Up now in Patrick Smith's ASK THE PILOT on Salon.com:


To Fasten Or Not To Fasten… Why are seat belt rules enforced so arbitrarily?



“…. Covering the recent taxiway collision at Kennedy airport between an Air France A380 and a regional jet, I emphasized the importance of staying seated after landing.

Perhaps the most important take-away, I wrote, is paying heed to that old, in-one-ear-and-out-the-other dictum from the flight attendants: Please remain seated with your seat belts securely fastened, until the plane is parked at the gate and the seat belt sign has been turned off.

Well, maybe, but a reader from Seattle wrote in with an interesting comment, pointing out the airlines' contradictory enforcement policies when it comes to the seat belt sign. On the ground, taxiing along at only a few miles per hour, the rule is enforced with a certain ferocity, as anybody who has mistakenly reached for his carry-ons after landing can attest. During flight, on the other hand, it's hit or miss. People amble about, to and from the lavatories, regardless of what the sign says. More often than not, nobody seems to mind.

If you ask me, this is mostly the result of crews being overly zealous with the sign in the first place. The first nibble of turbulence and DING, on it comes, and often it remains illuminated long after things have smoothed out. The effect of this, of course, is that people no longer pay attention.

To be clear, I am in no way suggesting that you ignore the sign, or any other crewmember instructions. Even when conditions are silky smooth, rough air could be looming ahead. And remember that turbulence is fickle and unpredictable. Even with all the tools at our disposal, from radar to real-time reports from other flights, we don't always know where the roughest air will be or how long it might last.

However, both despite and because of such hazards, I wish that certain of my colleagues were more discerning with the chimes.

We could also do better with the public address announcements that accompany those chimes. Too many of them are long-winded and rattled off in a high-speed mumble that at times is unintelligible:

"UhfolkslooksliketheremightbesomebumpsupaheadsoI'm gonnaputtheseatbeltssignonpleasereturntoyourseatsa ndfastenyourseatbelts."

To many passengers' ears this comes across as: "I'm saying this, but I don't really mean it or care."

My own turbulence PA is short and sweet. If conditions are unusual or there's specific information, I'll be more detailed, but usually it goes like this: "Seat belts, please. Thank you." Some of you might feel this is curt, and runs the risk of making nervous flyers even more nervous. Still I think it's better. If a seat belt directive is really about safety, it needs to be taken seriously. People pay closest attention to language that is clear, concise, and polite.

For what it's worth, carriers outside the United States tend to be more judicious with their dings. Why this is I can't say for sure. Part of it, perhaps, is that distinct American obsession with safety -- our tendency to get nervous and jittery over almost anything -- and our inherent fears of litigation. Ultimately this comes back to bite us. A too-liberal policy is indeed a risky one; on the other hand, an extreme better-safe-than-sorry mentality can actually increase the likelihood of somebody getting hurt……”


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