Flying » Safety Matters

Crash and walk away
December 1, 2007
Using simulator equipment, passengers learn what to do in an emergency. Such
What can you do now to increase your survival chances should the unthinkable occur on one of your flights? "Be aware and be prepared is the best advice I can give a passenger," said Cyndee Irvine, who was a PSA Airlines flight attendant for 10 years and has been a contract flight attendant for the past decade.
Catch your flight-not a disease
October 1, 2007
Before you fly, take a moment to consider whether you risk spreading disease to fellow passengers-or vice versa. "People know tuberculosis, colds and flu are contagious," said Dr. David Streitwieser, medical director for MedAire's MedLink Service.
'Black box'-or Pandora's?
August 1, 2007
Flight data recorders, or “black boxes,” are actually bright yellow or orange
If your car is less than 10 years old, there might be a little computer buried somewhere inside that records events. If you're in a crash, the police, the insurance adjustor, or maybe even the National Transportation Safety Board will retrieve that computer, download its data and use it to figure out exactly what happened.
Clearing the air about hypoxia
June 1, 2007
Using a reduced-oxygen breathing device, Donna Murdoch of Human Systems Solut
The oxygen mask drops from the ceiling. You know what to do because your pilots or flight attendant briefed you before takeoff. Give the lanyard a tug, place the mask over your mouth and breathe.
New technology could facilitate safe in-flight cellphone use
March 1, 2007
A 30-degree navigational error was immediately corrected after a passenger tu
Is it safe to use cellphones and other personal electronics on airplanes? It depends on whom you ask, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say that the cacophony of electronic "noise" emitted by portable devices brought onboard by passengers indeed can cause dangerous interference with navigation sensors in the cockpit.
A systematic approach to safety
February 1, 2007
Business jet pilots dedicate themselves to safety, but also to delivering passengers to their destinations on time. Occasionally, the latter goal interferes with the former and the folks in the cockpit take risks you might view as, well, overly risky.
Safety Report
December 1, 2006
In the aftermath of the nonfatal collision of a Hawker 800XP and a sailplane
Over the last decade, business aviation safety has improved immensely. During that time, regulators have attempted to reduce accidents by introducing a variety of equipment, avionics and procedural requirements.
Preparing to ditch
December 1, 2006
"I must have been unconscious for two or three minutes," recalled Dean Mortimer, president of Ontario, Canada's Cloud Air charter service. "I woke up looking upside down at the bottom of the lake, yet inexplicably I released my seat belt and fell headfirst to the roof of the aircraft."

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Quote/Unquote

“When you get into the larger aircraft it becomes like a hotel, with dozens of staff supporting the plane based in a galley area down below. You have very comprehensive cooking facilities, and on larger aircraft we have looked at theatres, with spiral staircases and a Steinway grand piano. The limitations for what you can put inside a plane are pretty much the limits of physics, and even money cannot always overcome that. Even so, people are still always trying to push [the limits]. ”

-Howard Guy of Design Q, a UK-based consultancy