wrafter

Apologies for my naivety here... but can you tell me why passenger window blinds on a/c must be up when landing?

It's a curious one, as I can't think of a good reason - surely not to increase visibility of the a/c from the ground?

Also - why do lights get turned off inside the a/c when landing?

Would seem to contradict what I'm surmising above, no?

ww1

As far as I know, there are two reasons why shades have to be up before landing, especially at night :
First, in case of a landing (or takeoff) accident, the cabin crew will need to have to see outside the plane in order to determine the best route for a possible evacuation.
Second, during the night evac, it will be better for everyone's night vision to come from a relatively dark cabin into the dark outside.
cheers

cortilla

i always thought it was so that emergency crews could look in after an emergency on landing or t/o. probably a combination of both. on a lighter note it could be a case of the 3 b's bullsh1t baffles brains

BigHitDH

Maybe it's just so the cabin crew doesn't have to go around and open 150 blinds upon turnaround?

Boss Raptor

reason 2.5 to add to WW1's...

it is felt that psychologicaly a pax is less inclined to leave an aircraft in an emergency at night if he is feeling comfortable in a nice bright 'normal' enviroment of a lit cabin...when he is pursuaded to move after that extra 30 secs it maybe too late.

atco-matic

If you've ever tried looking out of an aircraft window at night when all the lights are on in the cabin you will probably notice that, unless you jam your face right up against the perspex and shield the gaps with your hand, all you can see is the reflection of your face and the groin of the person sitting in the seat next to you.

Now try to imagine all the cabin lights on and Miss Hosty leaning over you (oo er!) trying desperately to see which side the smoke is coming from before opening the door and telling you to jump and slide!!!

st.elmo

The reason the lights get turned down are, as has been mentioned, for your night vison should you need to leave the aircraft. It is also done so that the emergency lights in the cabin are visable and pax can see. during an evacuation there may not be any lights or visability in the cabin.

Regarding the window shades, it is only at the most critical stages of the flight when you need to keep them up. (take off and landing as the engines are nearly at their limits).

Communication is very important onboard so the more passengers able to look out a window and report strange goings on, the better for all those onboard.

I think the British Midland flight which crashed years ago on its approach is the best example of bad communication onboard.

Pax and crew are the eyes and ears of the flight deck crew. so keep those heads out those windows!!! many thanks

Bob Brown

There are many reasons.

Lights dimmed

1. The lights are dimmed to improve the PAX night vision.
2. The lights are dimmed so you and the cabin crew can see out.
3. The lights are dimmed to reduce the demand on the generators and thus improve engine performance if a go around is needed.

Blinds open

1. To allow you and the cabin crew to see the lights outside
2. To allow th eCC to see any problems in the event of an evacuation.
3. To improve th echance of the tower/other aircraft seeing your a/c on the ground (300 lights are better than 3!)
4. To allow the emergency crews to see in before they start cutting your head open in the belief that no-one was leaning on the window.

Boss Raptor

CC. 'Night Flights' thread

I think a combination of all the points are valid reasons for dimming the lights at night, I was told the 'comfort' reason on a BA SEP course many years ago.

I have taken some time to go through various industry papers and studies on evacuation (aero geek that I am), NTSB, CAA, Boeing, Accident Reports etc., and cannot find any particular study on evacuating at night. Although most evacuation studies seem to have been conducted in both day and night conditions.

An interesting extra set of points highlighted in these studies is that;

a) pax will move quickly towards a lighted emergency exit if they are in a dark environment, much quicker in fact than in daylight. And of course the emergency floor lighting is also part of this process.

b) pax will not take so long deciding which exit they are going to use, believe it or not some pax do apparently think 'I dont like the wing exit idea I'll go to the door instead'.

c) pax wont wait behind for their family/friends as they cant see them, apparently many building and aircraft fire deaths occur as people have waited behind for their mates/families.

d) in a smoke filled cabin with lights on the effect is like having your full car headlight beam in fog, you cant see anything, and masks the exit lighting from being seen at a distance.

mainfrog2

Just checking up on this, the only requirement in my SEP manual is for the exit point blinds to be open. i.e. overwing plug type exits, or doors. There is no requirement for any others to be open. Day or Night.

WHBM

As it is obviously sensible for the blinds to be open on touchdown in case of an incident, it has always seemed strange that the blinds, which depend on friction to stay open (and not much, because you can open/close them easily) slide up to open, because in the event of a heavy landing they must be liable to slip down.

It would be more effective to mount them the opposite way to current practice, with the blind slid to the bottom when open. Is there something about the panelling construction that prevents this ?

atco-matic

i went on a plane once where half of the blind came up from the bottom of the window, and half came down from the top... can't remember what it was though...

BigHitDH

I think that's called an eyelid!