Page 26 - TNT Jan 17

24 • TWIN & TURBINE January 2017
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION • focus
BAI Special Feature:
Training Your Passengers for Emergencies
(The following is adapted from an article published in the Nov/Dec. 2016 issue of NBAA’s Hmember publication, Business Aviation Insider.)
ow alert are you when flying as a passenger in a business aircraft? Do you pay attention to the pre-flight safety briefing? What would
you do if your phone or computer overheated and caught fire, or if a fellow passenger became seriously ill?
Aircraft passengers need to be in mental “Condition Orange,” advises Louisa Fisher, program manager for cabin safety at FlightSafety International and vice chair of the NBAA Flight Attendants Committee. “Condition Orange means something could happen, but you’re already thinking of your options of what to do.”
Condition Orange is part of a color-coding situational awareness system developed originally for the military and law enforcement by the late Jeff Cooper. In Condition Green, you are relaxed and unaware of what’s around you. Your reaction times to an emergency will be slower, and you are more susceptible to becoming a statistic in a disaster.
In Condition Orange, you are more vigilant of your surroundings and have a “what if” plan in your head.
Why Train Passengers?
It’s not enough to assume that the flight attendant or flight technician, if one is onboard, will take care of any crisis. Passengers – especially frequent flyers – should be knowledgeable about the safety and medical equipment available and procedures for their use.
Some flight departments put their very important passengers through specialized training such as FlightSafety’s Executive Safe Flight program. Fisher says, at the request of customers, the program was evolved from their general emergency training for pilots. They get up to 10 requests a year, and the class can be conducted at select FlightSafety locations or at the customer’s site.
The class includes hands-on training in how to use extinguishers, portable oxygen bottles and other emergency equipment. Then the group moves to the aircraft they typically fly in, and they learn where the equipment is stowed, and how to open doors and overwing exits. In a series of simulated scenarios, the