BA’s life jackets
Author
Discussion

V8LM

Original Poster:

5,510 posts

233 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
In the age of plastic fasteners and clips, why does BA keep with the life jacket that requires “tying the straps with a double bow at the side” ?

How many people can tie such a knot, especially in the panic of making “a landing on water”?

magpie215

4,933 posts

213 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
One broken plastic clip makes the lifejacket unserviceable.

Straps with no clips rarely fail to knot/bow.

pequod

8,997 posts

162 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
V8LM said:
In the age of plastic fasteners and clips, why does BA keep with the life jacket that requires “tying the straps with a double bow at the side” ?

How many people can tie such a knot, especially in the panic of making “a landing on water”?
Eh? Are you suggesting that people can't tie their shoe laces? If this is the level of 'pathetic' the human race has descended to, then Darwinism should sort it out.

Edit: ... of course not, snowflakes use velcro or have mum to help them!

Ayahuasca

27,560 posts

303 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
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Another pertinent question is, when all decent life jackets have crotch straps, and the better ones have spray hoods too, why do airline life jackets make do with only a waist strap?

When you are bobbing around in the ocean, what is going to stop you falling out of the life jacket? What is going to stop spray going into your lungs?




Caddyshack

14,056 posts

230 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
If you think most aircraft crashes end in a nice soft landing at sea and then an orderly departure in to a warm sea that the little vest will save you from you have to be bonkers. How long after surviving a mega g stop could you clamber out and blow that little whistle in cold sea could,you live for? 30 mins? You could tread water that long.

Ricky Gervais talks about a search and rescue helicopter looking for downed people blowing their whistle despite the noisy helicopter and the pilots wearing noise cancelling headphones.

If it hits the water from x 000 feet you do not need to worry about plastic clip vs a shoe lace knot....

Moulder

1,648 posts

236 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
I'm going to go for fat people being the answer, straps will fit all.

Also it is something people can do from habit without looking, handy when blinded by the puddle of jet fuel you are swimming around in.

Tallow

1,633 posts

185 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
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They primarily keep doing it so that David Walliams can give a bit more oomph in the flight safety video

sunbeam alpine

7,225 posts

212 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
OP - did you not see QI last week? smile

Steve vRS

5,318 posts

265 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
sunbeam alpine said:
OP - did you not see QI last week? smile
I did biggrin

Also, I work offshore and the training we receive and the kit we wear in case we ditch to help us survive for 20 mins shows how useless any airline life jacket would be!

hutchst

3,727 posts

120 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
I think it's important to have that little seawater-activated light so that we can carry on reading our in-flight magazines.



(courtesy kulula.com several years ago)

The Mad Monk

11,141 posts

141 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
V8LM said:
In the age of plastic fasteners and clips, why does BA keep with the life jacket that requires “tying the straps with a double bow at the side” ?

How many people can tie such a knot, especially in the panic of making “a landing on water”?
How many lives have been saved by the use of life jackets, correctly tied, or otherwise?

How many lives have been lost because of the failure to wear a life jacket, inadequately tied, or otherwise?

Steve vRS

5,318 posts

265 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
On commercial a eroplanes, according to QI, there have been no recorded instances of any lives being saved through the use of a life jacket.

The Mad Monk

11,141 posts

141 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
What about smoke hoods?

Steve vRS

5,318 posts

265 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
I remember there being a call to have them after the Manchester fire but the complexity and cost vs the benefits meant it was never progressed.

Im sure any decision like this will prompt a “what value can you put on a human life?”

The answer in risk assessment terms is about £2 million biggrin

Halmyre

12,312 posts

163 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
hutchst said:
I think it's important to have that little seawater-activated light so that we can carry on reading our in-flight magazines.

(courtesy kulula.com several years ago)
I thought the light was to help the sharks find you in the dark?

magpie215

4,933 posts

213 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
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IforB

9,840 posts

253 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
Steve vRS said:
On commercial a eroplanes, according to QI, there have been no recorded instances of any lives being saved through the use of a life jacket.
Many lives have been lost because people put them on and used them incorrectly. One incident that is often cited is the Ethiopian Airlines hijack that lead to a botched ditching.

Many passengers inflated their life jackets inside the fuselage and became stuck, then subsequently drowned. It is estimated that 60-80 people drowned in the aftermath of the crash.

Personally, I would far rather see smoke hoods on board rather than lifejackets.

aeropilot

39,788 posts

251 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
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Caddyshack said:
If you think most aircraft crashes end in a nice soft landing at sea and then an orderly departure in to a warm sea that the little vest will save you from you have to be bonkers. How long after surviving a mega g stop could you clamber out and blow that little whistle in cold sea could,you live for?
^This.

Life jacket is nothing more than a 'make the passenger feel good' placebo item.


Zetec-S

6,652 posts

117 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
Steve vRS said:
On commercial a eroplanes, according to QI, there have been no recorded instances of any lives being saved through the use of a life jacket.
US Airways Flight 1549 "Miracle on the Hudson" ?

If some of the passengers who ended up in the water didn't have life jackets their chances of survival would have reduced, surely?

aeropilot

39,788 posts

251 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
Zetec-S said:
US Airways Flight 1549 "Miracle on the Hudson" ?

If some of the passengers who ended up in the water didn't have life jackets their chances of survival would have reduced, surely?
But they didn't have to jump into the water, those that did, choose to do that because they thought the aircraft was going to explode, and others choose to jump in and swim the short distance to the rescue boats that were approaching......had they not had life jackets on and stayed on the wing they would still been OK. In fact with the water/air temps that day, they were taking a greater risk by jumping in the water even with a life jacket on!