Photo: 123 RF
Paying Attention to Safety Briefing
Why people don’t listen to inflight briefing?
Last weekend, I was on a flight to see the world’s tallest tropical timber tree at the Tawau Hills Park in Sabah, Malaysia. This was my first flight after more than 2 years of the Covid-19 pandemic. I was looking forward to view the safety video, hoping to refresh my memory on the in-flight briefing.
Alas, it wasn’t the video by Malaysia Airlines that had recently gone viral. Nevertheless, I glanced at the rest of the passengers and was surprised that many were not interested in viewing the safety briefing.
I believe, even if some were watching the safety demonstration, it would most likely be a ‘one ear in, one ear out’ thing.
On April 17, 2018, the engine cowling of a South West Airlines Boeing 737-700 broke off. It punctured a hole in the cabin window and caused the plane to depressurize. A video of the scene after the emergency descent showed that almost none of the passengers had their oxygen masks correctly worn.
A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines in 1996 crashed landed in the Indian Ocean where 124 of the 175 passengers and crew died. Many of the passengers survived the initial crash but they disregarded the warning not to inflate their life jackets inside the aircraft. As such, the inflated jackets pushed the survivors against the ceiling when the water flooded in.
Unable to escape, they were drowned. An estimated 60 to 80 passengers were also presumably drown, still strapped to their seats.
A Lion Air Boeing 737-800 in 2013 crashed into the water short of the runway while on final approach to land. Most passengers evacuated the plane without their life jackets. When asked by the authority, most of them admitted they were clueless of the location of these jackets as they didn’t pay attention to the safety demonstration.
How many remember this part of the briefing, “please leave all carry-on baggage behind during an evacuation”?
Passengers evacuating a 2016 American Airlines flight in Chicago can be seen carrying luggage from the burning aircraft. A few months earlier, travelers were seen grabbing their bags before fleeing an Emirates flight that crash-landed in Dubai.
It happened again on 5 July 2019 when forty-one people died after an Aeroflot plane made an emergency landing and burst into flames at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport,
People were running from the burning plane, some clutching their luggage. Apparently, the evacuation was delayed by some passengers insisting on collecting their hand luggage first.
Dear passengers, please pay attention to the safety briefings from now on. Well, this is not just a passenger problem. Airlines can do more to ensure passenger are paying attention too.
Malaysia Airlines’ latest catchy video titled ‘Satu, Dua, Tiga, JOM!’ would hopefully makes passengers more vigilant to many other safety tips in the aircraft.
Wishing you all a safe flight in your next journey!
See YouTube video on ‘Claims evacuation delayed by passengers getting luggage’
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDK_mifUqjI
See YouTube clip on ‘Malaysia Airlines Safety Video’
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRkYV1IxmDs
See You Tube video on ‘Tawau and the Tallest Tropical Tree in the World’