Greenpen

From a magazine called Business Destinations, November/December 2011:

BA launches death-defying safety course.

British Airways has revealed plans to offer passengers courses on how to survive plane crashes. From around £125 frequent flyers concerned about their odds of survival will be able to participate in a four hour session on air safety. Amid fears that the scheme may in fact arouse more anxiety than setting people at ease, Andy Cubb, the BA manager running the course, said ‘It makes passengers safer when travelling by giving additional skills and information, it dispels those internet theories about the brace position and it just gives people so much more confidence in flying.”

Research conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority has indicated that contrary to popular belief most air crashes are survivable and that the most fatalities occur in the aftermath of an incident, with many passengers unable to complete simple tasks such as releasing a seatbelt.


Not from the article:

The bit about not being able to cope with the seatbelt may sound strange but I remember a TV programme not so long ago on surviving plane crashes saying the same thing; in the panic of the crash many people try to release their seatbelt in the same way as a car one rather than lifting the buckle release. It also commented that the brace position was primarily to stop broken limbs that then immobilize the passenger. I have also found it odd that on all airlines you are told to place your own oxygen mask on before helping your child, an action that I would guess zero percent of (untrained) parents would follow.

Yahillwe

In the seatbelt case, since studies have shown that passengers try to release the belt as in a car, why don't airlines make them like car seatbelt?

TangoOneSeven

My father and a few of his colleagues did this as a "team-building" exercise. They all thought it was rather good fun.

WhitePlains

@:-)

BA304

Don't come along with all your common sense Yahillwe. There's no place for that here.

(By the way VS does in J and maybe other airlines do too)

Stez

Qantas' A380 seatbelts in Y are like a car's seatbelt release. The First class seats appear to be a three-point one similar to in cars but one that you can remove the third point for cruise travel.

It was counter intuitive to me; I woke up needing to go to the loo and tried to unbuckle it in the conventional manner before it dawned on me it is like a car's seatbelt.

Yahillwe

LOL, it just makes sense, we have been programed to unfasten seatbelt (s) in a car manner, so the airline industry should mandate it. Just like they mandate all those idiotic taxes that we have to choice but paying, unless we choose not to fly, as someone suggested it to me.

We use cars more than we use planes, so it makes sense to design them using a method we have been programed to use, car seatbelts.

It takes a woman to be sensible.

bealine

Any parent would find this advice hard to follow - but it is sound common-sense.

Once starved of oxygen, the brain quickly becomes fuddled and confused and, you will probably be incapable of helping anyone else unless your brain is receiving its quota of the precious O2.

In a rapid decompression, the brain will only function usefully for 15-20 seconds before hypoxia kicks in, the dangerous early symptoms of which include confusion and euphoria. That is why it is plainly essential to have your mask on first - whatever your heart tells you!

http://www.consumertraveler.com/colu...sion-accident/

On British Airways aircraft, the oxygen supply in the lavatories is NOT disabled but you should be aware that you will need to pull a streamer to get hold of your mask if you happen to be in the cubicle when something not very nice happens.

I think you should all be aware, too, that there will likely be mist in the cabin briefly as the decompression occurs and that it's nothing to worry about. The "guys in front" will put the aircraft into rapid descent to get down the aircraft down to "breathable air altitude" - what Douglas DC3's and DeHavilland Rapides used to fly at before we went for pressurised airframes.

matthandy

As I understand it, there are two masks in each toilet, and there are plenty of non-rude reasons why two masks might be needed .

LTN Phobia

Qantas A380 seat belts are buckled/unbuckled a bit like the car ones.

It confuses me - I used to do/undo aeroplane seat belts more often than I did cars when I did not have a car and caught taxis everywhere, most of which did not have usable seat belts in the back seat (!!) due to being covered up by seat covers. QF ones felt fiddly and confusing because it couldn't be unbuckled as I expected it to do

However, for most passengers it would probably make sense to have a car-style buckle. Then again, I always have a problem trying to do up / undo my seat belt in a strange car like taxis so I think to keep it in the middle of the belly area would probably be better than putting it at the side.

bealine

Changing junior's nappy for starters - there would be two in the john then, no?

MSPeconomist

DL offers Road Warrior Training at it's ATL headquarters. I believe that some private security consulting firms in the USA offer or include plane crash survival in their courses, which tend to focus on kidnapping prevention, etc.

maeboyce

Can no longer find the link, but several months ago, one FT poster commented on opening and fastening their seatbelt several times before take off, to familiarise the movement into "short term memory". It certainly could not do any harm as many of us count the rows forward and back of us anyway so just one more task which might even given an added feeling of security.

bealine

Wise advice indeed!

Given a situation for which the crew are notified ahead and can plan for, such as a landing wheel dropping away as happened recently on a small Flybe aircraft ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ell-plane.html ), the cabin crew will brief passengers in the emergency landing drills. Part of this briefing will entail "show me you can unbuckle your seat belts and buckle them up again!" as well as the passengers being told how to brace, when to brace and how long to remain in the brace position. Congratulations to the Flybe crew, by the way, for a job well done and yet more evidence that modern aircraft designers, flying staff and cabin staff are worth every penny of their salary.

Of course, in a situation for which there is no time to prepare, the person who can unfasten his seatbelt and find his lifejacket in a dark, smoke-filled cabin without feeling panic-stricken will be the most likely survivor. Conversely, unless the person sitting in 15C who has the Daily Telegraph wide open during the safety briefing is a trained crew member specifically for that aircraft type and variant, it is likely that his lack of attention would jeopardise the safety of those sitting inboard of his aisle seat.

(So will the person who can obey commands instantly and without question - servicemen will have a distinct advantage here - because they will heed the instructions and will not waste valuable seconds trying to find their laptop, Blackberry or their car keys before heading for the sliderafts!)

'andad

If it's the course I did at BA Cranbrook, then it's great and very useful. Until you try it, you have no idea of the chaos that ensues in a cabin full of smoke, nor how heavy those overwing exit doors are, the ones you have to manipulate to the right angle and then eject through the door frame. Thoroughly recommend it for FF's, but think it might make the journey worse for those afraid of flying.