AS Flyer

Actually, you MISSED the point entirely. The reason for keeping your window shades up is so that when the Captain gives the "evacuate, evacuate" command, whomever is sitting in that window seat can look outside and make sure that there isn't an engine fire or, if the plane is partly submerged in a pond, lake, etc., that the particular window exit you are sitting at is not underwater. The whole point is to be able to make sure that the window exit is a usable exit, not so you can sit and monitor the landing and see when the plane stops. The Captain will make a call to evacuate but will not be making decisions about what exits passengers should evacuate from, that is left to the Flight Attendants and those person that are seated at the emergency exit rows. By keeping the window shade up on take off and landing you can, without hesitation, look outside and see what the conditions are before you open that exit and expose everyone inside to a dangerous situation. If you think that is a useless rule then perhaps you should sit in other than an exit row. Sometimes it seems as rules are just there to make life needlessly inconvenient for you, some rules though are there for a good reason. Rules regarding trays, seatbacks, window shades, etc. have all been tested and proven to save very valuable time in emergency evacuations. Not everything the FAA and airlines do is to irritate you.

AS Flyer

In either case did you have to evacuate the aircraft? I'm sure your answer is no - in that case, neither situation applied as to the reason why you keep your window shades up.

hnechets

yashan: As I am sure you realize by now, the shades need to be up so that pax like yourself will not SLEEP through a crash landing if they are seated in exit rows.

This is a serious problem, especially on CRJs due to their extremely sleep-inducing seats.

Cholula

Sorry, AS Flyer, but even your well written defense of the window shade issue fails to convince me. I think this particular aspect of 'safety" is frivolous. If the airlines and the FAA were really interested in our ultimate safety, there wouldn't be any windows at all...for enhanced structural integrity. Plus we'd all be flying facing the rear of the aircraft. And we'd have the same super deluxe shoulder harnesses that the flight crew's wear. Even the automobile industry...whether they wanted to or not....has improved on simple lap belts over the years.
If I am to be convinced that the airlines are doing all they can for my safety, it's going to have to be on an issue other than the position of my window shade.

LexPassenger

Almost 60,000 people have been killed in auto accidents in the US since 9/11.

That this airline discussion is an issue for anyone shows how woefully inappropriate to the risk involved these concerns are.

What precautions do most of us take to the risks we face? How safer are we if we worry about a plane crash? Do you wear a face mask to avoid SARS? Do you stay out of cars because folks have previously died in them? Do you seriously worry about where you sit on a plane flight?

akhullar

Ahem! Ahem!
It could not be consistent could it What about landings at night ? Last week, landing at BRU as the early morning sun was on our window, and we had shades down.

Flying_Duck

This has IMO sort of turned into a silly discussion (which is OK) as most security discussion easily do.

I would submit to you, that if any of us were involved in a survivable "incident", any closed shade would be lifted quicker than you could say "Uhh?" at the first sign of trouble. If the trouble came on in a way that would make us unable to do so, it likely would not matter whether the shades were open or closed!

Even when asked to keep the shades down (during a movie), a small turbulence bumb will get a few passengers to lift the shades. If it was more than a bump, I guarantee you those shades would fly open pronto - sun or no sun! (except perhaps where Yashan sits, as he seems to be able to sleep through a fate worse than torture (see post above)!!)

As so much fooliness we are asked to passive-agressively participate in in the name of "security", this rule, whether enforced or not, IMO doesn't make a shred of difference!

FL-Delta-Platinum

I MISSED nothing. I understand the point and you make a strong argument. The problem with the logic is that if it was so the person in the exit row would make an informed decision before opening the door, the rule would not apply for all passengers. Cholula is correct. I've seen the shades fly up even before an "incident" is over.

No, we didn't need to evacuate in either case, but I can tell you everyone was awake (even yashan would be) when the engines failed and the brakes slammed. The window shades would not have slowed us down in any case. You stated that it has been "proved" to be beneficial. I can't imagine you can point to one incident or test proof that actually showed that the shades being up helped in an emergency. Any data on this would be as circumstantial as having your cell phones off - another security measure that we shouldn't get into but is also fairly dumb.

Just be glad you were not on the 10:40AM flight from SAV to ATL today, because we threw CAUTION TO THE WIND on that flight. I had the shade UP for the whole flight. When the four dings went off I promptly lowered the shade - of course the FA had long ago taken their seats to chit-chat instead of service the cabin.

I know this may be a crazy thing to do, but we managed to survive the landing. It was a little rough and one of the overhead bins popped open. I'm sure that my keeping the window shade up would have provided the proper balance of structuraly integrity to keep the bin door in place.

Fear not though... Once we were safely on the ground I opened my shade so I could see how far we were from our gate, so I could dangerously begin to get my bag out from under the "space in front of me" a little early, turn on my cell phone while still the boarding door was still closed, and even undo my seat belt 300 yards from the gate while traveling in excess of 7.5 miles per hour.

They don't call me DANGER-BOY for nothing you know...!!!

Spiff

I bet you ride the escalator without holding the handrail and eat fruit without washing it first, too.



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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

andymo99

I would say that most of us here worry extensively about our seats being in front of a curtain.

Bradford

...And we make darned sure that they're NOT the ones that don't recline, or have no legroom.

danM

My brother used to prefer seats in the rear until I pointed out that statistically speaking, he was losing more time waiting to get off of airplanes than he was increasing his life expectancy by sitting in the "safer" seats...

Dan