Lights off... why?!

[AerBabe]

This one has been bothering me for a while, but I keep forgetting to post the question! Why are the cabin lights turned off on a commercial jet for t/o and landing? If it was a question of making more power available, surely they would turn off the air con too... which I don't think they do.. .Thanks, and I hope this isn't a really dumb question!

[ILS27R]

Hi AerBabe,

Nothing to do with power. Its really quite unnecessary. Turning the lights off for T/O and landing is meant to preserve the passengers and cabin crews night vision in the event of an evacuation. However, its a waste of time because in order to have total night vision your eyes need around 30 minutes to become accustomed to the dark. Also I suppose theres the notion of being able to see flames better in the dark with out the internal lights reflecting off the windows, thus making it safer for the crew to evacuate the safest side of the aeroplane.

[Hollow Blade]

I think it´s very useful to do that, not only it allows for night adaptation (30 min is ideal but most healthy eyes will adapt a lot sooner)but also it encourages pax to follow the lighted paths and discourages them from starting to grab stuff from their bags and everything.. .They must do that for Take off and landing...also any pax sleeping must be woken up before to and ldg in case of evacuation.. .Hope it helps.

[U R NumberOne]

On a slight variation...

I was on a flight a couple of years ago when during the entire approach, landing and most of the taxi onto stand, the video was still playing the Vicar of Dibley! As a result many pax still sitting with headphones on and eyes on the screens. I imagine in the event of a problem the PA would over-ride the TV audio feed, but it still wouldn't make for the most alert of passenger load if something like an evacuation became necessary.

I'd seen that episode anyway. <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">

[AerBabe]

Thanks for replying everyone. The answer makes sense thinking about it!

[A Very Civil Pilot]

As for the aircon, that can be turned off to give more power. Part of our line up checks are that high flow aircon is off, and after take-off that aircon is on (in case we turned it off for t/o)