Pre flight Safety Demonstration

[VHF FLYER]

I know this is a controversial area but as a major user of airline services (around 250 sectors a year) I have developed a bit of a loathing for these.
It doesn't take much intelligence to work out that much of it is patronising nonsense aimed at giving a false sense of security to perhaps more nervous passengers.
Reserved for my most cynical comments are:
the life vest under your seat...'in the event of a landing on water..' only seaplanes can pull this off. Ordinary planes don't land on water. If you hit water from any height you may as well be hitting concrete - you're fish food - period
The safety cards showing a picture of your plane floating nicely on a calm sea with detached slides floating gently away is a dishonest illusion - life cots for infants indeed!!
And why are we told how to fasten and unfasten a seat belt? How stupid do aircrew think we are? There may be a few sheep farmers in Mongolia who wouldn't have a clue how to work it out but for heaven's sake. Despite every British pilot's pleading in the 'pre flight welcome aboard' most people carry on reading the paper or talking and you wonder why.

There is however one very important piece of safety advice that everyone should listen to - and that is to note the nearest exit to your seat and mentally work out your escape route. Trouble is something of vital importance like that is lost in all the waffle that surrounds it.

[redsnail]

I sincerely hope this isn't a wind up and you haven't registered just to go phishing...

For starters, it's the law that a safety brief is given. You reckon you hate hearing it, we don't particularly like giving it but we all hate the "please explain" from the boss because an irate pax didn't get the briefing.

Aircraft have ditched successfully on water.
Hence the life jacket deal.

Ahh the seatbelts. Yes. You'd think that normal adults could work them out but you 'd better believe that some don't. Especially when stressed. I've had to show passengers how to put them off and more importantly, to release them before getting out of the aircraft.

I agree the bit about where the exits are. I explain in great detail where they are and how to use the door/window. More importantly I explain when and when NOT to use that exit.

I have been known to stop the briefing when the pax weren't listening or to ask them questions. After all, I point out, if it all goes pear shaped, the last thing I will be doing is briefing them again.

However, at the end of the day, it's the law.

I was a passenger on Qantas recently, I liked their style of briefing.

[VHF FLYER]

Hi Redsnail
No not a wind up - just exploring a controversial area.
I know it's the Law but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right. I know there needs to be some kind of safety instruction on board - I don't think anyone would disagree with that - it's the content that I am taking issue with. AND you should know that most passengers vote with their indifference on this issue. If it was less patronising and (sorry but) down right obvious, people would take notice.
The 'nearest emergency exit' instruction is by a mile the most important thing you can say but it just gets ignored with the rest - that can't be right!!
By the way, the reason I am having a go here is that I am far too polite to do so on board - I am one of the few that actually listens (or pretends to at least) I do feel bad about other passengers' bad manners when the briefing is being made.
Nothing would ever change without challenge - I'm just asking 'Is there a more effective way to do this?'

[redsnail]

I like to personalise my passenger briefings but there's still stuff that I must say by law. Most airlines aren't allowed to personalise the pax briefs simply because passengers complain.

Passengers complain because they've heard it before and passengers complain because they didn't like the humour... You honestly can't win.

Most things in aviation have come about because blood was spilt. Hence the changes in the brace position and where you stow your hand luggage. That's one example where the old way had to be changed in the light of crash study analysis. Therefore, if you flew 10 years ago, you'd think that you had to put your hand luggage under the seat you're on and keep your legs forward and interlock your fingers. Coroners investigation has shown that lead to (greater) injury. Now the briefing has changed to the one you now hear and see.... If the brief wasn't given, you'd do the wrong thing.

Apart from the spilling of blood, lawyers have got involved. I know of one case where the pax were angling for a refund on their flight. They dragged the company through court only to find their complaint full of holes. It was thrown out. Can you imagine the stress the company and the pilot was put under? Therefore, it is much easier to simply say exactly the same thing to every one every flight.

You are one passenger. I have briefed thousands of passengers. I have seen people fumble with the seat belts, forget how to open a door and generally ignore what I have said to their potential peril. Fortunately, none have been injured or killed. A few have had a fright. That's when it dawns on them what I told them actually was for their benefit, not mine.

If it was up to me, I'd make it a quizz and the passengers tick the right answer on the IFE. However, some one would complain and it would be too costly to implement.

Qantas do stress the emergency exit bit on their preflight briefing. They also stress that life jackets do differ from airline to airline.

To me, differences are what need to be highlighted. eg which exit row is nearest. However, how do the airlines know what the passenger is up to date with? As I explained earlier, crash positions change with new info from accidents. How do airlines know what you know? Therefore, sadly, back to the lowest common denominator.

As crew we brief every taxi, departure and climb (normal and abnormal) and arrival, landing and taxi in. We go over the "every day" stuff as well as the abnormal/emergency stuff. Reason? If it's fresh in our memory then we're likely to react in the correct way when the adrenaline kicks in.

BTW, I am not a FA.

[Getoutofmygalley]

And why are we told how to fasten and unfasten a seat belt? How stupid do aircrew think we are?

As a member of cabin crew, I do often feel as if I do the safety demonstration with nobody watching me. When I go through the cabin after the demonstration doing my cabin secure, I find on average 6 or 7 passengers who have not yet fastened their seatbelts. I then tell these ones to fasten theirs, and usually half of these try to fasten the seat belt the wrong way (i.e. they try to put the flat bit under the lift up release) - my usual response is "if you paid attention to the safety demonstration, you would have known how to do that" I sometimes then question them on where their nearest exit is - they usually do not have a clue, so I say to them "next time you fly, please pay attention to the safety demonstration - it's for your benefit not mine, I know how to get out of this aircraft in an emergency where as you obviously do not"

My company does a manual safety demonstration, which takes approximately 1 1/2 minutes. It contains no fluff or nonsense and doesn't patronise - It's quick, to the point and for YOUR safety.

Honestly VHF Flyer you would not believe how thick passengers can be on an aircraft. They might be brain surgeons on the ground, but quite often once a passenger gets onto an aeroplane, they do seem to regress their mental ages back to child level, so passengers DO need to be told what to do in an emergency.

In my recurrent training earlier this year, we watched a video that a passenger had taken on a British registered 757 that experience a sudden loss of cabin pressure, the rubber jungle fell from the ceiling and half the passengers (in the part of the cabin that we could see) did not bother putting on their oxygen masks. There was a child close to the camera in the video that was sat next to its Mum and Dad. The Mum and Dad had put on their masks, but the child had not. Mum and Dad didn't bother putting the mask onto the child who was sat their staring around the cabin in a wild fashion, looking kind of drunk (maybe in the euphoric state that people go into when suffering from hypoxia).

Earlier this year, I was operating on a flight from a European destination to London. About 10 minutes into the flight, just after the passengers had been released from their seats we lost an engine. We had to divert the aircraft and prepare for a precautionary landing. We landed into another airport in the same country and the landing was uneventful. Later that night we brought the passengers home on a different aircraft - during the safety briefing on the second aircraft you could have heard a pin drop, everyone watched the demonstration intently, and on completion of the safety demonstration the cabin crew received a round of applause.

Perhaps if you are ever on a flight where an incident occurs, you might actually appreciate the tedium that you have had to endure on every uneventful flight you have taken so far!

[shuttlebus]

Not to be too controversial, but it familiarity breeding contempt here?

I also travel a lot and probably could do the safety brief in my head if I wanted to, but that is not the point :-)

I still give it my full attention, as I know that should something happen my life could depend on it (and unfortunately, the "know-it-alls who think the paper is more important)

It is very easy with overuse of anything to become confident - however, over-confidence can, well, shall we say lead to "other issues".....

Also, as the briefing clearly states (and I quote....)

"As this may differ from other aircraft you have travelled on before...."

Just my tupence worth...

Regards,

Shuttlebus

P.S. I notice some airlines have removed the line ".... bearing in mind the nearest exit may be behind you......"

Any thoughts, or is this to allow the herd to head forward whilst those who listened go back?