Cabin rules at landing?

[25F]

A quickie, I hope. What's with the blinds open and cabin lights dimmed at landing?
Apart from "them's the rules", of course!
Why?

Enlightenment appreciated.

[GalleyWench]

All rules are to speed an evacuation from the aircraft. Blinds open so the crew(and you) can see if smoke ,fire, or debris exist or indeed to notice them at all if unaware of any problems. The cabin lights are dimmed to match the outside lighting so that when an exit door is open, your eyes do not need time to adjust to the lighting conditions outside. The next question, why seatbacks up, done so you do not impede the person behind you from exiting the aircraft. These rules may seem silly but look at how long it takes to board an aircraft, then consider you may have 60-90 seconds to escape it.

[25F]

Not "silly" at all, GalleyWench. Somebody asked on a newsgroup and I thought I'd get the definitive answer.

[lara_croft]

It is interesting that you all say that the cabin lights must be dimmed for landing, as the Australian regulation is that cabin lights must be turned to bright...I wonder why the difference?

[invalid entry]

This is an old chestnut. The UK CAA (and several other bodies too) dim lights for reasons stated above. CASA requires lights on, the rationale being that whatever lights may be working will assist in evacuation.
It seems CAA are being pessimistic, expecting lights to fail - CASA optimistic expecting them (or some of them) to stay on.
Who's to say?

[HUE JORGAN]

when galley wench states that lights must be dimmed for landing, this applies only during the hours of darkness.....not during daylight...

[chilled]

Lights dimmed only in the hours of darkness!!
That depends on who you work for. We have to dim the lights for all takeoffs and landings.
The rational behind this being that we would dim then in a pre-planned emergency be it day or night.

[TightSlot]

Sorry to bore on this but it is one of my bugbears (has any ever seen a bugbear - what does it look like, and how many legs?).

My (UK) company issues an instruction along the lines of "dimming" the lights for T/O & L but not to the extent that the cabin is in darkness. This strikes me as a triumph of compromise over common sense. It neither provides night vision nor sufficient light from alternative sources if things start going wrong and metal gets bent.

My vote says turn 'em off. When things go bad, the lights fail - the emergency light switch won't help you much either! If people have open retinas they can see what is going on when it all goes dark: Relying on a dubious power source for exit paths strikes me as somehat optimistic to say the least!

BTW shade blinds open so you can see what is merrily burning away outside (or not as the case may be)

[This message has been edited by TightSlot (edited 14 October 2000).]

[p. Arempi]

In my company we dimm the cabin lights for landing and TO in the hours of darkness...

But in a 737 the light switch on dim is still very bright ...

We changed since a few months from electrically em.lights to fluorescent strips. It 's better in the dark and you're sure that this will be working.