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Nicholas Yong
Reporter
Belt up for your own sake
October 29, 2008 Wednesday, 07:14 PM
Nicholas Yong spills on what flight crew say about their passengers.
HAVE you ever noticed air passengers who simply refuse to belt up? Well, after reading The Straits Times’ article headlined “Strap in – it can get bumpy up there” on Wednesday, cabin crew have one plea for passengers: Help us keep you safe. One flight attendant wrote in to say she has had numerous encounters with uncooperative passengers who don’t realise they are endangering their own safety. When ST checked with others in the industry, they agreed that this was a particular problem. Kimberly, a flight attendant for 15 years, wrote in to say that even during bumpy weather, passengers have, among other things, refused to buckle up, insisted on going to the toilet, or continually hit the service button. She added that she had even encountered parents who insisted that they were allowed to leave their children on the floor. “It is very sad that we need a traumatic experience before we stop taking safety for granted,” she lamented. “I also hope all passengers would take the flight attendants advice seriously when it comes to safety matters.” Former stewardess Sheena Chan, 25, agreed that parents with young children were among the biggest offenders. She said: “We make it clear that if the seat belt sign comes on, infants must be removed from bassinets and belted up. But parents often refuse, saying that their children are sleeping and they don't want to wake them.” She noted that the bassinet is only secured by two points: “In the worst case scenario, the baby could hit the ceiling during turbulence, or the entire bassinet could fall with the child still inside.” Ms Irene Mark, 38, the Safety Emergency Procedure Instructor at Jetstar Asia, said staff are given lots of training in safety, and airlines often emphasise that this aspect of their jobs is more important than service. “We always emphasise the need for communication, and to educate passengers about safety concerns,” she said. “We have to be very careful and very polite, and emphasise the safety concerns. They may not always be aware of the seriousness of the seat belt sign." Remember their advice the next time you fly! Tags: travel 
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How about the South Asians we hired to work in our construction sites?
Local contract companies pile them up by the dozens like chickens at the back of open-ceiling lorry trucks.
We don't seem to mind that they dont have seat belts, and contract companies bending the seatbelt law for them.
Well, contract companies also dont mind giving them decent housing with clean and working toilets and kitchen.
And portion of their already measly pay further deducted to offset transportation and accomodation costs.
No wonder some of them now decided to eat, sleep and bath in the open.
Oh well, that's still humane than deciding to chain them up at the back of lorries right? For seatbelt, of course.
I have a suggestion for your next article -
How could we be so arrogant to require foreign workers to comply to our standards when we have denied them the ability to do so?
Babies hitting on ceilings? Wow, can the strength of turbulence make a baby fly out to the ceiling? But babies should be belted at always, turbulence or no turbulence
As a passenger, we have a part of play do not take safety for granted.
As a frequent flyer, I do notice parent do let their children run around despite what the flight attendant had told them. i do empathize the flght attendant,
they have my up most respect.
I feel sorry for crew members as they often meet up with unreasobale passengers esp. those with babies. When accident occurs they blame the airline and the airline blame the crews. People shld stop being selfish and belt up or else it will be too late. Poor crew members.
I am an 18 year flight attendant for a large U.S. airline. This is not an occasional experience. It occurs on every flight I work. We make mandatory announcements on the ground about seatbelt rules, then repeat them again after takeoff on every flight (the FAA required this). It doesn't matter. Passengers simply get up when they want to and disregard the seatbelt sign. I think what most people really don't know, is that the cabin crew are required to enforce federal laws on the airplane, and passengers are, by definition, required to obey the LAW. Most don't understand that obeying the seatbelt sign is one of many FAA mandated LAWS that control conduct of passengers on commercial aircraft. If we saw fit, we could have each violator fined. But because there are so many offenders and only a handful of us (and because we are busy with other safety/security items as well as service responsibilities), it isn't realistic.
Thanks,
Chris
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