Last week I was on an airplane and I was sort of half-listening to the familiar pre-take-off safety speech and for the first time wondered, “What’s the deal with the window shades?”
See, I can understand the seatbacks up and the tray tables in the upright and locked position as simple safety precautions. But why do the window shades have to be up for take-off and landing?
Sorry, I forgot.
Prepare to be boarded. Arrrr.
So the crew and passengers can alert the pilot in the event of engine fire
If the plane crashes and power fails, ambient light assists egress from the craft.
If firefighters must cut through the fuselage, they need to see whether there are people behind the section they’re cutting.
So the nice ladies don’t have to.
IMO
I was going to post this! Flew last week and thought on each of the four flights “I must ask on the dope”. Psychic twin!!
I have nothing to add but that, sorry.
Brilliant. Thanks! And an “avast me hearty” to my psychic twin, Iteki.
I agree with the above. I believe it’s FAA regs, but I’d love to see the stats on how many lives were actually saved by this act, not to mention the seat back and tray table rule. Seems to me, if you smack the ground at a couple hundred mph, the seat backs and trays are gonna be all over the place anyway, and the smoke from the resulting fire would negate any benefit from having the window shades open. Ever seen an aircraft fire? It’s black. And suffocating.
Personally, if I know we’re going down, I’m gonna run back to the rear sh*tter and lock myself in. It’s structurally a bit more sound, plus, if there’s a fire, maybe the flood of the crap tank will help keep me alive. I’ll take being covered in crap and pee over fire any day.
According to the Continental flight attendant I asked, it’s as ** An Lú abú** posted, for the best possible visibility during any situation that might call for an emergency evacuation.
Sure, but not all aircraft accidents are catastrophic. Trays away, seat backs upright, and window blinds open are in case of a moderate take-off crash, such as the collapse of undercarriage or something.
You do realize how difficult it is to get solid data on something that didn’t happen?
Well, first of all, not all accidents are a result of smacking the ground at “a couple hundred mph”. The general public tends to think of this first when hearing the phrase “airplane accident” because the media likes death and destruction, and a fireball makes an ever-so-much-more-exciting picture for the evening news than, say, a dented wing from nicking a building (which, coincidently, happen just this week in England to the Dixie Chicks). The “upright seatbacks and stowed tray tables” rule will prevent injury in such cases - trust me, if the 7_7 you’re in whacks into something going either to or from the gate or runway you WILL feel a jolt. Ditto for the seatbelts-while-taxiing rule. Likewise, will also help prevent injuries if the plane slides off the pavement, which happens a couple times a year in various parts of the world. Some of these accidents are occuring at 5-10 mph, not 500, which makes them very survivable.
Secondly, not all accidents result in fire. I’m thinking in particular of one plane that wound up in the Potomac River just after take-off. High-speed impact, yes, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a fire. (Lots of snow, ice, and water, though - a number of folks drowned or died of hypothermia)
Even if you have a horrific accident, with fire, it is still possible to survive. I’m thinking in particular of the Sioux City Iowa crash where the plane cartwheeled on impact and came apart and it rolled end over end across the ground, yes, with fire. About 2/3 of the passengers survived that one.
The point being - although an airplane accident is no joke and it really can kill you, it is NOT certain death. Which is why it’s worth it to do small things that can assist in your survival.
Problem is, when the plane comes to a sudden halt you, in accordance with the laws of physics, will not - you will smack into the forward wall of the lavatory at, as you put it, “a couple hundred mph”. This will certainly mess up your dental work. You are far more likely to survive the initial impact belted in your seat than as a loose object in a small room.
If you do survive the sudden halt, the impact will likely warp the structure of the aircraft. This may result in the door to the lav being jammed shut, trapping you inside a small room in a burning plane. Once the fire reaches the lav area, that fluid you’re drenched in will boil away (airplane fires fueled by jetfuel burn at a couple thousand degrees and can melt steel) and you will be toast shortly thereafter.
Me - I’ll stay in my seat and hope for an opportunity to run like hell after everything stops moving forward.
IAARFF (Airport Rescue Firefighter):
In regards to An Lú abú’s point #3 above, we’re not going to look through the windows if we do a cut-through. There are very few places inside an aircraft fuselage that I can safely cut through, and none of them are near windows. In Boeing aircraft, the best place is actually along the fuselage at window level where there isn’t a window, since that is where the air ducts run up to the ceiling. Easy chop-in there. For the most part, though, we’re going to focus our efforts on the doors. The fuselage is framed around them, and we can get the doors open with a little persuasion.
Most major aiports in the US have a truck equipped with what is called a “Snozzle.” Its a 3’ long piercing nozzle that pokes a hole in the fuselage (we’re aiming for the 12" above the windows with it, but not because of people being there) and flows 250 gpm of water and/or foam into the cabin. We don’t look in windows for that, either.
From the statistics that we’ve been given, 85% of the passengers and crew onboard will be alive and kicking when an aircraft crashes at-or-near an airport. The high death rates are from the ensuing fire. On average, the fuel fire outside the fuselage will be inside the aircraft in 90 seconds, and in some cases less than 50 seconds. You have less time than that to get out of the plane. As the ARFF vehicles arrive, they’re going to “create and maintain an egress pathway” through the burning fuel. If you have an aggressive crew, they’re going to get inside the aircraft as soon as possible (first with the Snozzle (if available) while a hose team is setting up, then the actual firefighters themselves).
The recommendation for flying safely is the same if you go into a place of assembly: know where your exits are, sit near them, and know what you’re going to do in case something happens. The safest seats in the plane are the last row, on the aisle. There are always exits in the tail of the aircraft (for any large air carrier aircraft, Beech 1900s don’t have rear exits), if you’re in the last row, you’re the closest to them. If you’re on the aisle, you don’t have to climb over anyone to get to the doors. And, planes don’t usually fly in reverse into hills, you are the farthest from the crash. The tail section usually surivives intact, adding to your chances. And, the biggest factor for me: the flight data recorders are in the tail. If thats the only part of the plane they expect to survive, you should be as close to it as possible.
Asked and answered in an earlier thread.
The gist of the answer for those who don’t read links (you know who you are!):
The FAR’s require that the shades be up for the windows on exit rows only. This is so that in an evacuation the crewmembers or passengers can quickly determine whether an exit is useful.
Different airlines use different methods to accomplish this. My airline has the F/A’s brief the passengers in each exit row about their duties, whether they can perform them, etc. While they are doing this they also check that the shades are up. If not, they raise them. Other airlines use the PA method and tell everyone to put all shades up. It’s a lot easier than making a PA telling only the people in exit rows to raise their shades.
The goal is to prevent someone from opening up an exit that has a raging fire on the other side. With the shades up, that can be quickly determined and people can use other available exits.
And if you think that all airline accidents are “fly into a mountain and kiss your ass good-bye” read Broomstick’s post.
And Broomstick the Potomac River accident was an Air Florida 737. They failed to turn on the engine anti-ice and attempted to take off with an extremely reduced power setting (due to an iced-over Pt probe resulting in an artificially high EPR readout).
This new shades up rule sucks, I got a nasty sunburn on the left side of my neck. Thanks!
I didn’t know zombies could get sunburn!