Are airline life jacket safety demonstrations necessary?

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This was published 9 years ago

Are airline life jacket safety demonstrations necessary?

By Michael Gebicki
A flying must: It's worth paying attention to the life safety jacket demonstration.

A flying must: It's worth paying attention to the life safety jacket demonstration.Credit: iStock

Airline Safety demonstrations are a requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN body that governs international air transport.

The lifejacket drill is part of that safety demonstration, and while airlines struggle to get passengers to pay attention, it's worth doing so. If your aircraft is forced to ditch in water the chances of survival are fairly high, but much better for those who follow the instructions given during the safety briefing. The basic requirement is to actually use your lifejacket.

On several occasions when commercial aircraft have ditched, some passengers drowned because they were unable to stay afloat even though help was close at hand. It has also happened that passengers drowned because they inflated their lifejacket fully before leaving the cabin. When the cabin filled with water, those with fully inflated life vests floated to the top and their buoyancy prevented them from diving down and exiting the aircraft.

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When Captain Chesley Sullenberger ditched his US Airways Airbus A320 into the Hudson River, only a few passengers put on their life jackets. That wasn't a problem since they were all rescued by boats from the wings.

However if the aircraft had sank before help arrived and you had been one of the passengers standing on the wing without a life jacket, you might have wished you'd followed the instructions of the safety demonstration.

Finally, take a moment to check that your life jacket is where it's supposed to be. People souvenir them.

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