Plane Facts of Safety Can Be Demonstrated

If you’re like most airline passengers, you share at least one thing in common with other air travelers. As your plane is taxiing on the ground, you will do everything possible to ignore the pre-flight safety announcements and equipment demonstrations.

Among the possible reasons for that behavior:

--The demonstrations seem boring. (After all, how many times can you watch the flight attendants point their fingers in the supposed direction of exit doors?)

--The information seems useless.

To the contrary, while the presentations may be theatrically unexciting, the information could very well save your life.

A few weeks ago as a Trans World Airlines jumbo jet landed at Denver’s Stapleton International Airport after a flight from St. Louis, one of the engines caught fire.

Warning Bells Sound

Fire warning bells sounded in the cockpit as the pilot taxied to a quick stop.

“Don’t panic,” the stewardesses quickly announced, as the pilot ordered the immediate evacuation of the plane. Emergency doors were opened, and three escape slides were activated.

“People were coming off the plane like bats out of hell,” reported one passenger. In just a few minutes all 229 persons aboard had been able to get out. There were no fatalities. And only 13 persons were injured.

The passengers were lucky, and the flames were quickly extinguished by an alert airport fire crew.

“It was obvious that some of the passengers knew where their exits were,” said one flight attendant. “Some of them had paid attention to the safety announcement before we left St. Louis.”

How many of you have really paid attention to the pre-takeoff safety announcements?

How many of you know how to put on a life preserver on an airplane? Or where your nearest emergency exit is? And how many of you know how to remove an aircraft exit door?

Emphasis on Briefings

Recent studies of “survivable” crashes--incidents in which passengers survived the crash’s impact--have shown that the crashes were still fatal. Many passengers died from smoke inhalation, unable to get to appropriate exits.

As a result, a growing number of airlines are putting a greater emphasis on their pre-flight safety briefings, and flight attendants are taking their safety roles more seriously.

Some flight attendants now go out of their way to get your attention before takeoff.

On a PSA flight from Burbank to Sacramento, an alert stewardess walked down the aisle and made sure that all passengers wearing Walkman headphones removed them until after she had made her safety announcement and the plane had safely taken off. “I know Whitney Houston is good,” she told one teen-ager, “but right now listening to me is more important.” She was right.

Some airlines have resorted to audio-visual demonstrations, hoping that the novelty of a video presentation will be more effective in two ways--getting your attention, of course, and allowing flight attendants to pay more attention to the essential safety details.

Recently, on British Airways Flight 283 to Los Angeles, I saw the newest presentation. It definitely got my attention.

In Several Languages

BA’s audio-visual safety presentation is nothing less than impressive. It effectively depicts the equipment, the exits, and perhaps most important, how the emergency equipment works.

Using animation and clear graphic illustrations, the video, in English, was followed by instructions in a number of other languages.

“It’s something we truly believe in,” says Colin Marshall, chief executive of British Airways. “And so we expanded our in-flight safety demonstration on video. We know it works, because people are now paying attention.”

At United, the in-flight safety video is also quite effective. “Instead of just the stewardess pointing out exits and where the oxygen masks are,” United spokesman Chuck Novak says, “we use the video to show what an inflated life vest looks like and what happens when the oxygen masks drop. It’s realistic, and people are watching the videos as a result.”

However, to avoid complacency about safety procedures among flight attendants, United periodically removes the videos on selected flights, and the cabin staff then does the safety briefing live. “It keeps everyone up to speed,” Novak says.

Uses Wrong Audio

(Recently, on a flight between Lisbon and London’s Heathrow Airport, a flight attendant had become a little too dependent on the audio-visual system. As the plane slowed to make its descent over the English Channel, she inadvertently inserted the wrong audio into the PA system, and a near-panic ensued. “Prepare to ditch,” came the announcement in Portuguese.)

What about those seat pocket safety instruction cards? When was the last time you read one? American Airlines even carries special Braille cards for any blind passengers.

Do you know where your life vest is? Life rafts? On a recent Thai flight from Bangkok to Seattle, the flight attendants not only demonstrated where the vests and rafts were, but also let the passengers know that the plane was equipped with Arctic survival gear, because the plane would be flying over large areas of extremely cold tundra. If the passengers were lucky enough to survive a crash landing, the elements would surely kill them if they didn’t wear the special suits.

Even cruise lines seem to be paying more attention to passenger safety drills. Under law, cruise lines are required to hold mandatory lifeboat drills for passengers within 24 hours after leaving a U.S. port.

Drills Only Basic

A few years ago, while all ships apparently complied with that rule, many crews performed only a basic lifeboat drill. Passengers mustered on deck and were quickly shown their lifeboat stations. But attendance was often not taken. And many of those passengers who did attend the drills often returned to their cabins with little more safety knowledge than when they had first put on their life preservers.

On a recent short coastal cruise aboard Cunard’s Sagafjord, the lifeboat drill was a casual event. While three lifeboats were lowered and passengers were encouraged to put on life vests, no attendance was taken and no useful instructions were given, other than a recorded message about safety at sea broadcast throughout the ship.

However, passengers on Holland America ships become instant experts on safety procedures. Not only is attendance taken and instructions given as to the meaning of whistle blasts and alarms, but passengers are also given an opportunity to view their lifeboats at eye level.

At every Holland America lifeboat drill, the lifeboats are lowered and passengers are encouraged to inspect each boat closely. Lifeboat commanders then explain the features of each lifeboat, including the location of the engine, emergency drinking water and the special gravity davits designed to lower the lifeboats safely on both sides of the ship regardless of how the ship is sitting in the water.

Away All Boats

“On our longer cruises,” says the Sagafjord’s captain, Kai Julsen, “we get very detailed in our drills. We lower all the boats; we display all the safety at sea equipment and explain them thoroughly to passengers. Many of our passengers are repeat cruisers,” he says, “and there is a great tendency to become complacent.

“We try to do our drills a different way each time so that people will be interested in what we are telling them. Sometimes, as a result, some of our drills have been known to last 45 minutes because the passengers become so interested they want to know about everything. And we tell them.”

On the Pearl of Scandinavia, a cruise ship that specializes in Asian itineraries, lifeboat drills are taken equally seriously. Before passengers put on their vests and go out on deck for the drill, they are often taken to an inside lounge and briefed on safety procedures.

“Safety instructions can’t be perceived as ceremonial,” says Roger Kubler, Alaska Airlines assistant vice president of in-flight services. “Our concern is keeping your attention. We’re deadly serious about safety on our planes, and we have our flight attendants do the safety announcements themselves instead of resorting to a video presentation.

To Keep Them Listening

“We do that,” he said, “because we are consciously striving to ensure that our passengers don’t tune the announcements out.”

Toward that end, Kubler is considering adding a quiz to the safety announcements, giving away prizes to passengers who identify their nearest exit door, et al.

Short of winning a matching set of luggage, have you ever worried about which airplane door was your emergency exit? And have you ever figured out a plan to get to it in the event of an emergency?

Recently, I decided to find out. I visited a special PSA DC-9 training mock-up near San Diego. The mock-up is designed to simulate virtually any flight emergency for cabin crew training.

I strapped myself into my seat (as I would before takeoff on a normal flight) and watched the safety demonstration, finding my emergency door.

Then the PSA training folks simulated a fire, complete with thick, non-toxic smoke. I had 60 seconds to exit the “plane.” The lights dimmed, and the smoke quickly filled the cabin. Although I knew where the exit door was, the smoke became so dense--so fast--that I barely made it out of the plane by crawling along the center aisle--in 55 seconds.

Although it was just a simulated emergency, the fact that I had paid attention to the safety demonstration and knew my nearest exit saved me a good 15 seconds and, in a real emergency, could have saved my life.