If you’ve watched manual safety demonstrations over the last year prior to the departure of your flight, you may have noticed it was more abbreviated than prior to the pandemic. Not anymore, as an FAA exemption just expired.
Pre-Flight Safety Demos Now Demonstrate Oxygen Masks and Life Vests
During the pandemic, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allowed airlines to skip demonstrating the operation of life vests and oxygen masks when performing live safety demonstrations. This was done to minimize surface contact and minimize time in which flight attendants had to be in the aisle.
While Delta Air Lines has seat-back screens on each seat and could continue video-based safety demos, American Airlines and United Airlines have removed screens from most narrowbody aircraft and therefore were more likely to offer safety demonstrations live.
Effective June 1st, flight attendants must now once again manually demonstrate how to put on an oxygen mask and life vest.
United has told flight attendants it has boarded more wipes, which are intended to be used to wipe down the equipment before and after the safety demo. Flight attendants have also been instructed to leave their mask on throughout the live safety demo, but note that in case of an emergency, face coverings should be removed before putting on an oxygen mask.
CONCLUSION
Flight attendants in the USA must once again demonstrate correct oxygen mask and life vest usage during pre-flight safety demos. This subtle changes marks another step closer toward normality.
Of course I’m still hoping to run into this flight attendant one day:
> Read More: WestJet Flight Attendant’s Slapstick Safety Briefing Is Hilarious
image: United AFA
Sarah Nelson had an interesting quote about this. Did you see it…
“This is a gross misstep by US Regulators. The comfort of the Flight Attendants is the most important aspect of a flight, and now our hard working FAs are required to spend an additional 60 seconds in the aisle doing their job. For short flights, this means that they may not have as much time to complete their crossword puzzle, or even worse, not advance to the next level in Candy Crush. Flight Attendants are on board exclusively for the safety of passengers and by standing in the aisle for this extra time, it all but guarantees 100% COVID transmission for everyone on the aircraft. The AFA-CWA demands the FAA retract this burdensome request at once.”
Just fire them all!! Get rid of them once and for all!!
I found that videos are better except for the too stylized and confusing Virgin America video with the exception of flotation vest (life jackets) are demonstrated well in person.
There is often too many words for how to fasten the safety belt. A better way is “this is how you put it on (showing it twice)”, “this is how you take off the safety belt”.