Why you should watch the safety briefing

If I were to ask you to adopt the brace position right now, like most people you would most likely rock forward, clench your face and interlock your fingers tightly over your head. 

The sad truth is that if you were to do that onboard in an emergency situation you would limit your chances of survival … a lot.

In 2014 I was on a flight to Hong Kong to see some friends. About 6 hours in to the flight it was drawing into nighttime and we begun to experience some moderate turbulence. About one hour later the turbulence hadn’t stopped and had begun to be quite violent. The captain came over the PA system to tell us we’d be flying through a storm and things would get quite choppy. The cabin crew secured the cabin and began to take their seats. We proceeded to make a series of huge drops and big sways to the right and left before an almighty drop where the oxygen masks deployed. 

In that moment was chaos, overhead bins had opened, cases had fallen and people were screaming in confusion and fear. It was all too clear that none of us were prepared with what to do in that moment, and there was an overwhelming sense of vulnerability in our hopeless lack of preparation.

Luckily ... eventually we were told there was no need for our masks and that our plane was airworthy to fly on to Hong Kong, but that moment had seeded within me a desire to understand just how safe is flying anyway and how much was it my responsibility to take care of myself in flight.

As much as there is a wisdom in crowds there can equally be a dumbness. We hold a false belief that in any emergency situation as a crowd we will be taken care of and given guidance on what to do, but the truth is that in many aviation incidents there is only time to react as individuals and not to think. 

Many of us hold fatalistic views around flying, and that if there was a crash we’d be dead anyway. The truth is that 80-95% of plane crashes are survivable and there are strong correlations between those who do the right safety behaviours having an increased chance of survival. 

We also have a ridiculous overconfidence bias thinking that we know the drill already because we have often flown many times before. And just because the instructions feel familiar to us when we hear them then we must not need to engage any further. Anyone who has tried karaoke will know that being familiar with a songs lyrics whilst it is playing is not the same as knowing how to sing it outright. Research shows that only an average of 33% of the safety briefing is recalled by viewers and in fact for each hour the flight goes on, the ability to recall crucial safety information continues to fall. 

And whilst unlikely, people still die each year in safety failures onboard aircraft. The graph below shows the 30,000 people that have died in commercial aviation incidences and you'll note we are yet to hit zero. The need to continue innovating on how we get passengers to pay attention is still very important.

Turkish Airlines research for example shows that nearly 50% of passengers don’t know how to put an oxygen mask on correctly. It needs to go over your mouth and nose to work correctly and it needs to be fixed on pretty fast. Airbuses best guess as to the length of time before all the cabin air is sucked out of the plane is around 18 seconds, after that a thick mist will fill the cabin and passengers will feel feint and even forget what they were doing in the first place; that’s why you need to fix your own mask first before helping others. Some airlines won’t even allow their pilots to have beards as it breaks the seal the oxygen mask makes with their face.

Submarining where passengers fly under loosely fitted seatbelts has also been shown to be a continuing problem in rapid decelerations. You must ensure your lap belt is fixed tight and around your hips not high on your waist, your pelvis is your strongest structure around the middle of your body so it’s this place that will best take the impact.

Another point of contention remains the amount of passengers that leave their window blinds down for take off and landing, and even argue with the crew when asked to do so. You’re asked to do so during parts of a flight where a fast evacuation may be necessary for two reasons. It will help adjust your eyes to the outside and reduce any startle effects upon exit of the aircraft, and it will also allow firefighters in a rescue situation to see into the cabin to see who may be left inside.

A newly recognised danger on board planes is the presence of lithium ion batteries in our mobile phones. Fires are what most pilots will tell you is their true fear with flying. In updated instructions from the Federal Aviation Administration, cabin crew will now tell you that if your device gets lost in your seat then you should not move your seat. If you pierce a lithium battery it immediate sparks and explodes. Your reclinable seat is essentially a giant vice which can cause your mobile phone to make that explosion. 

One of the most significant dangers on an aircraft today is passenger compliance given an emergency situation. When aircraft are built they have to prove it can be evacuated in under 90 seconds in order to ensure the aircraft is safe to fly, even your double decker A380 can be empty 853 passengers in just 78 seconds. The problem is that many emergencies have demonstrated that during evacuations passengers insist on taking their hand luggage with them. Flaming planes have seen hoards of passengers running from them with their wheely suitcases in tow … much to the anger of their pilots and crew.

The facts and figures show that as passengers we're not that prepared for an emergency situation and we show few signs of being interested either. But having this information top-of-mind is key. Without us realising, during every take-off our cabin crew go through their “sixty second review” where they rehearse key instructions that they will give should an emergency survive. They will even sit in what is known as the ‘semi brace position’ right in front of our eyes, which is either arms folded or sitting on their hands palm upwards which allows them to readily adopt their full brace position quickly should they need to.

It’s worth remembering that our crew have at least 6 weeks of intense safety training and they top it up regularly, but as passengers we only have to put our book down or take off our headphones for just 5 minutes in order to ensure we're ready. 

For the many who have survived an air-crash the most common realisation they have post recovery is how they are primarily responsible for their safety onboard. Taking that seriously may really help you out one day.

So when you get next get onboard an aircraft you have a choice. A choice to engage in a 5 minute video or a choice to ignore it (Air New Zealand have even used naked people in a last ditch attempt to gain viewers!). My advice would be to engage because I can guarantee you that if you’re ever sat on a plane staring at an oxygen mask above your head … you’re going to wish you had watched.

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If you want more on air safety ... develop a fear of flying here!

Skip to 7min 15 secs for the quick version