Preflight Airline Passenger Briefing

[Contacttower]

I've noticed over the years more and more airlines are using the video montitors of the IFE system for the preflight safety brief rather than an actual cabin crew member doing it.

Doesn't this just mean more people ignore it which is surely less safe than a real human doing it? Any thoughts?

[GlueBall]

The video presentations, sometimes in dual languages, are consistent and more graphic; and they are always seen by more people, especially by those passengers who would be seated far away from a human demonstrator in an aisle. In most cases, the human demonstrator would receive more attention only if it were a young, sexy female in a short red skirt as those of AirAsia.

[Blues&twos]

Have to say that a video on a screen in front of me is at least visible and audible!

[permFO]

The ATSB in conjunction with Cranfield and Virgin Blue did a study of passive and active briefings of pax. They found that the time to evacuate an aircraft was less if an active brief was given.

On VB flights the pax brief is done by the Cabin Manager and the F/A's will actually ask pax to be quiet and pay attention to the brief. Its hard to ignore a crew member when they tell you to be quiet,but it is easy to ignore a tv screen as we do that at home all the time .

Another observation is that when the pa is done by a real person the pax at least know what the voice sounds like and in the event of an emergency will possibly recognise it.

I think a live pa also ensures the F/A's are engaged in the process so would be mentally better prepared.

[russwms]

One sure fire way of gaining passengers attention is to do what one of my cabin crew did a number of years ago. He asked if everyone had flown before - Yes Yes came the response. He then asked if everyone was happy with and knew and understood the safety briefing - Yes Yes came the response again, whereupon he tossed the demonstration life jacket to one of the passengers and said "Right, you give us the safety briefing please" That really got their attention!!

[Piltdown Man]

The pax briefing has some valuable points. Unfortunately, we cannot discuss these prior to departure (lack of time). Therefore, the "safety demo" is basically a crock unless someone somewhere wants to get honest. The SLF doesn't care, just so long as the flight is cheap.

PM