^^ There are several others I've flown with who do the same thing, and those flights have had excellent service.

Every year during our recurrent training we spend some (FAA mandated) time learning new stuff and rehashing old stuff regarding emergency situations on the ground and in flight. Yes, pilots are evac qualified also, including opening the doors and getting people out of the airplanes.

It always baffles me how deer-in-the-headlights the traveling public is during the rare but not unheard-of actual emergency evacuations. I have a FA friend who was on UAL Flight 232. She saved the lives of people who were too overwhelmed to even release their own seatbelts when that airplane came to rest. It's rare, yes, but they are there for your safety.

I deadhead way too much these days, and I'm always a little saddened to see the vast majority of people totally and rudely ignore the safety demo, and think it's a big joke when the FAs ask them to verbally acknowledge them when they're in an exit row. Do you know who's going to open those over wing exits and get people out of the airplane? It will be the FAs, not the ignorami in those seats.

Who thinks there would even be flight attendants if the FAA didn't mandate their presence?

Thanks, those of you that just endured my rant. As you might have noticed, this is a pet peeve of mine.

FAB

Aren't all of those "passengers" in the evac tests all flight or airline crews themselves? I assume they don't use real people (fat, old, handicapped, people who grab their overhead bag, people with kids, etc...) because there's NO WAY they would meet the required evacuation time if they did?

I don't know who's in those tests, but they are well aware of what they're there for, so the tests go infinitely more smoothly than the real thing. For instance, they know what's on the safety card and they listened carefully when someone told them how to operate the doors and slides.

FAB

This is true of any emergency situation, not just on an airline. Person drops of a heart attack on a sidewalk, 99% of people are not going to have a clue what to do, and end up doing nothing. I've seen people walk around a collapsed man at a trade show, rather than help. Same with those who come upon a car accident. Most people are not emotionally equipped to handle an emergency.

I started this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...afety-usa.html as I see the same problem.

I think the airlines need to take the lead. I say about 1/2 of the time, the flight attendants do a half decent exit row briefing. 5% of the time, it is really thorough. The rest of the time, they treat it as a formality so how do you expect the passengers to take it seriously?

The safety demo videos should be like the cigarette packages to scare people into complying.

I had a jerk on my flight who would not put his computer bag under the seat - he put it behind his legs during taxi (after he moved it briefly when the FA asked him to do it). I asked the FA after we took off and she said "oh, that is a grey area" and didn't even enforce the rule on landing.

Listening to the Amtrak crash victims describing how things flew in the train at 106 mph, I can only imagine it is a lot worse if we have a problem during takeoff and landing, for example.

Not to mention those exit-row passengers who are too wide to fit through the overwing exit doors.

I flew EWR to SAN about a week ago in F on a 739. Two passengers kept using their regular sized laptops all the way through the descent, landing and taxi to the gate. Flight attendants walked by repeatedly and never said anything.

No, they use volunteer "civilians" of various ages and abilities. But the volunteers know what's about to happen to them, they're focused and alert and don't think they might die, so the evac tests are not really useful. nobody grabs their carry-ons or freezes in terror or anything.

Complacent / ignorant passengers are half the problem -- you just know the smug guy who makes a big show of ignoring the demo would be a huge danger factor in an emergency, probably stepping on small children to run in the wrong direction. Panicking passengers who won't listen to instructions are typically a big problem, like the stupid woman in the back of Captain Sully's airplane who fought to open the rearmost door of the A320 when it was already submerged in the Hudson.

But an equally big problem is FA complacency:

One of my biggest inflight peeves: flight attendants who giggle through the demo script, race through it so it's unintelligible, or otherwise signal passengers it's OK to ignore it. Egregious, especially as the annals of flying emergencies contain many accounts of FAs freezing up or freaking out under pressure, leaving passengers to figure things out for themselves.

To make it worse, UA's handling of cabin safety complaints is highly questionable. Obviously, they can't really acknowledge the violation. However, they basically tell you that "thank you but our safety department won't get back to us" makes you wonder what really happens when you report violations.

Is this an example of "we are the brand?" -- FA's turning a blind eye in order to bend FAA regulations to accommodate customers?


Or like feeding a kangaroo while talking about safety?

Wife just landed at SNA and e-mailed me the following:

"The flight attendant handed me a business card around the last hour of the flight and said that the captain wanted me to have it - it was addressed to me and signed by the captain with a handwritten note saying that he (the captain) appreciates my business."

Any thoughts about what this is about? We always fly paid F and are both platinum; wife was 1K last year and is approaching 1MM.

awesome

Oh, now I LIKE the kangaroos! I think the safety video is quite well done, if a bit long.

On the other hand, I wish there was a course one could take where you get to experience opening doors, slide evacuations etc. Then you could have a little badge that would entitle you to sit in the exit row.

In the exit row behind me on a flight earlier this year LAX-SFO there was a HUGE guy, in flip flops. No way could he have stood up in the row, wrestled open the emergency door, and climbed out onto the wing!

I've got one before on a p.s. flight.

No disrespect meant here, but unless you mean something other than domestic narrow body flying, I think you're grossly exaggerating. As I said upthread, I spend a lot of time in the back deadheading these days, and I see almost none of what you're talking about. In the spirit of 'you never hear about the good things, only the bad', on the vast, vast majority of flights I'm on, flight attendants outnumber the lucid, responsive passengers that actually know boo about how to egress an aircraft under emergency conditions. I just finished my recurrent training a couple weeks ago, and during our (pilots) emergency training, we are made aware of this.

This is my all-time favorite story of a passenger with less than zero interest in potentially helping himself in the event of an emergency:

While deadheading one day a bazillion years ago, I was seated in a seat that didn't have a briefing card in the seat back. The cards were in a side pocket. I took out two cards, and as I always do, took a look over the info on it. I handed the other card to the guy sitting next to me.
He said, "Sonny, I know everything there is to know about a 727. I don't need that thing."
I said, "Yeah, but this is a DC-8".

FAB