Instructions to PAX to ignore safety instructions
 

When events such as SFO occur, PPrune is full of people complaining that PAX ignore safety instructions. But they are TOLD to ignore safety briefings.

Here is a current Easyjet safety briefing.

IMG_0571 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

There is a drawing showing how to adopt the 'brace' position, but everyone on board, from the captain down, must know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to adopt anything like this position in any of the seats on the aircraft.

IMG_0574 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
The only assumption that any intelligent passenger can make is that these instructions are a pure meaningless formality, and that neither the captain, nor the flight crew, nor anyone in Easyjet management expect passengers to take any of this information seriously.

I agree that the BRACE position is unrealistic and has been for years. But no carrier is going to change it anytime soon!

Whenever I see pictures of pax emerging from a prang (or simply a precautionary evac) with their hand luggage I reply that no one should be surprised. In the SFO thread I said that of course the PAX were leaving with luggage as they are PAX - making it clear that I am PAX.

Also, that one can understand that that any CC seeing pax presenting at the top of the chute with their bags - will let them take it with them, otherwise they have to spend time wrestling it off them and stacking it (where?) causing more obstruction.

Welcome to PPRuNe kilfeder and your first post has unmasked a high level conspiracy with profound implications for the travelling public

Anyone with just half a functioning eye will notice that in the depicted brace position the head and knee are aligned vertically. Which means that it is very much a position that is possible to adopt. In case it has escaped the notice of any of the resident sciolists, the back of any seat is designed to be pushed forward with minimal effort to accommodate your inflated noggin should the need arise.

You are indeed correct, assuming you're lucky enough to be on an aircraft with the seat rows so well spaced, not many of those these days. Of course you will need to undo your seatbelt too.

That is just absolute nonsense. If you can sit in the seat you can also adopt the brace position.

Squeezy's safety demonstration is poor, much worse than other airlines.

I recently flew GVA-BRS (on EZY not EZS). Almost as soon as the door closed they started the tape of the French language briefing. People were still in the aisle storing their baggage etc. Cabin crew not participating in briefing, not showing how to belt the life jacket, not showing the whistle and light, not doing anything related to the briefing. Frankly I'm not sure why they bothered.

A few minutes later, once the cabin was a little calmer, they did the briefing in English. This wasn't a tape but spoken very quickly in a very very thick accent from somewhere up north. I'm English mother tongue, but not British, and I couldn't understand what she was saying. French speakers, even with perfect English, would have not done as well as I.

How can you expect the passengers to know how to 'assume the position' in these circumstances?

Yes, I've seen the briefing thousands of times so I knew what was going on but don't they expect you to pay careful attention to every briefing?

The return flight a few days later had a similar French briefing (i.e. playing a tape while crew did other things) but the English was more understandable, but spoken much too quickly.

I used to be a very frequent Biz class customer. I had Gold with SQ and BA. In those days, I travelled biz and could understand the brace position.

Since I retired I am a holidays flying customer.

I cannot imagine how to adopt the brace position in any economy flight. It is not physically possible for me at over 6 feet tall.

Basically, I infer from that, that it is OK according to the safety gurus to just lie to customers about safety, just as they lie about Customer Service.

I did once ask the nice people at the Belgrano, but was not persistent enough to get a reply. (A quick plug for their medics - they are brilliant).

Even though I know that I am being told rubbish, wrt the brace position, I have resolved to carefully listen to each and every safety briefing. (I used to read the paper/a book, but a BMD steward told me off once in very fierce terms, so now I listen and watch on every flight).

Astonishing how non-technical outsiders always feel they know better than the industry's Professionals, isn't it?

There s NO PROBLEM whatsoever assuming the brace position as long as the people in the row ahead do the same thus allowing their seatbacks to fold forward.

Even so, cavilling about achieving the exact position seems a bit much, the point is to make yourself as small as possible and protect your head, jeez - do people really believe the brace position guarantees survival instead of being a "best option" or something?

Incredible!!:(

In the event of emergency, bend over and kiss your :mad: goodbye, so to speak. :O

"Even so, cavilling about achieving the exact position seems a bit much, the point is to make yourself as small as possible and protect your head,"

It's also about stopping you breaking your neck, which is what happened to some unfortunates in otherwise survivable accidents who adopted the previously recommended brace position.

And perhaps more importantly, in a survivable accident, it is all about protecting your legs. Again, people have perished, because they either broke their shins on the seat in front, so becoming immobilised, or breaking/trapping legs under their own seats. If you look at any safety card, the legs are drawn in a very specific position

Mmmm. OK, if you prefer to just roll over and die I suppose. But most people have better ideas...

Some one said.....

"Astonishing how non-technical outsiders always feel they know better than the industry's Professionals, isn't it?"

...............it is equally astonishing how whoever said that just knows everything that there is to know about everything.

I don't suppose they have a partner, but if they did, their partner would not have to bother with Google.

I think I'd go along with that, and:
I also seems pretty convincing. Other more recent studies have backed this up. I read a report a few weeks ago but can't find it at the moment. If I do, I'll post it.

For me, if I'm ever asked to do so, I'll adopt the brace position. I always listen to the safety briefing and take note of exits and emergency lighting. I suppose I'm extra careful because my Dad was a London firefighter. Flashovers happen very quickly but the real killer is smoke. You should crawl on the floor in smoke conditions, which is why the emergency lighting is low down. People reaching upward for their cabin bags in the overhead lockers would be the first to be overcome by smoke fumes. I hope I'm never in the situation but if I am I know exactly what I'll do.

Note last paragraph of this story: San Francisco crash survivors show unusual pattern of spinal injuries | CTV News

Pity they didn't have a Brace, Brace warning. (Yes I knows there was no time to give one - let's stay on thread)

Please don't get confused about this: It is an established fact that various PPRuNe contributors are a far more reliable source of knowledge and "The Truth" than the various airlines and regulatory authorities, whose primary aim is to kill as many passengers as possible.

:ugh:

I love your irony, TS - it livens up Pprune no end!

The myth about the brace position being designed to kill people came from the fact that airlines used to lose less money per death than they lost per injury.
(Mythbusters covered it some years ago)

The same article that Sunny John used to describe the UK's brace position goes on to describe the UK's brace position in great detail.
I won't bore you with it, but if you want to read it, it is on wiki. . Suffice it to say that the UK's post-Kegworth brace position described in that article is NOTHING like the brace position pictured in the OP's attachments.
And, for those who want to display their obviously much greater expertise, I did research this quite carefully before I talked to the nice people at the Belgrano.

Is safety too expensive?

San Francisco plane crash: rear-facing aircraft seats 'safer' - Telegraph

Rear facing seats? We haven't had that question in here so far this year, to the best o fmy knowledge. Those that want should search the PPRuNe archive for the discussions that all come back:

• Yes, they are safe in certain types of impact
• No, no carrier is ever going to install them
• Yes, tests have been carried out over the years
• No, routine pax don't like them
• Yes, they have them in BA Biz and no one complains (in such a way that it has reached the newspapers)
• etcetera!