window shades
 

I've noticed that airlines now make you close the window shades during takeoff and landing, why is this necessary?

Never heard of that. What airlines ? One of the pleasures of sitting at the window is to enjoy the TO and landing. I would not accept that ruling.

I thought it was the opposite ... every flight I've ever been on they insist they are up for to and landing ... (not that you would want them shut anyway :) )

My niece just returned from Europe and used a few differant airlines and they all requested passengers to close blinds. She flew Air Transat from Toronto to Rome.

So is anyone going to enlighten us less illuminated as to the reasons of this new absurdity ?

It is not new and this has been discussed on other threads before.

Well, having just swotted through some past window shade threads, the general consensus there is that the window shades are requested to be OPEN during TO and landing, because, its safer for people and CC to actually see what is going on outside in case of things going pear shaped.

In the 787 you won't have a choice. It will be whatever the cabin crew decide. End of story. :*

I always thought they were required to be open, so that in case of a rejected take off due to a fire, the cabin crew would be able to see which side and the severity of it.

Seen AF do it on eastbound flights to Asia.

One spectacular Spring dawn as flew over snow-bound Balkans starting taking photos from window seat, was told by noxious CC to shut window and go to sleep. I wasn't aware I'd spent £500 to travel Air Rendition or Nanny Airways. I was stunned. Notably, the two people sat to me were also wide awake and couldn't care less, in fact were staring out the window too. And it was light outside for crissakes.

There are a dozen things that keep people awake on a flight and open windows is the least of your worries (children screaming, people yelling, trollies bashing, announcements, etc etc).

Yet ANOTHER reason to never fly AF again.

Clearly was CC just wanting to "subdue" cabin. Pretty selfish and futile. They could have just handed out melatonin and whisky.

In less stable parts of the world closed blinds are standard for night departures and arrivals because trigger happy locals find it easier to target brightly illuminated targets.

The security theatre has adopted this practice in some areas.

I wonder if it has anything to do with safety, closing blinds at night make the aircraft less visible from a ground threat, but landing lights and strobes make that a moot point! Closing them closed during the day makes no scense

Canada and Western Europe are pretty stable...........

I was told that the blinds are closed to allow passengers' eyes to acclimatise and be able to observe the led's on the floor which, in the event of an emergency, will indicate where to exit the plane. Dunno how true that is...?

Having just flown several legs on domestic airlines across the US I can tell you that they asked for the shades to be closed only while on the ground, to assist the temperature control on hot sunny days. During takeoff and landing at least some shades were required to be open in case of emergency.

Open for takeoff and landing to view outside environment in an emergency. I have seen some variation between all shades open and exit seat shades only.

Reduction if visual signature for self protection? Maybe in some of the more unsettled areas of the world, but if so it is the exception, not the rule. It is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility, but considering the visual and noise footprint of an arriving or departing airplane, the utility of this is questionable.

I have also heard the request to close the shades on long range flights.

It is pretty standard during summer months to hear requests to close shades before deplaning (as well as turning off reading lights and opening Wemacs, gaspers, air vents, punkah louvres, whatever) to help keep the cabin cool at the gate.

I have never heard of a requirement to close the shades for takeoff and landing. Perhaps Mr. Fisher innocently misunderstood the request. Either that or he flies in and out of Somalia and/or Chechnya a lot.

if you read my post Bob you would see it was a flight from Toronto to Rome and then through W. Euro. She flies back tonight on Air Transat, I'll let you know what happens

Window Blinds Open for Take-off & Landing Please!
 

I have been told, and have been telling people for years, that the blinds should be open for take-off and landing so that in the event of a mishap the Crash Rescue people can see inside the cabin, by looking through the windows, to determine if there are people alive that need rescuing.

This seems to be logical, and if my memory serves me well, was as a direct result of an accident some 20+ years (maybe 30+ years ago) where the crash crews could not see in, because the blinds were closed, people were not rescued in a timely manner and lives were deemed to have been lost as a result.

i think all aboard need to have some sort of situational awareness, even if most pax don't understand what that is. go to the post about the collision at barcelona where pax saw the whole thing (even if the captain ignored it). i would demand to get off a flight if all pax were told to close blinds on takeoff and landing. seriously!

Folks - Our Forum FAQ has quite a bit on this subject: Please consider taking a look before continuing.

I'm not certain how, where or why, but I sense some sort of misunderstanding going on - This is not normal practise on any airline that I have flown on or am aware of during take-off or landing.