Thanks, you're absolutely right of course.
The life jacket, inflated, would make a useful airbag substitute for a brace type landing though wouldn't it?!
I only mention this as on 6/11/09 I was LHR-MAN with BMI and had an aborted landing :eek: VERY sharp, sudden ascent when we were 1-2 mins from landing, then went around 3 times. Captain said there had been bird strike ahead of us (feasible, as it was 5.30 ish)
I did start to wonder what sort of landing we were in for but it was OK.
Lots of screaming from other pax though!
While they were doing that, I was mentally re-checking where the exits where and making sure I knew how the door operated!! :)

A go-around caused that sort of reaction? What a bunch of hysterical pax there were on that flight then! For a very sharp and sudden ascent as you describe, I doubt you were 1-2 mins from the airfield. If there was a bird strike in ahead of the aircraft, doesn't mean there'll be another or that it'll cause an accident. Some people just panic too much

Agree completely re screaming pax. I wanted to punch the man sitting next to me.
I wonder if there's any way of finding out what was happening to cause our aborted landing. We landed 22 mins late, after being told in-flight that he anticipated landing early.
My husband was parked in a nearby pub car-park, with views of the runway, waiting for me to phone and say I'd collected luggage and was ready to be picked up at the departure drop-off zone. He saw my a/c land, but didn't see any other problems before us.

One major international airline states during it's safety briefing to pull 1 tag of the lifejacket inside of the aircraft and the other after vacating!!! :confused:

Seems a little like hedging your bets and not really having a clue to me!!!

Don't try this in a studio
 

Interesting subject.
We have recently finished filming a new safety video for an airline who shall remain nameless. On set we were told to not inflate the jacket for the purpose of the video. On account that on some routes, non frequent flyers, shall we say, actually copied the video and lo and behold a cabin full of passengers with life jackets fully inflated was observed. An urban myth ?
Perhaps. For our purposes we decided to film an inflate and deflate. Soon realized that we were in fact asphyxiating the actor. It seems they inflate quite tight, so as to support the head in water. Fortunately we were able to release air through the manual inflate tubes and restore said actors now purple head back to pink. So I'd wait until I felt the cold freezing water sink through my clothes before pulling the red toggles.
One other thing, the light that activates in water !! Well it didn't and when we finally got one to work after soaking it in a bucket for half an hour, we fear that no one would spot a fairy light in the middle of the ocean.

Coopz

Yes, right say inflate the life jacket is necessary when leaving the aircraft , its a plus point in safety.