Opinion
Watching that in-flight safety video (again) could save your life
Lee Tulloch
Travel columnistWhen a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 and a Japanese coast guard plane collided at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on January 2, I was astounded that all passengers on the commercial flight escaped serious injury. Tragically, five of the six crew on the smaller coast guard plane were killed.
As the A350 erupted in flames and filled with smoke, the 379 passengers on board managed to crawl to safety, choking on the stinging smoke, guided by flight attendants.
JAL’s in-flight safety video was praised online for its role in successfully evacuating the aircraft.Credit: Getty Images
They called it a “miracle”, but really it was testament to the skill and courage of JAL’s 12 flight crew and to the passengers themselves for following instructions. While it was chaotic at first, passengers all moved in the same direction, towards the front doors, and helped each other down the inflatable slides. No-one stopped to collect their carry-on luggage.
Afterwards, JAL’s in-flight safety video was shared on social media and that went a long way to explaining how they’d all escaped in such an orderly manner. Cleverly animated, the video has a section that specifically shows what to do in an evacuation – and what not to do. It shows what happens if a passenger tries to bring a suitcase with them, notably blocking aisles and impeding their escape on the slide.
The recent grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners in the US until they are inspected, after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage, also illustrates the importance of safety equipment, in this case the use of seatbelts.
Airline safety demonstrations are the things we love to ignore, whether they’re by flight attendant or video. As we’re settling in to take-off, often ready to begin a movie, they’re annoying interruptions, especially if you’ve seen the same one more than once during the course of a trip. Frequent flyers can recite some by heart. And that means we often tune out to the message.
Partly because it’s almost always the same thing. How to buckle your seat belt. Don’t smoke or vape in the toilets. Don’t wear shoes on the slides. If you drop your phone in your seat, call the flight attendant.
And some are deadly boring, especially when you watch them once, then again in another language. On a recent long-haul return flight with a Middle-Eastern airline, I estimate I saw the same video 12 times, if I count watching it in English and Arabic each time.
No matter how many times I’ve seen Qantas’ 100th anniversary safety video, I’m still glued to it.
Yes, there are people who don’t fly often and perhaps need to know how to put on their life jacket. But for most of us, we’re being told what we already know – endlessly.
Airlines know this and some try to make the videos entertaining enough to keep us focused. Air New Zealand’s Lord of the Rings safety videos are legend. The now defunct Virgin America, credited with the first funny safety demo in 2007, created a fabulous, toe-tapping dance number with musician Todrick Hall in 2013. Turkish Airways’ demo in 2018 was a cute video constructed out of Lego bricks, which took more than two and a half years to make.
British Airways regularly draws on home-grown celebrities like Rowan Atkinson and Ncuti Gatwa, the newest Doctor Who. Air France’s videos are chic, like their flight attendants. Singapore Airlines, with their “Singapore Girls” as ambassadors, makes elegant travelogues set against beautifully filmed Singapore destinations.
My favourite is the video Qantas made for its centenary. No matter how many times I’ve seen it (and I’ve seen it a lot ) I’m glued to it. Tracing the history of the airline, it features old aircraft, vintage uniforms, and historic settings such as the interior of the flying boats and the upper-deck lounges in the 1970s jumbos.
I’m fascinated by the costumes and attention to period detail. The casting is superb, drawing on real-life Qantas crew, who all look perfectly right for the eras assigned to them. (Shout out especially to Katie and Chelsea for nailing their looks.)
But in the end, the safety demonstration, which is mandatory by government regulation, is about just that – safety.
A paper published by UNSW in 2015 found that only 53 per cent of a straightforward safety video was retained by passengers, but retention was worse for the more entertaining videos, with subjects remembering only 35 per cent of a funny video and 47 per cent of a movie-themed one. So, humour may not be the answer.
In the JAL case, it was fortuitous that the airline chose to spend much of its safety video on the evacuation process. Most passengers in this situation have scant minutes to get out (in this case, they made it in about two minutes.) While these events are rare, they are not totally unprecedented. The whole plane needs to know the drill and be disciplined to avoid tragedy.
If you find yourself in this situation, it’s no laughing matter.
Sign up for the Traveller newsletter
The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.