Inflight Safety - Introduction

Whether you're a frequent flyer, or board an aircraft once in a blue moon, you should always take responsibility for your own safety. This means taking the time to pay attention to the safety demonstration and to read the safety instructions card, which you'll always find in your seat area. Why is this so important? Because if you found yourself in an emergency, relying on the crew telling you what to do may be leaving it too late.

Even if you may travel regularly, it doesn't mean that you don't need to take heed of the information given to you during the pre-flight safety demonstration - never be complacent. Every aircraft is different: emergency exits are located in different places and operate differently. In a dark, smoke-filled cabin, would you be able to find your way to your nearest exit before smoke-inhalation caused you to pass out? It's happened to well-travelled passengers in the past...with fatal results.

My first recommendation to anyone travelling on an aircraft is to establish:

Where you're sitting in relation to your nearest exits; are there exits behind you which are nearer? How many seat-rows is it to your nearest exit?
How do those exits operate? The safety instructions card will provide details of their operation; if in an accident the crew member was incapacitated, could you open the door yourself? Remember, not all doors open outwards, some open upwards or downwards. The emergency lights may have failed - you may be doing this in complete darkness.
Are there any self-help exits near you? These exits are usually overwing hatches and it is up to the passengers sitting adjacent to them to operate them in an emergency; they are quite heavy and cumbersome and have to be thrown out - the evacuation path is off the wing. Because of this responsibility, there are rules governing which passengers may be seated there. They must not be: elderly, handicapped, pregnant, obese, a child, or a deportee under escort. Handbaggage at these exits should be placed in the overhead locker; some aviation regulatory authorities allow very small items to be placed under the seat in front, as long as they are unlikely to cause an obstruction in an accident.

As soon as the aircraft begins to move, an instruction is given over the public address system to the crew to: 'arm doors' or 'set doors to automatic'. What the crew are doing is placing the door into a special emergency-only mode. Should the door be subsequently opened, a chute will deploy and inflate.


One example of the slides being put to good use was when a TACA 737 lost both engines in a hail storm as it approached New Orleans Airport. Subsequent attempts to restart the engines failed, and so the pilots glided the aircraft to a safe landing in a field.

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