BA to offer courses on surviving plane crash
03.10.11
British Airways is to offer fliers the chance to attend a four-hour session on air safety, The Independent reports. Next year the airline plans to offer members of its executive club places on the courses for the price of a return trip from Gatwick to Rome: about £125.
Andy Clubb, the BA manager running the course, said: ‘[The course] makes passengers safer when travelling by giving additional skills and information, it dispels all those internet theories about the 'brace position' and it just gives people so much more confidence in flying.’
Despite public perceptions, most aircraft accidents are survivable. But experience shows that passengers often perish in the chaotic aftermath of a crash. Research into emergency evacuations by the Civil Aviation Authority in 2006 found that a significant number of passengers struggle with the most basic of tasks: releasing the seat belt.
BA developed a passenger-training programme at the request of BP, which sends staff into remote regions of the world where safety standards are less rigorous. The course covers basics such as practicing releasing the seat belt and checking the location of the life jacket and concludes with a simulated emergency evacuation down the escape slides.
Virgin Atlantic has a similar course called Expect the Unexpected, costing £78 per person for three-hours of training.
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