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Post by JimCasey on Sept 24, 2004 17:57:52 GMT -7
I was a lump of meat in the seat of a commercial airliner on 4 takeoff.landing cycles this week, and it got me to wondering:
1. Who is so massively pathetic that they need to have instruction on the technique of fastening a seat-belt?
2. Why must your seat-back be in the upright and locked position?
3. Ditto for your tray table?
4. Why must your carry-on stuff be stowed in the overhead or under the seat?
5 and the most massively stupid of all: Why must your windowshades be open for takeoff/landing?
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Post by jetmex on Sept 24, 2004 18:35:50 GMT -7
Believe it or not, some of those things are not that stupid....
1. I truly can't figure out the seatbelt thing, other than to say that there are people who can't figure out how to use them.
2. The seatback and armrests are actually considered part of the restraint system. If it's reclined, in an impact, the seatbelt won't keep you in the seat (as if that's going to matter if you happen to hit the side of a mountain); you'll tend to slide out from underneath it. The seatback also keeps the guy behind you from ending up in your lap and vice versa. It's a documented fact that you have a better chance of surviving a crash if you stay strapped into the seat.
3. If the tray table is down in an emergency, it will keep you (and the poor clods next to you) from getting out of the seat and to the aisle. You'd be surprised how many panicky people can't figure out how to stow it. This is actually considered a grounding item if they can't be secured in a stowed position.
4. In an impact, loose baggage flying around the cabin can kill you. That's why the overhead bins now have door (they used to be open shelves) and there are restraint bars under the seats. Also, that oversize bag that you insist on cramming under your feet can also keep you (and everyone else if you're in the aisle seat) from getting out.
5. The windowshades are left open so that the flight attendants can see if there's a fire (or anything else that might kill you, like demons on the wings) outside after a crash. Since (assuming you survive the impact) you don't want to evac the airplane on the burning side, this could be a good idea.
I do have to agree that some of these things do sound pretty silly if you don't know the reasons behind them.
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Post by Grug - American Neanderthal on Sept 24, 2004 19:06:40 GMT -7
Heh, I thought only specific panic stricken passengers saw the gremlins on the wings. ;D
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Post by stetto on Sept 24, 2004 19:15:05 GMT -7
Heh, I thought only specific panic stricken passengers saw the gremlins on the wings. ;D William Shatner was one of those...I couldn't figure out why he didn't just close the shade and assume the fetal position. ;D |
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Post by Galvin on Sept 25, 2004 16:02:34 GMT -7
1. Who is so massively pathetic that they need to have instruction on the technique of fastening a seat-belt?
The pathetic thing is the little sign in each row that says "Seat belt must be fastened while seated". I tried fastening it while standing once and nearly hurt myself.
Seriously though...Some people really are massively pathetic and have to be instructed in the finer points of just getting the damn thing on. The FAs have to check that everyone has theirs on too. It is important to get them to fasten the belt because when things start to get interesting these are the people who become in-cabin flying objects and kill and maim other people.
2. Why must your seat-back be in the upright and locked position?
Huh? I always told people to return their flight attendant to the upright position for landing.
3. Ditto for your tray table?
Leave it down as a form of practical Darwinism. Those who tend to leave theirs down in an emergency will be found later in the ashes. Doing so will eventually eliminate this regressive trait from the gene pool over the years.
4. Why must your carry-on stuff be stowed in the overhead or under the seat?
See above under "in-cabin flying objects". BTW: Children under age two must be held securely in the lap of an adult (not his big sister, an adult) and not belted in along with the adult in the adult's seat belt. (Those restrained by fastening the adult's seat belt around them are likely to become two " in-cabin flying objects" during a rapid deceleration.) Children over two have to be in their own seat and have their own belt fastened. Federal law, sorry.
5 and the most massively stupid of all: Why must your windowshades be open for takeoff/landing?
So that Homeland Security can get your picture as you roll up to the gate.
Believe it or not, these rules all have very good reasons. There will always be the passenger who doesn't like them or doesn't think that the rule should apply to him/her. I never had a problem having the cops meet such people on landing for a little one-on-one explaining. This usually involved the handcuffing of the special person and the perp walk through the terminal.
What you do on an airplane becomes a federal offense when what you are doing is against the rules. It is very wise to remember that. I have seen several peoples' vacation instantly self-destruct through their own stupid desires to push the rules envelope.
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Post by Galvin on Sept 25, 2004 19:15:44 GMT -7
BTW: Rather than focusing on what one regards as the the weird little protocols that have been followed for many years by the airlines, most of which are dictated by federal law, one would be better served in becoming aware of just what one's fellow passengers are doing or attempting to do. Most of the massively stupid things in commercial aviation that occur are initiated by the thoughtless or childish actions of passengers and not the airlines, the ground or flight crews, or the FAA regulations.
The most massively stupid thing I have heard of in the last few years involved a passenger on Southwest Airlines who managed to get several glass bottles of nitric acid aboard a 737 packed in his carry-on luggage.
He had stowed them in the overhead bin and, naturally, one of the containers broke. Acid was distributed liberally around the interior trim, the seats, the passengers in the area, and adjacent structure. The damage to the airframe was extensive and required taking the airplane out of service for quite some time.
You would think that carrying such hazardous materials as this might cause most people to think twice before smuggling aboard but there will always be that ten percent who either don't get the word or, worse, just don't give a damn as long as they think they can get away with it.
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Post by Britbrat on Sept 26, 2004 16:55:04 GMT -7
Galvin, I'm just a bit confused -- what the hell are you trying to tell us? The world is plumb stuffed with dummies & a$$holes. We know that the rules are CYA for the carriers, not for the protection of the evolutionally challenged.
Did I miss something deeper? -- maybe I'm one of the dummies. ;D
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Post by Galvin on Sept 26, 2004 23:52:03 GMT -7
I beg to differ that the rules are CYA for the airlines. There are a lot of those rules that the airlines would just as well do without, both because these rules cost them money to enforce and because many are not conducive to gaining or retaining paying passengers.
No, the vast majority of those rules are imposed by the FAA; from requiring that the FAs do an oxygen mask demo that no one will watch to a life vest donning demo that no one will watch to telling you how to fasten a seat belt and then confirming that everyone has theirs on before the airplane is allowed to take off. They also have to, by law, scoop up the drinks prior to the aircraft moving if they have served drinks on the ground due to a delay. Smoking in the lavs used to be the thing that would get you arrested and fined ($2500 in 1989, I don't know what it is now) but illegal use of cell phones when in flight is also a biggie now.
The Federal Aviation Regulations out of CFR 14 are designed to protect the general public from the airlines more than protecting the airlines from the general public and yet much of the general public tries at one time or other to show its gratitude by trying to get around these regs through ignoring them or pushing their limits. They usually don't realize that they can actually be arrested and jailed under federal statutes if they push too far.
Yes, the airlines treat everyone as if they don't know anything and have to be led by the nose through everything. But that comes from long and painful experience that has proved that in any group of passengers the lowest common denominator is the case necessarily assumed and the required one to teach to. It would be nice to assume that everyone aboard is an adult but that is not the case, chronological or otherwise. It's always the stupid ones that create the dangerous situations so that is the level to which the rules must be aimed.
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Post by jetmex on Sept 27, 2004 6:17:23 GMT -7
Dave is absolutely correct. I see a lot of truly stupid people getting on airplanes and doing truly stupid things--the rules not only protect us, but you, the flying public, as well.
I also need to add that a lot of these seemingly trivial items have body counts attached to them. They are not the result of CYA so much as they are of deadly experience.
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Post by Britbrat on Sept 27, 2004 7:19:53 GMT -7
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Wayne
Story teller
Posts: 167
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Post by Wayne on Sept 30, 2004 21:33:49 GMT -7
I woulda thought the same thing until I recently took a ride in a MD-83 and the seat belts are totally different than any boeing, or airbus that I have been on. Looking at them, there are 2 ways it can go together...and naturally my first (instinctive) choice was wrong..... I figgered it out before the official briefing......  |
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Post by propnuts on Oct 1, 2004 19:03:34 GMT -7
Not that it directly relates, but one of those airline things that didn't make much sense to me until I had it explained: "Assume the crash position" - putting one's head down on one's folded arms. Somewhere I read that one of the predominant causes of death in a "survivable" airline crash is a broken neck. The head weighs around 14-15 lbs and all of that weight has momentum and sitting upright in a craft that suddenly stops - well, the head doesn't, it just keeps going, resulting in a snapped neck. The position translates the impetus from a shear force to working against the tensile strength of the spinal column. Either way I wouldn't care to be the test dummy whereby they determine this.....
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Post by kdheath on Dec 5, 2004 18:21:47 GMT -7
I suppose most of you guys have seen the film of the deliberate research crash of a 707? It's enough to make you take a deep breath as you board a flight. AND obey the rules.
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Post by Galvin on Dec 5, 2004 23:29:41 GMT -7
I definitely try to stay off airliners that fly without a pilot at the controls.
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Post by Britbrat on Dec 6, 2004 5:14:37 GMT -7
They all fly without a pilot at the controls -- you just wanna hope that he comes back from the lounge in time to watch the landing ;D
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