At the risk of being all Seinfeld, here, what is up with flight-safety videos? As in, the fact that no one watches them? The planes US Air flies to Syracuse are usually pretty small, but last night, for some reason, it was a real live plane with three seats on each side of the aisle -- much to my relief, because it meant my suitcase would actually fit in the overhead thingie even though I was one of the last people to board.
Normally, on the regular wee planes, the real live flight attendant does the little song and dance with the belt buckle and whatnot. But the big grown-up plane had the special screens that deploy to show you the safety video. I realized halfway through that I wasn't paying attention -- furthermore, I never pay attention to those. Ever. It's white noise: "plane loses pressure... seat cushion... flotation device... help yourself before the person next to you... oxygen... zzzzzzzz."
Last night, I looked around, and not one single other person I could see was actually watching the video, including the dude next to me who would go on to watch the silent infomercial about Hawaii they played for the rest of the flight with shockingly rapt attention. (Hawaii trivia I learned: The state is made up of 137 islands!)
It seems to me like this says something profound about humans' sense of denial. That couldn't happen to me. Even though that information could save my life, it isn't relevant enough for me to stop reading an essay about Bill Clinton in order to pay attention for 30 seconds. Weird, right? Like, life-saving information-- ooh, look out the window, shiny!
4 comments:
But see... I don't think most people actually think that it's life-saving information. I think most people see those things as pretty insignificant solutions to a problem. If the plane is going down, do you really think that hugging the seat cushion is going to do anything for you? My guess would be that most people don't watch it because they don't really believe that anything in that video would do an ounce of good if there was a serious problem with the plane.
Also, the information hasn't changed in 20 years, has it? You could probably recite the whole thing in your sleep. :)
did you take that picture? because it's very pretty.
I did! Not on this flight, but on the August plane ride with my friend. Thanks. :)
And yeah, Alissa -- by the time you're thinking about how to hug the seat cushion, you're probably already toast. But I think it's not actually uncommon to have the oxygen masks deploy; I know two people that's happened to, and both of them lived to tell about it. And even on the off-chance that any of that information could help you, I don't know, seems like it might be worth it...
I tune it out too, because I don't like to think about what could go wrong. I tend to be kind of a panicky flyer, so my coping mechanism tends to be very "la-la-la, I can't hear youuuu" when they start talking about the possibility of the plane crashing.
Did you ever see the very first episode of "Lost"? Where they show the people inside the plane as it breaks in half while in mid-air? Yeah. Almost gave me a heart attack, that one.
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