I know I promised to not write about airlines for six months, but Jackie is off on a well-deserved vacation and I’m fairly sure she has no Internet access out on that big boat at sea. So I’m going to slip in one last airline beef that I just have to get off my chest.
I’m sitting on an airplane (Virgin America if you really must know) and watching yet another inane demonstration on how to fasten a seatbelt. What gets me is that after the demonstration, passengers are advised to shut off all electronic devices, including laptops, cell phones, and pagers (pagers? Who still uses a pager?).
Is it just me, or is there something ironic about being left to our own devices (no pun intended) when it comes to operating the sophisticated technology stuff they say interferes with the flight controls, but apparently we need a choreographed walk-through on those complicated seat belt buckles.
Yeah, Anthony, I know: “My name is Eric and I am an airline blogging addict.”
9 of 9
- Googling Weak Journalism
- The Irony of the New York Minute
- Out of the City and Into the Woods
- Seeking a Cure for The San Francisco Treat
- Top 10 Ways to Help Hotels Go Greener
- Clearing the San Francisco Air (Part One)
- Clearing the San Francisco Air (Part Two)
- If You Are Going to San Francisco
- A Demonstration We Can Do Without
12:51 pm
Two little comments:
1) Actually, Royal Caribbean does offer internet service while at sea.
And more importantly……
2) You are soooooooooo busted! Six months? Ha!
1:19 pm
Just don’t blame me. He made me let him post it… He threatened to remove my watercooler rights.
You know how much I love fresh, cool, water… :(
1:25 pm
Yet another example of your government protecting you. The seatbelt demo is required by the FAA.
Excerpt of Federal Regulations below;
121.571 Briefing passengers before takeoff.
top
(a) Each certificate holder operating a passenger-carrying airplane shall insure that all passengers are orally briefed by the appropriate crewmember as follows:
(1) Before each takeoff, on each of the following:
(i) Smoking. Each passenger shall be briefed on when, where, and under what conditions smoking is prohibited including, but not limited to, any applicable requirements of part 252 of this title). This briefing shall include a statement that the Federal Aviation Regulations require passenger compliance with the lighted passenger information signs, posted placards, areas designated for safety purposes as no smoking areas, and crewmember instructions with regard to these items. The briefing shall also include a statement that Federal law prohibits tampering with, disabling, or destroying any smoke detector in an airplane lavatory; smoking in lavatories; and, when applicable, smoking in passenger compartments.
(ii) The location of emergency exits.
(iii) The use of safety belts, including instructions on how to fasten and unfasten the safety belts. Each passenger shall be briefed on when, where, and under what conditions the safety belt must be fastened about that passenger. This briefing shall include a statement that the Federal Aviation Regulations require passenger compliance with lighted passenger information signs and crewmember instructions concerning the use of safety belts.
2:37 pm
Maybe I’m mistaken, but one could read the FAA requirement to mean that airlines are only required to advise customers that they must buckle their seat belts. I suspect the demonstration dates back to an era when car seat belts were not widely used so there were a lot of people who didn’t know how to use them.
5:20 pm
It inane. It’s dated. Still I am amazed at how many people are apparently on their first commercial airplane flight. The demo could go…a simple fasten seat beats announcement would do. The video version of the safety spiels are no better. I am more annoyed by the “we know you have a choice when flying…” and the arm rest hog I also sit next to in the exit row.
11:54 am
I agree with you as well. It is useless, but required. Blame our lawsuit happy society.
I have a manual describing the use of our weather radar. In the section about using a feature that blanks out ground reflections on the screen is a big warning that if I use this feature the GROUND IS STILL THERE.
Really? Thanks for telling me that nugget of info, but I think somewhere some widow is living large after winning a lawsuit, thus the warning.
There should be a reasonable standard of things assumed to be known in order for someone to function in life, starting with how to fasten a seat belt, how to breathe, how to cross the street, and so forth.
10:56 am
So, part of the reason for this may be that a long time ago, airplane seat belts were sufficiently ‘different’ from normal seat belts that it really was worth the time to explain how they worked. For example, for slightly older C-172s, there was a completely separate lap belt and shoulder belt that had to be hooked together. It wasn’t complicated by any means, but it was non-obvious.
9:39 am
Don’t the Flight Attendants visually verify that every single passengers belt is buckled before TO? I’ve watched many FAs help a passenger who has no clue how to buckle up.
8:39 pm
As a pilot of a small mostly private aircraft I’m required to give a short safety talk, and it only took me 2 weeks of carrying passengers to have someone ask me how to use the seatbelt. It might seem stupid or pointless, but the rules in aviation are there because they are usually right and yes there are people that have never flown before who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Obviously no one wants to admit they don’t know how to use a seatbelt. How would you feel as the pilot who could have saved one of your passengers lives, but chose not to because you thought a demonstration was stupid?