Safety checklist for passengers in case of a crash?
 

After seeing film footage of US 1549, I think some passengers made mistakes. One reportedly tried to carry a suitcase. Many did not wear life-vests. I would like to create a safety checklist. Help me compile this.

Planning
1. Do not wear open toe shoes. Slacks for women are probably preferred over skirts.
2. Bring vital supplies, like important medicine on board.
3. Try not to be too sleepy, though this can be hard for some flights. Do not take sleeping pills, at least not until the flight is underway.

Boarding/Early flight
4. Don't overload your pockets but carry your passport, driver's license, keys, cell phone, and a few vital medicines in your pocket (like asthma inhaler or heart medicine that people stick under their tongue).
5. See where the exits are.
6. Do not remove shoes to sleep.

Crash imminent
7. Think again where the exits are, count seat rows if possible.
7a. Think of what you will do (look out for fire outside, ***remember to grab life vest but do NOT inflate it inside or you may drown floating to the top of the cabin as people did in an Ethopian Airlines 767 ditching).
7b. Do not text message like someone did in US 1549.
7c. Tighten seat belts.
7d. Consider putting on smoke hood if you have one (Mine is expired and not carried often) and there is smoke.
8. Do not insist on "women and children first" as someone in US 1549 did. Everyone just files out without having some people squeezing past others.
9. Rethink what you carry on the plane so that the desire to rescue it will not cloud your judgement. So back up computer data (good idea because laptops can get stolen), etc.


The bolded numbers are what US 1549 caused me to add.

Why women or children? I mean children ok I can understand, but why women? men are a minority in the world by the way (55-45?)

The guy probably saw the Titanic film. That was different. There was plenty of time to evacuate the ship, enough time for farewells, etc. There weren't enough lifeboats.

Elderly and injured will also need assistance. It is the decent thing to do for the "stronger" (typically male) passengers to assist the weaker, uninjured to assist the injured, younger to help the older.

Here is a great article on your subject. "The Three Myths About Plane Crashes" Lots of tips.

One of them I developed and have practiced for years: "Third, focus on your action plan during the first three minutes of flight and the last eight minutes. That's when around 80 percent of accidents happen."

Most accidents are at take off and landing. Have your shoes on, coat handy, stuff stowed, not plugged in to anything. Be ready to evacuate. What it means is that a crash at low altitude is survivable. Coming down badly from over 5000 feet and you are not going to walk away anyway.

Above 10K feet, there is nothing you can do in a serious (non hijacking) event, except for decompression, where you have about 15 seconds before blackout to put on on your oxygen mask. No aircraft air conditioning = no heat. At altitude, it will be a cold ten minutes minimum to descend to lower altitudes even in summer. In winter, have coats and blankets handy.

For the really paranoid :eek:, wear cotton/wool/leather clothes. Post crash fire is a high probability unless you ran out of gas or land in a river. Yes cotton burns, but a nearby fire can be shielded from your skin by cotton, and it falls away as it burns. Plastic (rayon/polyester/nylon) fabric melts onto your skin and sticks even if it does not get hot enough to burn, and hot melted plastic is not something you want sticking to your skin. It's like a burning fire that does not go out.

All good tips. I would add:

** Don't wear shoes that can be knocked off your feet in an impact (e.g. loafers). Laceups are best.
** I don't cross my legs during takeoff or landing in case of sudden impact and possible broken bones / less leverage if trapped in between seatsets / etc.
** I concur that "women and children first" is an obsolete dictum. Especially if the captain is a woman.
** Stronger men have an ethical obligation to try to help weaker, older, etc. passengers exit the aircraft, male or female.
** Chivalry has its limits. The New York Times account of the US evacuation said an older woman in a fur coat, standing out on the wing, asked a male pax (a stranger) to reenter the sinking aircraft to retrieve her purse for her. I know how I'd respond to that. :mad:
** It is true that this puts one in mind of backing up one's hard drive before a flight.
** I normally put my car keys in my carryon for flight. I'll rethink that.

As long as you're not preoccupied with saving your own life or the lives of those around you, why not?

Why not a vest with many pockets or (ugliness, but...) a waist pack with the essential items in it? It's fine for the guys to put things like a wallet in their pocket, but ladies grabbing for carryons or a handbag is pretty silly if you have to get out in a hurry.

I shudder to think about burned or cut up feet for those who wear flipflops onto a plane...

One woman reportedly fell into the river when she tried to remove her high heel shoes while standing on the wing.

Take your high heel shoes off before water landings. :D

Based on what I saw on the pertinent Mythbusters "Killer Brace Position" episode, I'd also remember not to extend my feet/legs under the seat in front of me when bracing for the crash/landing. The seats tend to collapse. Ouch!