Taped Announcements

[Bob Upndown]

Chaps and Chapesses,

As a frequent SLF working for particular silver-painted airline, I have a question:

Flying Big Air into DEL a just before Christmas, about 4 hours into the flight, we were regaled with a deep, resonant and (supposedly!) reassuring (taped) voice from the PA, announcing that the aircraft had experienced a pressuriation problem and we should take the masks that have dropped from overhead, place them over our mouths and continue to breathe normally......etc etc. (There was no problem and no masks had dropped).

This was swiftly followed by a hurried (human) announcement from the flight deck assuring us all was well and we weren't about the drop out of the sky.

I fly 45+ LH sectors a year usually with the Woolly Pullies, as well as CX and SQ. To the best of my knowledge none of the above use taped emergency announcements.

Is it just BA who use this method of pax comms in an emergency, and if so, why?

I think it was last year, BA had another spurious announement mid-flight; this one was along the lines of 'Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to ditch in the sea, please put on your life jacket and start saying your prayers (OK, I lied about the last bit). Understandably,there was something of a reaction to that one!

I know that in the event of a situation, the drivers are going to be a tad busy to do a PA with that information, but at the other end of the scale, if there was indeed a depressurisation and the masks dropped, surely the PA would be drowned out by the screams and the sound of 300+ people farting in unision?

Oh, and so no-one thinks I'm having a pop at BA, it was otherwise a fab flight, great crew, and excellent Bloody Mary's. Cheers!;)

[jungly]

At the risk of generalising ALL MAJOR CARRIERS have prerecorded emergency PAs. (I fly for CX)

Why?

Its fast. Only 2 pushes of a button to manually trigger any announcement you want. The Depress announcement can be automatic. The only other option is for a cabin crew to pull out a book and read the announcement and this takes time.

Prerecorded announcements free all the cabin crew to get about the cabin and check pax, check security etc.

In a Depress the cabin crew leap into the 1st available seat (it might even be next to you)..they maybe no where near a PA station.

The prerecorded announcement is crisp and clear. In a critical emergency a PA from stressed crew may not be as calming as one may like! (Esp if English is a 2nd language)

Lastly...

There are no pre-recorded announcements from the flight deck.

Hope this enlightens.

[Departures Beckham]

From what I recall, the recorded announcements on many aircraft are also available in a number of languages. You can therefore expect someone like Air France to have messages available in English and French etc.

[FormerFlyer]

MON even have automatic announce on their A300s for the seatbelt sign going on. It always prompted a mad dash to the FWD galley to switch it off once the English was done (first) as then it rambled on in a variety of other lingos. ;)

[*Lancer*]

Just to back up jungly, I agree! :)

All the carriers I know have an automated depressurisation PA, because its critical for the information to be communicated immediately following the event (because either people weren't listening to the emergency briefing, can't remember, or are too panicked). Since the pilots are busy recovering the situation (and putting on their own gear), and the FAs are jamming themselves in between seats reaching for the nearest mask, an automated message is really the only practical way.

For your info Bob, on Boeing aircraft the masks automatically drop, with the automatic PA, and full cabin lighting, when the cabin alititude climbs above 14000 feet. There is a manual switch on the flightdeck as well, which would normally be activated before 14000, as the cabin altitude warning is triggered at 10000. Of course, as with any system, it might play up!

Its strange the crew didn't override the PA rather than wait for it to finish...

Lancer