Flight Safety Tips

Hopefully you’ll never be in a plane crash in your lifetime.  But if you were, would you know what to do?

We all hear the safety tips provided to us before our flights take off, but few of us actually pay close attention.  Do we know about the exit slides? Do we really know how to operate an emergency exit door? Do we even know where all the exits are on our flights?

You may never need this information, but here are some very necessary safety tips to help you in the event you find yourself in an airline emergency:

CHECK YOUR LIFE VESTS
Regrettably, more travelers than you know actually take the life jackets located under your seat as a souvenir. It’s a vile and punishable offense, but people do it.  While airlines do check each seat at the start of every day, a plane could make several trips in a day, during any one of which a passenger could find him or herself without a life vest — just when they need it most. So, don’t assume!  It’s a good idea to check if the life jacket is indeed underneath your seat BEFORE your plane takes off.  If it’s not there, alert a flight attendent immediately. Better to be safe than sorry.

PUT YOURS ON FIRST
You’ve heard time and again to put on your own oxygen mask before helping a child or someone else around you. This is extremely important since you might only have 15 or 20 seconds in the event of a cabin decompression.  If this were to happen, all oxygen would be sucked out of the plane (and your lungs), before you’d experience confusion and a euphoric “stoned” state.  You would likely pass out within 30 to 45 seconds and would be rendered helpless and useless to yourself and your loved ones. So it’s important to act quickly and act first!

BRACE YOURSELF

If you’ve ever actually taken the time to read the safety card in the seat back pocket, you may have noticed that the correct brace position is to put your hands on your head, but definitely not with the fingers locked together. One hand should actually be placed over the other. Should something fall on you during a crash landing, you’d want to protect at least one hand (preferably the one you write with) because you’ll need it to unbuckle your seat belt when it’s safe to do so. Your other hand is in that position to provide some protection to your “strong” hand, which will be doing the unbuckling.

EXIT DOORS ARE HEAVY

Have you ever wondered how heavy those emergency over-wing exit doors are? Or if they’re easy to open and toss?  Surprisingly, at 40 lbs. they’re heavier than they look.  But weight is not the problem. Maneuvering the door and throwing it out can be an awkward challenge and is not for the weak.

Sadly, more than half the people who choose to sit in an exit row don’t have the necessary strength to manage the door in case of an emergency. Airlines would be wise to stop selling those seats to whoever pays the fee for the extra legroom, but choosing someone who is physically up for the challenge.

Why don’t airlines tell us any of this?  That is a big mystery.  Sure, they tell us to keep our seat belts buckled at all times, but they never explain why — which often causes passengers to tune out.  Perhaps more passengers might listen to the pre-flight safety demo if airlines were direct about their reasons for asking passengers to adhere to their flight safety tips. Perhaps these tips might help you next time you’re onboard an airline.