Airlines need to stop chasing social media 'likes' and start taking safety seriously
Another week, another “funny” in-flight safety video. This one, courtesy of Air New Zealand, perhaps the most rabid proponent of the genre, features Kiwi artists rapping about seat belts and oxygen masks to the sounds of Run DMC’s Eighties single ‘It’s Tricky’.
Lines include “don’t worry if the bag doesn’t inflate, it flows like magic” and “sit upright, hands on thighs, feet to floor, it’s just like twerking”. Lord help us.
Airlines have been trying to turn safety videos into a source of amusement for several years now, and some claim the practice means more passengers actually listen to the instructions – making them more likely to react in the correct way should an emergency arise.
Of greater importance, it appears, is publicity. The success of these videos, usually featuring celebrities and presumably shot at great expense, is judged not on in-flight engagement but YouTube views and social media ‘likes’. Air New Zealand hailed its latest effort by pointing to the 20 million plays it has had online and widespread media coverage.
But not everyone is convinced. One Kiwi MP, Shane Jones, called it a “lame attempt at entertainment” that’s “juvenile… toneless [and] cringe.” He’s got a point. Flying for many people is a stressful enough experience without being subjected to rubbish like this.
More worrying, however, are concerns that some passengers won’t be able to understand the safety instructions contained within – after all, they are being rapped to loud music. “Tourists are confused. They can’t hear it,” said Jones. “I think it trivialises safety.”
Air New Zealand points to the fact that all its videos are signed off by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority, but watch the video yourself and you might wonder why. Vital information could easily be lost amid the noise, the moronic dancing and the gormless grins.
But modern travellers know the in-flight safety instructions by heart, I hear you cry. Evidence proves they definitely don’t. On countless occasions selfish and/or stupid people have retrieved their suitcases from luggage bins during an emergency evacuation - putting the lives of others at risk - and earlier this year dozens of passengers on a Southwest flight wore their oxygen masks incorrectly. Some seemed more concerned with taking a selfie.
Air New Zealand isn’t the only offender. Recent British Airways efforts have featured a roll-call of British celebs, including Gordon Ramsay, Thandie Newton, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Michael Caine, David Walliams, Joanna Lumley, Rob Brydon and Rowan Atkinson. How much cash (or free flights) did they throw at these people? Wouldn’t it have been better spent on cutting fares and providing free meals?
The instructions on BA’s videos are easy to decipher, at least, unlike 2013’s (painfully long) production by Virgin America. Important information about emergency exits should be spoken, not warbled.
Delta, Eva Air, Cebu Pacific and Bangkok Airways are others whose recent in-flight videos suggest creating a social media buzz is now more important than producing something clear and serious.
I’m not the only one expressing worry about the trend. In a blog earlier this month, Patrick Smith, a US pilot, criticised what he called the “safety demo arms race”.
“If safety is really the point, the briefing should be taken seriously,” he writes. “Here, you’re watching it for fun - wow, like, that’s so edgy and interesting and cool - rather than to learn something that could save your life. The informational aspects of it, many of which are important, are buried in the noise.
“I’m all for airlines thinking outside the box and getting creative. We need more of that, frankly. Just not like this.”
Smith suggests trimming safety briefings to no more than 90 seconds of the most important information. “The reason people don’t pay attention to the safety demos is because they are too damn long,” he explains. “Hit the bullet points and be done with it.”
And the most important bullet point of all? Telling passengers not to retrieve their hand luggage during an emergency. “I cannot overemphasize how dangerous this is,” says Smith. “This should be a bold-print, high-emphasis item in any briefing. Instead we get complicated, 20-step directions on how to use a lifejacket. I could also mention that while neither is likely, a runway evacuation is a lot more likely than a water landing.”
He’s right, of course: plane crashes are exceptionally rare. But if I am unlucky enough to get caught up in one I don’t want my chances of survival reduced because someone was too busy singing along to Run DMC.
