Use of life jackets.
 

Quick questionon behalf of a friend.

If you need to use an adult lifejacket on a child or an infant do you need to inflate it first before putting it on them or do you put it on and then inflate it.

And where would I find documentary evidence either way? :confused:

1 for infant, you dont use adult life west.
2 for child, you can use adult life west, (inflating one chamber).

Instructions:

a) put on the life west.
b) inflate (if child with adult life west - one chamber/ if with infants lifewest one chamber, as there is one :) )
c)do not inflate your life west.

Good luck

Many lifejackets are slightly different from one another, so look at the safety card to be sure. You inflate the lifejacket outside the aircraft or as you exit, I've never seen any you inflate before putting them on. Some airlines have children lifejackets (which are smaller) but same principle applies. For infants, I've seen different types of pod type 'life-cots'. Some you need to inflate before putting the infant inside, which you would do upon exiting, others you can put the infant in and then inflate.

Lifejacket types and their uses differ airline to airline, just ask the cabin crew on the day, they should be happy to explain.

It does vary. At BA if using an adult life jacket on a child you would inflate it on them partially deflate it and then tie the ends around the front of the child and under the arms. In this case it was done BEFORE exiting the aircraft but in a discreet place. To be honest it's an out there possibility as there are usually plenty of kids vests onboard for those that require them.

And at easyJet it's the same process as Matt just described above, inflate it in the galley, partially deflate it, then fit to the child

You should NEVER inflate any lifejackets within the cabin.

Upon reaching the door an infant lifejacket can be inflated or assist a child in inflating theirs.

You must remember Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 where due to passengers inflating their life jackets they died as they were unable to swim under the water and through the door.

I do understand it may be an airline policy for some airlines but would have thought they would have updated their policies back in 1996 when this happened.

I know my airline policy is no jackets inflated until exiting the aircraft and infant life jackets are not to be attached to the adult (using strap attached to the infant life jacket) until both are outside the aircraft.

bubblyguy read carefully the above it is about fitting an adult life jacket to a child in which ase the option of inflation on exiting is not possible as the child needs to be tied into the kacket and only have it partially inflated. The above method is from post 2006 training at BA and is also current at my present airline. Check you SEP manual you may find something similar.

For small children we provide infant life jackets (basically under the age of 4).

Anyone else gets the standard adult life jacket. I've had children in them before and they worked fine. If anyone inflates a life jacket in the cabin our manuals indicate we are to remove that life jacket and stow it in an overhead locker and provide that person a new life jacket. My airline is very strict on inflating the life jacket only once outside the aircraft (eg. jumping out of the aircraft door).

Flybe has the same procedure as Easy and BA - inflate lifejacket first (preferably away from other pax), slightly deflate and fit on the child. There are times when the number of children onboard might exceed the number of child lifejackets so the biggest children would have the adult jackets. The age guidelines for child lifejackets is 3 months to 3 years. SD

Think this is a classic example of needing to know the reasons why things are done a particular way.

If a child is unable to use an Infant Life-jacket an Adult Life-jacket is used instead. But in order for the child to fit properly into and be correctly fitted on certain types of life-jacket they MUST be inflated first, then deflated (partially or fully) before returning to their seat.

We're all very much aware of what happened in Ethiopia.

Having a child in certain types of life jacket with out following the steps could result in the child not being able to breath as it inflates around the child's neck and face. Coming out of the life-jacket or like bubblyguy said if not deflated child floats to the ceiling of the a/c.

Its up to the parents to remember that they will need to manually inflate the life-jacket again.

Manuals might be printed in black and white but life is most certainly in colour ;)

Oh bubbly, bless... Didn't your mother teach you the old "different is ok" rule - just because your airline doesn't do it doesn't mean those other airlines are wrong or better or anything but just plain different. Rest assured that people are not able to sneeze in an airline without a plethora of people in far flung departments completing risk assessments on risk assessments - especially in our part of the world. This hasn't inadvertently been overlooked by everyone (apart from you) since 1996...

The life vest's in the cabin really are designed for a small person or child anyways.