Air travel is relatively safer than other modes of travel. Fact is, fewer people die from plane crashes than from fatal road accidents every year. But that doesn’t mean people are smarter when travelling at altitudes of 35,000 feet. It only suggests that the airline industry is more adaptive at fixing bugs that can endanger lives.
But a look at last week’s viral video about passengers rushing out of a crashed Emirates jet suggests all’s not well with airline safety — or at least our attitude to Airline Safety. All 282 passengers were evacuated as the plane caught fire after landing at Dubai Airport. But it took ninety seconds and lot of holy hell from the anxious 18 crew members. There were seven infants, and the emergency evacuation turned into a nightmare with passengers scrambling for cabin luggage, documents and laptops. Another instructed an infant to hold a piece of luggage before jumping out of the door. A total of 226 persons were travelling on that plane and the viral video showed petty preoccupations amidst asphyxiating atmosphere.
There’s something about planes that makes us Indians habitual queue-jumpers and impolite passengers. Also amongst the first ones to throw tantrums and scare off cabin crew, Indians are notorious for treating most airline rules with impunity.
Take the case of our attitude towards flight attendants. It is not easy to stand at the entrance and greet 120 people without expecting a smile or a nod in return. Yet millions of Indians enter and exit planes without an acknowledgement. It is not a roving puppet show to push the big metal box containing food while the passenger still has her earphones on, or is meditating on something. Getting into arguments or asking the air hostess to fix mechanical problems of the aircraft seem to be routine peeves of most passengers who are insensitive to the tough demands of modern flight attendant.
A typical work day of a flight attendant can run for at least seven hours with a punishing travel schedule for at least 24 days a month throughout the year. Being nice to them when they are trying to be professional is just as important as landing on time. Yet many Indians expect flight attendants to show servitude when they are giving service.
Indian air-travellers are also oblivious to rules of civility. We treat other’s eardrums as shared space, we treat our neighbour’s seat as newspaper extensions or elbow room for our whims. From reclining at will to abusing stoaway space, Indians are culturally behind in upgrading their manners to suit world standards. Forget about manners, we don’t even take the safety precautions seriously. We take that in with a disdain as if it was a mime.
In the Emirates incident, finally, one fire-fighter died but all passengers escaped despite shouts and groans about handbaggage. Sad, the life that saved all couldn’t be saved. But on August 2, 2005, when an Airbus A340 landed in Toronto and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames, all 309 people on board escaped within 90 seconds. It was a textbook evacuation.
A study by the Federal Aviation Administration, which has trained 2,352 people through simulated evacuations, concludes that the biggest factor impeding survival is “a failure of passengers to understand and properly execute emergency procedures”. More than 61 per cent of fliers said they didn’t bother listening to the safety briefings. The remaining per cent remained naïve or inexperienced — both these problems can be resolved by familiarity of protocols.
Because remember this: whether you are a new flier or a seasoned air-traveller, in case of an emergency, over a hundred passengers have just 90 seconds... as Emirates flight proved.
The author can be reached at sridhar.sattiraju@gmail.com
