Always interested in aviation safety and emergency preparedness, I noticed a very interesting notion during pre-flight safety demos. Or, it could be just my incorrect perception in the past. There are actually quite a number of passengers who would pay attention to the demos and they would look at you. Despite the awkwardness, obviously with the stare and smirks when a mistake or dump movement was made, I'm touched and glad that people would actually pay attention. The most touching ones are the parents who directed their kids' attention to the demos. Some parents, or I should say the "good" parents, would either narrate again the safety equipment features (in simpler verbal terms), and/or flip open the safety features card for their kids. This trend has been quite consistent over the past four months.
On the flip side, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with recent aviation accidents. This means, a very reactive approach to emergency preparedness. The most notable was the AC crash landing at YHZ. Proven that total survival is possible, despite the severe damage of the aircraft. Now, you might question how many of those passengers actually paid attention to the safety demo on that flight? You may argue probably not a lot, as you always see on flights most would have been scrolling their phones or electronic devices, flipping the magazines, or chatting with others. They all survived; so what's the point of these safety "dance shows"? My opinion on this is, the ones who paid attention was able to help with the evacuation, and the more passengers have some sort of concept of the drill, the more efficient everyone could escape.
Before the final investigation report is released, I couldn't be certain of anything about the accident, but it was a quite a lucked out one. There was no major explosions, no major structural fires, and it seemed like the internal cabin wasn't too obstructed for evacuation. Imagine with with an incident where smoke and fire may soon reach for an explosion; every seconds counts and passengers should have a general picture of the drill. This is why schools and some companies would do fire and earthquake evacuation drills; the general procedure will stay in your mind, and the assistance of professionally trained personnel will assist you further.
So back to the point, why bother if someone, whether it is your next seat stranger pal who followed the demo or a professional firefighter, will help you anyways? Firstly, you cannot always rely on others, and firefighters may not always be on scene immediately. You landed in water or on a farm, no firefighters will show up in 3 minutes. Secondly, that pal beside you who knows the drill may try to help you, but may get killed just because of trying to give you, now a deer in a headlight, a hand. You may still be unconvinced, but if you want to be that little princess who can't get off the headphones for 15 minutes, and missed the Captain calling for "evacuate, evacuate, evacuate", or instruction for putting on your life vest, please don't panic and don't bug your next seat pal while they are listening to command instructions. They demonstrated their situational awareness and should deserve to survive first; they should also ensure their safety first so that they can help others. But, in a very perfect scenario, everyone would have a sense of what to do and evacuate orderly under the direction of professionally trained personnel. If not, well, we're always there to try our best to help and save lives after all ...
Before the final investigation report is released, I couldn't be certain of anything about the accident, but it was a quite a lucked out one. There was no major explosions, no major structural fires, and it seemed like the internal cabin wasn't too obstructed for evacuation. Imagine with with an incident where smoke and fire may soon reach for an explosion; every seconds counts and passengers should have a general picture of the drill. This is why schools and some companies would do fire and earthquake evacuation drills; the general procedure will stay in your mind, and the assistance of professionally trained personnel will assist you further.
So back to the point, why bother if someone, whether it is your next seat stranger pal who followed the demo or a professional firefighter, will help you anyways? Firstly, you cannot always rely on others, and firefighters may not always be on scene immediately. You landed in water or on a farm, no firefighters will show up in 3 minutes. Secondly, that pal beside you who knows the drill may try to help you, but may get killed just because of trying to give you, now a deer in a headlight, a hand. You may still be unconvinced, but if you want to be that little princess who can't get off the headphones for 15 minutes, and missed the Captain calling for "evacuate, evacuate, evacuate", or instruction for putting on your life vest, please don't panic and don't bug your next seat pal while they are listening to command instructions. They demonstrated their situational awareness and should deserve to survive first; they should also ensure their safety first so that they can help others. But, in a very perfect scenario, everyone would have a sense of what to do and evacuate orderly under the direction of professionally trained personnel. If not, well, we're always there to try our best to help and save lives after all ...
