjustable ones, the airline hopes to save more than £1.3m.

Removing window blinds from planes on order will deliver a saving of about £130,000 for each plane, while ditching seat pockets will reduce cleaning costs and shorten the time in which planes are turned around.

The airline aims to save a further £100,000 by removing Velcro headrests, and could generate the same again by replacing them with ones that could be paid for by advertisers.

Best not to complain too much about Virgin Blue.:ok:

blueloo
7th Mar 2006, 06:28
KTA happens to be a narrow, short runway for 737s. Most guys tend to dump it on for good reason.

ryanbryan
7th Mar 2006, 08:09
I must say, personally I've never heard them "trivialise" the safety announcement... only the ancillary announcements... the welcome, the non-smoking etc.

With regard to Ryanair, I managed to download a documentary from British TV off the internet, which looked into the somewhat dubious practices of this particular airline....

http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/R/ryanair_caught_napping/

If anyone's interested, PM me for the deets of how to download...

Centaurus
7th Mar 2006, 11:13
I suppose Ryan Air could also save weight by reducing the captain's four stripes to one and make the F/O's three stripes just one really thin one like a Pilot Officer in the RAF. All the cabin crew could wear skirts to save trouser legs. And during cruise all the cabin crew could congregate right down the back which would give an aft Cof G and thus save fuel. Happens in some airlines, too.

sailing
9th Mar 2006, 07:02
I suppose Ryan Air could also save weight by reducing the captain's four stripes to one and make the F/O's three stripes just one really thin one like a Pilot Officer in the RAF. All the cabin crew could wear skirts to save trouser legs. And during cruise all the cabin crew could congregate right down the back which would give an aft Cof G and thus save fuel. Happens in some airlines, too.
Or maybe they could have the Captain's ego surgically removed. Then they wouldn't need the F/O there to massage it. That would save weight and move the CG aft! :E:E

Safa
10th Mar 2006, 02:09
Regardless of what the cabin crews look like they are primarily there for SAFETY. You can't help but think that some of them would not be up to coping very well in an emergency. Some of the QF ladies have such artificially cultured accents, it's hard to imagine them screaming "jump and sit" as they evacuate the pax via the suitably "armed and cross check"-ed doors.

Eliminating most of the pa annoucements is what is called for.

eg - Driver: Would the Cabin crew prepare the cabin for landing.
F/A: The captain has asked us to prepare the cabin for landing.......!!

As for "dimming the lights for take-off" in broad daylight! Perhaps we need all the power we can get to become airborne!

They go on and on!

AS for the pilots (drivers) - ETA and weather on the ground at destination is all we need - forget "we are climbimg......" , "to the left you can see...."

Animalclub
10th Mar 2006, 02:19
AS for the pilots (drivers) - ETA and weather on the ground at destination is all we need - forget "we are climbimg......" , "to the left you can see...."

Perhaps this is a hold over from the early days when there was no in flight entertainment and passengers where interested to know what town/city they were flying over... and flight crew were scared of the PA microphone!! Nowadays the passengers are more interested in Pacman... or is that out of date now. This getting old sucks!!!

dirty deeds
10th Mar 2006, 03:13
You guys are worried about stupid PA's, whilst our working conditions and pay erode right in front of our eyes, no wonder where all in the S@#T!

neville_nobody
10th Mar 2006, 05:46
I have also experienced unprofessional Safety Announcements on National Jet. Whilst I have only flown with them 4 times, on 3 of them the safety annoucements have been a joke. In one instance the Cabin Manager (who looked about 19!) was trying to crack jokes through the whole routine and making jokes about the other FA's. The whole routine look like a circus. Had the pleasure of flying with him twice and both safety announcements would have been unacceptable if you were being audited by CASA. The other time was an all girl crew who were trying to make the Cabin director laugh during the safety announcement and were fairly successfull at it too.
All in all fairly unprofessional. Always wondered how these people would go if they had to really evac the aircraft and put the jackets on etc.

Only flown with Virgin twice and both times the PA's were professionally done. Also caught up with all the cabin crew goss as I was in the last row and heard everything that was said during the cruise while they were all sitting around during nothing :E :E

Centaurus
10th Mar 2006, 06:26
Making the person giving the PA laugh so it comes over the air is not new. Happened in a Virgin cockpit where the captain was teasing the F/O to cause him to giggle during the F/O's PA by momentarily actuating the fire warning test switch causing consternation among the FA down the back when they heard the bell in the background. The time is well overdue for our esteemed Regulator to crack down hard on this childish nonsense. But there again perhaps there is no law against it. But for heaven sake, this peurile attempt at joking would have the comedians thrown off the stage in vaudeville.

Sooty
10th Mar 2006, 07:29
neville_nobody wrote: I have also experienced unprofessional Safety Announcements on National Jet
This reminded me of a classic heard waiting in the terminal in KTA as they were trying to fix a tech 146.

'Ladies and Gentlemen, sorry for the continued delay. The Captain is still trying to decide if the aircraft is safe to fly or not. We will keep you informed of any further developments. Thankyou.':eek: :eek: :eek:


Another from a now defuncted Indonesian airline. (3 seats four masks)

'.....please ensure you fit your own mask before fitting your children. Unfortunately if you have more than one child you will have to decide which one you love the most':ok:


I think a little humour can be a good thing as it does attract the attention of the passengers. Unfortunately I do think Virgin does go overboard at times, they have to remember they are catering for all types of people and some may not see the funny side of it.

DJ747
10th Mar 2006, 07:55
Sorry I don't have the time nor inclination to trawl through all these threads. What I do know is some of you carry on with a load of c#*p or need to get a life - or both.

The VB cabin services are under review, end of story. the Virgin flair will remain, however somewhat diluted as the business passengers are further encouraged to fly on the red jets.

FCS Explorer
10th Mar 2006, 08:03
some weeks ago i was flyin qantas from syd to sin. and at the end of his welcome-announcement the CP added something like: ... and please be informed that it is illegal to have sex in an aircraft toilet at any time of the flight....

at least i'm quite sure he said it. i was so astonished, i could believe my ears.
[and YES, i would say thats kinda funny]

Deejay 1
27th Mar 2006, 22:31
The Chaser's War On Everything (ABC Friday 2145 and no this is not a Helen Coonan approved ad!) sent up the PA quite well.
One of the Chaser's Craig?/Chris? decided to try out the announcements at an open mic comedy night.
And guess what?
It died big time, nary a laugh or even embarassing snicker.

I recall some time ago, my return flight was late, was announced late in the terminal.
A/C duly arrived, with terminal announce stating that as pax had been sick, a/c would need to be cleaned.
Upon making boarding call, pax in row 1 -13 you will be pleased to know that the pax was sick down the back. Pax in Row 14 - 21 you too are safe. pax in row 22 ..... give or take a row.
Professional?
The image that they want to portray?
Oh migod we've spilt the face paint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quick Cap'n, we need to land as we've only painted half the cabin, and we want to make sure that we get our performance bonus.

Regards

4Greens
28th Mar 2006, 01:23
One of the reasons for having the blinds up is, that at night, the aircraft is more visible to other aircraft. In these days of concerns about airspace category, every little helps.

apacau
28th Mar 2006, 05:17
fact: very few pax usually pay attention to the safety briefings
fact: if humour is involved, most pax WILL pay attention.

So long as all the essential safety elements are mentioned in an understandable fashion (an important point), I applaud any decent attempt at humour in the safety demonstration.

Centaurus
28th Mar 2006, 12:36
Four Greens. Surely you are jesting?

DirtySanchezcousin
28th Mar 2006, 22:49
There is a light and a whistle for attracting dolphins!

Please be careful when opening the overhead locker as your bags may have shifted and we all know that SHIFT HAPPENS!