release because it’s what you are used to doing, and it
won’t work. According to Professor Ed Galea, this is a common occurrence in
accidents and has led to deaths.
This universal action is
called reversion. People revert to normal behavior, to predominant actions.
Pilots who used to fly one type of aircraft for many years and now fly another
are known to revert to procedures for their previous aircraft under stress or
fatigue.
Flight attendants flying
everyday on different aircraft types open doors without disarming the emergency
escape chutes all the time; they assume they know which aircraft they are on
and they’ve seen it before. But they can still get it wrong when they stand at
that door and lift instead of lowering, push instead of pull, or arm instead of
disarming.
Back to our emergency where
you may spend ten seconds or more trying to figure out what you are doing
wrong; time in which you should have been trying to escape, and in aircraft
accidents, time may not be on your side.
Regulators give manufacturers
90 seconds to empty an aircraft during trials. And in those trials half the
exits will fail. However, you can bet that every one of those test passengers
were told moments before by their crew to LIFT on the latch to open that belt,
and were reminded also of the location of the exits.
Why does this reversion happen
even to people who fly many times a week? A certain area of the nervous system
takes over in emergencies, preparing you for ‘fight or flight’, and you go into
safemode, or basic mode. If car travel is your predominant method of transport,
your brain will revert to this familiar situation. Do yourself a favor and
remind the brain before takeoff where you are.
The items displayed in a safety
demonstration are carefully selected.
They are your survival tools.
The pilots, the flight
attendants, Air Traffic and Emergency Services on the ground, all know what
part they will play in the event of something going wrong. The safety demonstration
is when you are told your part. It only works if the team is cohesive and you
may well find yourself part of that team. Flight attendants may become
incapacitated in some way and you could find yourself having to open a door, or
if you sit at an overwing exit, you will have to open it in the event of an
evacuation.
Oxygen masks may drop down. Put them on at once. Don’t ask
questions or wait to be told. You may only have seconds before passing out. No
matter how silly you feel, or even if you sense nothing wrong, put on the mask—the
cockpit crew or the aircraft has obviously detected a problem if the oxygen
masks are deployed. It could be a slow leak of pressure with the air in the
cabin dwindling away without any apparent indication while you become
increasingly happy due to oxygen starvation. You may see the flight attendants
grabbing the nearest masks and jumping on a nearby passenger’s lap. Meanwhile
the pilots could be coping with their full face masks and the inherent
restrictions to clear thought and communications they pose. In this case, there
may not be an announcement for some time that something may be wrong.
On many aircraft, oxygen masks
will drop down automatically above a certain loss of cabin pressure, then an
automatic public address will play over and over telling you to sit down — anywhere
— put on the mask and strap in. Unless you are in a toilet on a US registered
aircraft, where oxygen masks were removed due to security “concerns”, concerns
that apparently overrode the safety worries of many who objected. And if your
child is travelling on your lap there may only be one mask per seat leaving you
with a choice; and remember too that the mask is not really designed with
children in mind, so make it a snug fit.
Don’t expect to feel a rush of
oxygen coming at you from the mask. A chemical process in the system above your
head is gently oozing out oxygen at a steady rate for the next fifteen minutes
or so, as the
won’t work. According to Professor Ed Galea, this is a common occurrence in
accidents and has led to deaths.
This universal action is
called reversion. People revert to normal behavior, to predominant actions.
Pilots who used to fly one type of aircraft for many years and now fly another
are known to revert to procedures for their previous aircraft under stress or
fatigue.
Flight attendants flying
everyday on different aircraft types open doors without disarming the emergency
escape chutes all the time; they assume they know which aircraft they are on
and they’ve seen it before. But they can still get it wrong when they stand at
that door and lift instead of lowering, push instead of pull, or arm instead of
disarming.
Back to our emergency where
you may spend ten seconds or more trying to figure out what you are doing
wrong; time in which you should have been trying to escape, and in aircraft
accidents, time may not be on your side.
Regulators give manufacturers
90 seconds to empty an aircraft during trials. And in those trials half the
exits will fail. However, you can bet that every one of those test passengers
were told moments before by their crew to LIFT on the latch to open that belt,
and were reminded also of the location of the exits.
Why does this reversion happen
even to people who fly many times a week? A certain area of the nervous system
takes over in emergencies, preparing you for ‘fight or flight’, and you go into
safemode, or basic mode. If car travel is your predominant method of transport,
your brain will revert to this familiar situation. Do yourself a favor and
remind the brain before takeoff where you are.
The items displayed in a safety
demonstration are carefully selected.
They are your survival tools.
The pilots, the flight
attendants, Air Traffic and Emergency Services on the ground, all know what
part they will play in the event of something going wrong. The safety demonstration
is when you are told your part. It only works if the team is cohesive and you
may well find yourself part of that team. Flight attendants may become
incapacitated in some way and you could find yourself having to open a door, or
if you sit at an overwing exit, you will have to open it in the event of an
evacuation.
Oxygen masks may drop down. Put them on at once. Don’t ask
questions or wait to be told. You may only have seconds before passing out. No
matter how silly you feel, or even if you sense nothing wrong, put on the mask—the
cockpit crew or the aircraft has obviously detected a problem if the oxygen
masks are deployed. It could be a slow leak of pressure with the air in the
cabin dwindling away without any apparent indication while you become
increasingly happy due to oxygen starvation. You may see the flight attendants
grabbing the nearest masks and jumping on a nearby passenger’s lap. Meanwhile
the pilots could be coping with their full face masks and the inherent
restrictions to clear thought and communications they pose. In this case, there
may not be an announcement for some time that something may be wrong.
On many aircraft, oxygen masks
will drop down automatically above a certain loss of cabin pressure, then an
automatic public address will play over and over telling you to sit down — anywhere
— put on the mask and strap in. Unless you are in a toilet on a US registered
aircraft, where oxygen masks were removed due to security “concerns”, concerns
that apparently overrode the safety worries of many who objected. And if your
child is travelling on your lap there may only be one mask per seat leaving you
with a choice; and remember too that the mask is not really designed with
children in mind, so make it a snug fit.
Don’t expect to feel a rush of
oxygen coming at you from the mask. A chemical process in the system above your
head is gently oozing out oxygen at a steady rate for the next fifteen minutes
or so, as the
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