Close the window shade
 

Last week I flew Grupo Taca's flight #441 DFW-GUA.

The FA opened all window shades before takeoff and again before landing [for safety reasons?]. [this woke up a sleeping baby near me].

Opening window shades for takeoff and landing does not make sense to me [I have even heard of airlines thiking about doing away with windows all together].

Does this rule make sense to anyone out there? Has anyone heard of other airlines with similar policies?

Anytime that I have been on a flight where a window shade is down at take off they have asked the occupant of the window seat to raise it for take off. I do not know why, but I have seen it happen many times.

In an emergency it is important to be able to see what is happening outside the aircraft as much as possible from any position inside the cabin.

Seen this on all airlines although some seem to be conscientious about it. My last flight which was CO, they asked once, and if it didn't get raised, they didn't ask again.

Another possible reason (speculating here), might be so your eyes adjust somewhat to the outside lighting in case of emergency.

TWA always makes an announcement about the windowshades. I always assumed that it had something to do with safety. However, it's strange that US, UA, and AA never make the announcement - just TW among the airlines I use.

It's a safety thing, you wouldn't want to be in a wreck and have the window shades in an unsafe position, would you? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

I was advised by a CO FA that it is a safety regulation. The example she provided is that in the event of a fire, FA's would need to be able to look out the windows and ascertain which emergency exits to use.

In a situation like that where every second counts, they don't want to have to ask pax to open the windowshades for them.

Makes sense.
(edited for a typo)

[This message has been edited by eastwest (edited 05-21-2001).]

I believe JerryFF has it right. On every NW flight I have taken, the FA's make sure the shades are up for both take-offs and landings. Outside visibility during an emergency was the reason given - when asked.

-RKG

I hate it when FAs close the shades on trans-oceanic flights during the daytime to reduce glare on the video monitors. I prefer to read in the sunshine that streams through the window. Besides, sunshine is good for the spirit.

The FAA regs online: http://www.faa.gov/avr/AFS/FARS/far-125.txt

I could not find anything about window shades in FAR Part 125 which I think is the applicable area, except for regs on window shades during simulated nighttime emergency testing.

edited to delete reference to seatbacks as off topic.

[This message has been edited by Warrenlm (edited 05-22-2001).]

A l-o-o-o-ng related discussion at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/002143.html

The only time I saw this was on American Eagle. I was sitting in the front row on a turboprop. The FA sat across from me in a jump seat and asked me to raise my shade. She then stared at both engines during take off and landing. I assumed it had to do with the plane being propeller driven, but who knows.

Hi, I'm a former NWA flight attendant. The window shade thing is just some flight attendants being overly cautious. The only ones that HAVE To be in the up position are in the very first and last row. This is to provide another point of reference in an evacuation. As you stated there was no FAR on the window shades. But many times, there are company rules that are in the flight attendant manual. As for the seat back you are correct, as long as it not blocking someone from exiting it's fine. But try explaning that to some pax's. So it usually just better to have uniformity. Back to the original post of the soccer ball, that's crazy. I've never heard or seen anything like that. I have seen air casts explode in flight. But that's about it. I just thought I would share my little 2 cents http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Oh sorry, I meant to put the part about the soccer ball in another topic http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif HA HA, just ignore that part http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Here is the deal!

The window shades need to be up so that someone from the outside can have a better chance of seeing what is going on in the inside should they have to cut through the plane side in the event of an emergency. If your widow shade is closed, the jaws or saws could be going through your head.

The seats need to be in it's full upgright position as when it is even slightly reclined, the increase chance in you sliding through the belt is ever so greatly increased. This has been a problem recently in car accidents where passengers recline the seats and then during a crash they slide right under the belt. DOT is trying to figure out how to best handle this at the moment.

There was a Discovery show or TLC or something that covered both of these issues on TV in Europe over the last 3 or 4 years, suprosed none of you saw it.

Hope this helps clear it up!