Recently I was on a flight and was watching the usual script played out by the crew with regards to emergencies, the ones where they point out the emergency exits, and show how to put on the oxygen masks etc etc.
That got me wondering, because when I think of it, when the plane is going down I don’t imagine any of those things help. Is there any record of accidents or emergencies where disaster has been successfully averted or fatalities avoided/reduced by following those instructions? Have there been any actual incidents where the safety masks have dropped, people have put them on, and then later taken them off and continued flying?
I haven’t experienced the oxygen masks falling, but I was on a flight several years ago (Sydney-Melbourne) where a fire broke out in one of the engines. The plane had to return to Sydney for an emergency landing. There probably wasn’t really a great deal of risk, but it’s pretty disconcerting to look out the window and see flames pouring out. I can assure you that all of the passengers were keenly aware of the boring, routine safety instructions at that point and the cabin staff were walking up and down the aisles reminding passengers of the brace position, the evacuation procedure etc.
I’ve heard of at least a few examples where it was thought more people might have survived if they had followed the safety instructions.* Certain types of air disasters are simply not survivable, and some are only very marginally survivable (e.g. ditching in open water). But there are a few types of accident where the safety instructions are very important. If a crash is relatively minor (e.g. if it occurs on takeoff or landing) and a fire breaks out, it’s very important to know the location of the exits and how to operate them.
*: One example I found in a search was an Air Canada DC-9 that made an emergency landing on June 3, 1983 after an onboard fire. 23 of 41 passengers were killed, presumably because they could not reach the exits.
Airline pilot here,
The briefings are sort of stupid, especially after you’ve heard them 100 times.
But at the same time, the reason they’re boring & stupid-sounding is because you’ve already learned the information. IOW, they’ve succeeded in their goal.
Had you flown 100 times and gotten zero briefings, you’d have no clue what to do when the oxygen masks appear. With 100 flights and 100 briefings, most folks at least start doing the right thing and the rest imitate them.
Oxygen mask deployment is statistically rare, but given the huge number of flights every day, it happens on some airliner someplace every week or so. The pilots descend rapidly to lower altitudes where there’s enough air for you to survive without the masks, then you can take them off and we’ll find a nearby airport and land. If you never use the mask when it drops you’ll almost certainly be unconscious for awhile, and if you’ve got a bad heart you may well have a heart attack & die right there.
If circumstances make it impossible for the airplane to descend promptly & rapidly, such as structural damage or being right over the Himalayas, the lack of a mask will lead to permanent brain damage within 4-5 minutes.
So yes, they do get used, they are essential to your survival, and the often-repeated instructions do increase the successful usage numbers.
The exact same argument applies to emergency exits. The industry does an emergency evacuation about once a month. 50, 100, or 200 people get to go down the slides. Usually the airplane is neither wrecked nor burning. But once in awhile …
The flight attendants’ job is get the herd moving in the right direction and keep it moving. If zero poeple have ever had any instruction, getting the herd started will be a slow process. If everyone has heard the drill a hundred times, when the time comes, at least 15-20% of the herd will get moving on its own and the rest will follow.
I don’t mean the term “herd” to be interpreted pejoritvely. In big groups, and when scared, people behave as a group, with one fairly simple primitive mindset. It’s human nature.
Conditioning works. if you’ve never thought even a moment about getting out of a burning airplane, your reaction will be to sit there, paralyzed by indecision until you die in place. That won’t happen to everyone, but it will happen to many people. By forcing you to think about it even a little bit, we can up to survival rate a bunch.
As others have said, some accidents aren’t survivable, no matter what the passengers do or don’t do. But those are the minority. There are also rare emergency scenarios where we have lots of training & pprocedures and where passengers could be a big help. but we never talk about them or brief them becuase it’s too rare or too complex.
But knowledge about how to use the oxygem mask, how to take off the seatbelt, and where the emergency exits are is damn good knowledge to have.
LSL Guy speaks the truth.
Not only am I an airline pilot, but I had a job way back in college testing those slides that you might use during an evacuation.
I worked for the company that manufactured the slides, and we were getting them certified for use on the 757/767.
Why does this matter? Because at some point during the evacuation tests I was designated as the “freezer”. I was told to “freeze” in the aisle during the evacuation - without the knowledge of the other passengers.
You can imagine what happened - I was carried forward and out the emergency exit with no effort at all on my part. People want OFF that airplane, and they (hopefully) know where they are going. It is a herd, no question.
Of course, the people I was with knew they were going to evacuate. But you would be amazed at what people can retain in critical situations.
I flew in the Air Force before I went to the airlines (as did LSL Guy) and we had survival training. Every Air Force pilot goes through this training and (if you ask him) promptly forgets everything he was taught. But if you talk to guys who actually got shot down and have to use the training, they say that it seemed like they were just talking to the survival instructor. They remembered everything they needed to, even years after being trained.
The same thing will work on an airliner: you hear it a thousand times and ignore it, but that ONE time that it matters, you will remember that you can use your seat as a flotation device. Repetition works, and believe it or not there are actually people who will be flying for the first time that day who have never heard an emergency brief. For them the first time might be the most important time they hear it.
Besides, do we even have to address the legal ramifications of the airlines NOT doing this?
Can you imagine what would happen if an airline did not give the safety briefing and then had to evacuate?
FWIW, I am a private pilot and I, too, am obligated to give any passengers instructions on how to use their seatbelts and how to operate the aircraft doors. All pilots have a responsibility to see that such information is communicated, not just the big airlines.
As a private pilot, trying to figure out what to say and what not to say to a non-pilot passenger is surprisingly difficult at times.
I do make sure they know how to work the seatbelt and door. I often include something along the lines of “If you get scared you can grab this or this, but not that or anything over here.” And after that first episode of the screaming-meemmies I make it a habit to inform the passenger before reducing engine power prior to landing so the other person doesn’t think the thing quit altogether or something. But most folks really do not want to go over the emergency checklist detail for some reason …