It's about what they wear when they fly. It's not about fashion or comfort, it's about enhancing one's chance of survival when they put their lives in the hands of a couple of well trained, but fallible and often fatigued pilots sitting up front of them working in an ATC system that seems to fail as often as it works.
It was a message I wanted to deliver to the young guy and his lady companion last week flying out of St. Louis. Both were wearing polyester t-shirts, nylon shorts and shower shoes. I didn't say a word ... but I so wanted to. I wonder whether their parents give a damn about them, not educating them on how to enhance their survival when things go wrong during an aircraft flight.
My kids chide me about having some eccentricities and they are right. But those don't include my oft intoned comments about "dressing appropriately" when one flies. In my post Dress to Crash, a couple of years ago, I wrote how irritated I was with fellow passengers when we made that emergency landing in Louisiana - so few of them were prepared to crash. Fewer of them were prepared to live had we done so.
Many would have suffered severe injuries and death because of decisions they made in how they dressed if that day had all turned out differently than it did that day. There has to be no greater expression of failure to take responsibility for one's actions than to maximize the opportunity to become a fatality in a survivable airplane crash.
First off, wear closed leather shoes during take-offs and landings and cotton clothing, not man-made fibers such as nylon and polyester. You fashion conscious types can't run in a lot of the shoes you wear. And trust me, you don't want to run bare footed from a burning crashed aircraft. For those who think Crocs and shower shoes are cool and comfy, I'll wave as I run past you as you and your shoes stick to the ground and you become a crispy critter.
Wear clothes that have a lot of skin coverage. That means jeans, not shorts, shoes or boots not sandals. It means no cute tank tops and "Bratz" type outfits. I would prefer that none of my girls ever fly in a dress or skirt ... maybe its that image of the old Army aviator who was so terribly burned in a fixed wing crash who briefed us a zillion years ago that causes that bias. It was one of the best safety briefs I ever got and has stuck with me vividly over the years. It was as well a testament to that man's courage as to how he had gone on to have a very productive and instructive life despite what terrible things he endured.
When we first moved from cotton flight suits to nomex ones I remember at Ft. Rucker holding a lighter under my Nomex covered arm to demonstrate it was "fireproof." The second degree burn from that demonstration healed in a couple of weeks, but the lesson was stark. Nomex isn't fireproof, it just doesn't burn off like cotton or melt into your skin like man-made fibers do. That's why if you can't fly in Nomex or the like, cotton clothing is best. Yep, it will burn, but the cotton will provide some protection and not burn into one's skin like polyester and nylon does.
That old aviator once said to us that you only get out of a crash with what you have on your body. A lot of us realized that is exactly what happens the first time we ended up on the ground somewhat stunned to realize we were not flying anymore. It was something the email from the guy who survived the US Air flight that ended up in the Hudson observed as well.
Think about it when you dress for that next flight. I admit I don't listen to the pre-departure safety briefing any more when I fly. I know it by heart. Most of us do. But it doesn't mean a lot of your fellow passengers do or worse, understand it.
But that doesn't mean one should "zone out" when the briefing is given. Use that time to count the number of seat backs to the nearest exit. It's a number you want to know if you cannot see when you want to exit a smoke or water filled cabin, particularly when that "escape path lighting" doesn't work as designed. Use that time to reach under the seat and see if the flight is one with life vests under it. Some have them, some don't depending on the route the aircraft has been flying. The airlines prefers to not have them - they represent extra weight and costs they want to avoid. I prefer the vest to the seat cushion, which is hard to get when one is unassing the seat to egress the fuselage.
Which reminds me. Have you ever removed your seat cushion in an aircraft? Try it when you are waiting for your row to fill up. It might surprise you that it can be tougher than you realize or the airlines want you to know. The other thing to do is bend over and take the brace position for an instance. Lean forward and wrap your arms around your legs for just a second. Doing that means that you can identify all the pointy things you don't want impaling you in a sudden impact. For me, it usually means I remove my pens and sunglasses from my pockets.
Lately that move also made me realize I am finding it tougher to take that position than a couple of years ago. "Staying in shape," is easy to do when young, but as we get off the merry-go-round, it is too easy to lose the zeal for fitness or as one of you pointed out with a mischievous grin - "waist management."
If sitting in the exit row, look at the door placard to see how the door works. Some aircraft doors open a wee bit differently from others. Some will tell ya to toss the door out, while others tell you to put the door inside ... which has always struck me as creating an obstruction where you want it least. But, I'll follow the placard, unless the situation at the time or the cabin crew says otherwise.
One other thing. Wear your shoes on take offs and landings. If you want to loosen them, do it after you get hear the "level off - cruise" chime that always goes off in the cabin. That "10k chime" is also a good sign to use to put em' back on as you approach your destination.
As I realized on my recent flight, the hardest thing is to bite your tongue as your fellow passengers exhibit mindless behaviors inside the aircraft that maximize their opportunity to become a fatality on that flight. But one cannot save humanity but one at a time in an aircraft cabin ... and as we have seen recently there seems to be a whole bunch of em' recently hell bent on self-destruction.
But you, my precious kids, and your wee ones are too damn precious for me not to continue to repeat this admonishment over and over when you guys hop on an aircraft for business or a vacation so often now.Tell ya what ... next time we talk about an upcoming airline flight, just tell me you have "Briefing Alpha" and I'll know I don't have to repeat it all again and be accused once more of being a PITA Dad.
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