chris63

I’m doing TG910 soon myself in F & like you, I like to watch the air show & then the tail camera just before landing, will be really pissed off if they switch it all off but this is TG & they are soooo variable.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Once again... IFE only gets interrupted if the tannoy is used.

In an unplanned emergency, there simply won't be time for a member of cabin crew to use the tannoy. It requires a series of steps which would take too long.

Some airlines do go through the cabin asking those with their own earbuds or headphones to remove them.

The IATA manual linked above also comments:

7.1 In-flight Entertainment (IFE) Systems
Whenever the aircraft is fitted with an In-flight Entertainment (IFE) system, the operator will determine its policy regarding when to offer such services on board in accordance with national regulations. Where the use of IFE is permitted while on the ground, the operator is normally required by the regulator to complete a risk assessment to demonstrate that hazards and risks are mitigated effectively.

Such hazards include, but are not limited to:
• Potential obstruction to egress due to trailing headphone cables
• Reduced situational awareness of passengers who are distracted by audio/visual IFE

andyptrav

LHR/MEL
Strewth, you ignore all the valid points made by several posters against your viewpoint, repeating the same assertions over and over does not make them persuasive when they have already been rebutted.

"In an unplanned emergency, there simply won't be time for a member of cabin crew to use the tannoy. It requires a series of steps which would take too long."
Have you ever watched seated cabin crew use the tannoy? They merely pick up the handset from above their shoulder, press a button and speak. 2-3 seconds at most. If there were any other lengthy "steps" I doubt the plane would get certified. Anyway, the idea of non-tannoy announcements being effective on, say, an A380 has already been invalidated above as has their likelihood. Chris63 and me watching the tail fin camera are going to know the plane is landing short of the runway way before any cabin crew in their rearward facing seats with no window.

dav662 and others are likely correct and this is all to do with headphones going missing so it is a commercial assessment not a risk assessment. TG have to weigh up the loss of headphones against pissing off passengers like chris63 and me. Or just find a better way of preventing loss of headphones. Last November in C the headphones were collected but the IFE still on, the same in Y in October, why did that not work? Complaints?

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Official accident report, QF 1 Bangkok, B747-400 veers off runway on landing:

Events during the landing roll

As the aircraft landed (2246:30), the CSM commenced the ‘Welcome to Bangkok’ passenger address (PA) announcement. He stopped part-way through when he sensed that the landing
was not normal. Some cabin crew members at the rear of zones A, C and D also sensed that the landing was not normal and adopted the ‘brace for impact’ position.

When the aircraft left the paved surface, there was a series of impacts and noises before it came to a stop 8 seconds later in a nose-down, slight right wing-low attitude. After the first impact, six cabin crew seated at the rear of zones C and D started calling ‘heads down, stay down’ or ‘brace brace brace’. They continued these calls until shortly after the aircraft came to a stop. No other cabin crew made any calls, even though all perceived aspects of the landing to be abnormal.

2-3 seconds could be too long to wait even if it was as simple as 'pick up the intercom and speak'... which it isn't if other communications are already happening and you'd need to select an appropriate sequence to override them.

That being said - while I personally agree with the collection of headphones (and personal headphones being stowed) as it is probably best practice, leaving components of the IFE active such as maps and cameras is probably ok.

Davvidd

I have checked privately and found out that it's not an official safety issue. But they are supposed to show the arrival information for every airport
In turn around they collect it for the crews convenience according to my source.

chris63

As a pax who has flown TG for years, I felt certain it wasn’t the result of their risk assessment & safety audit......

I was disappointed to miss out on the customs video prior to landing at BKK.

chris63

Arrived into LHR in F on TG910 this morning, IFE was turned off 25 minutes before landing, screen went blank, they then restarted it showing basic flight path, the remote would not operate anything, so no tail camera.

I spoke to the Inflight Manager when She came to introduce herself, She confirmed it’s a new TG policy to turn off the IFE & collect headsets, although the headsets were not collected from F.
She doesn’t like the new policy & told me it’s generating lots of complaints onboard.

So for safety reasons they don’t seem to want distractions, as we entered the arrival stack for LHR which added another 15 minutes, they played music over the tannoy system, volume for which is in their control.

thbe

I totally understand the FAs. In general, passengers make it much more difficult for them to do their job. In a plane without any passengers inside, no passenger is in danger at all. TG is working hard to empty their planes. It’s definitely a safety reason.

Or maybe they want to make sure, that the cockpit crew doesn’t watch movies during landing and that is the only way to enforce that. At TG you can not give a pilot less privileges even than a F pax.

Plus: It‘s a good idea to increase safety on board by collecting headphones and turning of the IFE to compensate i.e. the lack of English speaking staff at the Thai air traffic control. Maybe the FAA guy who was responsible for the B737 Max was transferred to another department and now he is responsible for Thailand‘s FAA rating. Maybe he said, that failing at other points is ok, but at least they should stop passengers watching IFE as much as possible.

Juntima

Just back to BKK from MPX in J, headphones collected early too, but I did not think of it too much and just kept staring at the flight path on main screen for entertainment. I guess I am too easy.

Off topic, what's new on THAI besides the headphones incident is that I just noticed they hand out chili packets. Wondering if they only hand out to Thai passengers or everyone on board?

Thai-Kiwi

Do you mean small plastic packets of dried chilli? Hmmmm, don't think I've seen that since mid-2000s when they also handed out the tiny fish sauce containers. My kids loved them.

If they are handing them out to Thai passengers, then I have not noticed. If they are, its good to know so I can ask for my flights in April. I have enjoyed the provision of prik nahm pla when eating the samrap thai menu.

Juntima

It's not pure chilli, more like chilli seasoning which taste very nice on its own. It's a surprise for me and first I thought the particular air crew had a side business selling chilli seasoning haha (someone should have done that or done it right long ago!) and hand out to Thai passengers as a try out.
However, on the way back to BKK, they hand that out again. It must be common on THAI now? Flying with THAI again in April and July, will see if they hand that out again.

Sus packets in question.

andyptrav

TG917 21 Jan.
Headphones collected (in C) and IFE turned off on approach. Fellow passenger watching film so FA lets him keep headphones so he sees about 5 more minutes of his film. No Thai customs film but the screen is not blank it is changed to the standard flight information channel. Awful music on tannoy. Fellow passenger leaves his headphones on the seat shelf so anyone could have taken them.

I complained about not being able to watch the camera* to FA, I was told it was company policy for safety. I laughed.

TG217 to HKT B746 22 Jan
IFE on for take off and landing but no headphones as domestic.

There must be a better way of preventing headphones theft than this. If the crew were charged for any missing headphones you could be sure that there would be none but that is a no no nowadays.

* TG916/7 has been an A380 since 17 Jan due to several B777 going tech but sadly the F cabin was not opened, nor was Y on upper deck. Presumably B777 crew numbers.
I wonder who lost the A380.

chris63

So safety conscious TG, that the IFE on my flight to SIN the other day was not switched on until the seat belt lights went off, at the same time they permitted this ......by a neighbouring pax.....

Thai-Kiwi

Good thing you didn't want any pre-departure champagne on the return leg