If you think of the preflight briefing as a checklist, the reasons for
including even obvious points becomes more clear. Pilots use
checklists all of the time, to help assure themselves that, for
example, the wheels are down when they should be. Does that use of
checklists make them stupid, or careful? Why mock their use when they
are used to remind people what to do in circumstances that occur less
frequently than the need to extend the gear, or retract it?


On Nov 25, 11:22 pm, Judah wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote :

Phil writes:

Actually the flight attendant says it in every pre-flight emergency
briefing. You are right that it is a simple concept, and I don't know
anyone who is too stupid to understand it.

Then why do flight attendants point it out on every flight?

Perhaps the airlines have considered the possibility that not every
passenger on every flight has researched this as much as you have. I
believe it reasonable to presume that not all passengers on all flights fly
frequently enough to remember this minute detail of aircraft emergency
procedures, and as such require a reminder during the emergency briefing.
This holds especially true for those people who have never flown before. I
further believe that unlike some of the pre-flight announcements, this
announcement is made in an effort to be thorough, prudent, and even
intentionally repetitve for the sake of parents who might otherwise
instinctively react differently what this instruction suggests.

A lack of knowledge or recall is not the same as a lack of intelligence or
aptitude. For example, the fact that you don't know or understand the
instinctive reaction that might cause a mother or father to attempt to put
his child's life before his own does not make you stupid.

It certainly makes you ignorant.