"Heads down, heads down" instead of "brace, brace"?
 

Flew GLA-ACE-GLA with TOM this last week, and noticed that on both flights, the safety briefing contained a line about "the brace position, which you should adopt if you hear the announcement 'heads down, heads down'".

This jumped out at me as different to the more standard "brace, brace", which I'm used to hearing. Or at least I think I am, is this a new industry wide standard, or just TOM?

Either way, I'm a big fan of plain English, and (whilst the announcement has some way to go) I think this term is a great step forward, and far more likely to elicit the appropriate response in an emergency.

i do not recall hearing either instruction in the safety discussion.

I don't recall hearing that level of detail either. But "heads down" is probably is a lot clearer to the general public in a panic situation than "brace".

Makes sense. "Heads down!" is a lot clearer on what to do than "Brace!" during an emergency.

Agree with the above. When folks hear "brace" they may be inclined to just grab hold of the seat in front of them or to grip the armrests, rather than to put their heads down.

Either is okay. You can kiss your [redacted] goodbye from either position.