aircraft descends to a safe level where the masks are no longer
required by passengers and crew. As the demo says, do put on your own mask
first, because if you fiddle around with your child’s, or your partner’s you
may well pass out first and not finish the job for either of you.
The brace position.
Different airlines may
show you slightly different brace positions but they all have the same basic
goal; to get you down as low as you can to prevent a whiplash, or “jackknife”
effect on your body. It’s getting harder to actually brace yourself with seats
crammed ever closer together, but pushing your body forward and down as much as
possible will make all the difference. Crash victims who do not adopt this
position “flail” upon impact and fracture limbs and skulls on the seat in front
of them.
Rear facing seats, as the
military have adopted for decades in its air transports, as well as many
business jets, would dramatically improve safety, but public comfort and
perceptions prevent it, for now. Business class configurations have used a head
to toe seating for some time now. One seat faces forward, with the seat beside
facing rearwards. It makes for an airy cabin and there are few complaints about
flying backwards. The idea of putting seats head to toe on more flights is
being considered because airlines can fit more passengers in that way.
S. O. S.
G et O utside
“It’s often claimed that frequent flyers have a good
knowledge of the aircraft, and that recent fliers also have a good knowledge of
the aircraft layout. Of great concern is the result that only a little more
than a quarter of the ‘recent frequent flyers’ could identify the number of
exits, locate their position and identify their relative size,” says Professor Galea,
whose group also completed a three and a half year vital study into the 911
evacuation of the twin towers.
A worrying revelation occurred
when Galea surveyed aircraft passengers and their exit knowledge. The team
discovered that only about twenty-five percent of people knew where the exits
were and how small the overwing exits may be.
But does size really matter? In
this case it does. The most common aircraft types are narrow body Airbus A320’s
and Boeing 737’s.
During the safety briefing on
these aircraft, crew will tell you there are, “Two at the back, two at the
front and two in the middle.” There’s a famous phrase plugged by flight attendants,
“there may be more than 50 ways to leave your lover, but only four ways to
leave this airplane.”
You should also know that a
fire can become uncontrollable on an aircraft in less than two minutes; one of
the reasons evacuation certification for an aircraft is 90 seconds, even for
the 900 seat Airbus A380.
Here’s the gotcha on smaller
aircraft—at those big doors you can walk out; at the smaller overwings, you
have to climb out.
Exit size does matter. In many
accidents, passengers were crammed at the overwing exits trying to get out,
while in front of and behind them the large door exits were moving fast or vacant
altogether. In videos of aircraft evacuations, two or three passengers at
overwing exits can be seen getting jammed together. “This inherent lack of exit
knowledge is likely to have a negative impact on overall evacuation efficiency
and hence passenger safety,” says Galea’s group. “The pre-flight briefing makes
no mention of the size of the exits and the impact this may have on evacuation
times.”
They recommend that passenger
briefings emphasize the location and type of exits because irrespective of
flight experience, two fifths of passengers surveyed elected to use the
smaller, slower overwing exits.
Ed Galea and his team have
also found that in one-third of accidents analyzed, more than half of aircraft exits were unusable due mainly to failure of the door or slide
during emergencies. That exit you have your eye on may not be usable. As a
passenger, it would be wise to have two exits in
required by passengers and crew. As the demo says, do put on your own mask
first, because if you fiddle around with your child’s, or your partner’s you
may well pass out first and not finish the job for either of you.
The brace position.
Different airlines may
show you slightly different brace positions but they all have the same basic
goal; to get you down as low as you can to prevent a whiplash, or “jackknife”
effect on your body. It’s getting harder to actually brace yourself with seats
crammed ever closer together, but pushing your body forward and down as much as
possible will make all the difference. Crash victims who do not adopt this
position “flail” upon impact and fracture limbs and skulls on the seat in front
of them.
Rear facing seats, as the
military have adopted for decades in its air transports, as well as many
business jets, would dramatically improve safety, but public comfort and
perceptions prevent it, for now. Business class configurations have used a head
to toe seating for some time now. One seat faces forward, with the seat beside
facing rearwards. It makes for an airy cabin and there are few complaints about
flying backwards. The idea of putting seats head to toe on more flights is
being considered because airlines can fit more passengers in that way.
S. O. S.
G et O utside
“It’s often claimed that frequent flyers have a good
knowledge of the aircraft, and that recent fliers also have a good knowledge of
the aircraft layout. Of great concern is the result that only a little more
than a quarter of the ‘recent frequent flyers’ could identify the number of
exits, locate their position and identify their relative size,” says Professor Galea,
whose group also completed a three and a half year vital study into the 911
evacuation of the twin towers.
A worrying revelation occurred
when Galea surveyed aircraft passengers and their exit knowledge. The team
discovered that only about twenty-five percent of people knew where the exits
were and how small the overwing exits may be.
But does size really matter? In
this case it does. The most common aircraft types are narrow body Airbus A320’s
and Boeing 737’s.
During the safety briefing on
these aircraft, crew will tell you there are, “Two at the back, two at the
front and two in the middle.” There’s a famous phrase plugged by flight attendants,
“there may be more than 50 ways to leave your lover, but only four ways to
leave this airplane.”
You should also know that a
fire can become uncontrollable on an aircraft in less than two minutes; one of
the reasons evacuation certification for an aircraft is 90 seconds, even for
the 900 seat Airbus A380.
Here’s the gotcha on smaller
aircraft—at those big doors you can walk out; at the smaller overwings, you
have to climb out.
Exit size does matter. In many
accidents, passengers were crammed at the overwing exits trying to get out,
while in front of and behind them the large door exits were moving fast or vacant
altogether. In videos of aircraft evacuations, two or three passengers at
overwing exits can be seen getting jammed together. “This inherent lack of exit
knowledge is likely to have a negative impact on overall evacuation efficiency
and hence passenger safety,” says Galea’s group. “The pre-flight briefing makes
no mention of the size of the exits and the impact this may have on evacuation
times.”
They recommend that passenger
briefings emphasize the location and type of exits because irrespective of
flight experience, two fifths of passengers surveyed elected to use the
smaller, slower overwing exits.
Ed Galea and his team have
also found that in one-third of accidents analyzed, more than half of aircraft exits were unusable due mainly to failure of the door or slide
during emergencies. That exit you have your eye on may not be usable. As a
passenger, it would be wise to have two exits in
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