Noise

Chapter 10Safety Briefing with Near-Tragic Results

The passengers were stunned, engulfed in a cloud of smoke and steady rain.

Their aircraft lay partially charred in a field next to a small lake, careening off the runway after an emergency landing. An engine fire and landing gear incident—a rare double episode—caused their flight to make a forced landing, in a storm, at a small, rural airport with a short runway.

“It’s a miracle all the passengers didn’t die,” said a first responder. “There was such confusion. Nobody did what they were supposed to do.”

The looming issue for many years that passengers were ignoring the preflight safety briefing finally came true. Research had predicted it was going to happen: a majority of people admit they regularly tune out the safety briefing as a preflight annoyance.¹ Recognizing the hidden risks, the airline industry had tried everything— celebrities, comedy, and even technical explanations—yet it all was continuously ignored.

As the plane was flying over bad weather at 37,000 feet, an engine exploded in flames, ripping a hole in the fuselage. The plane immediately lost cabin pressure, exposing the passengers to subzero temperatures and oxygen-depleted air. As the breathing masks deployed, many of the passengers didn’t know how to use them at all. Wearing seatbelts saved those near the growing hole near a window, many of whom were nearly ...