Private jet passengers: You probably need more training

Business aircraft passengers are well served by paying attention to preflight, in-flight, and postflight briefings—and to the instructions on placards and safety cards. However, that knowledge may be insufficient to actually open doors, exit properly through escape windows, don life vests, use firefighting equipment, and apply life-saving procedures during a real in-flight emergency, especially when there likely is confusion and fear, and no flight attendants or pilots to help.

It may surprise you to learn that emergency exit windows in a typical business jet can weigh up to 40 pounds. Even if such a weight is expected, exit windows may be dropped accidentally, causing injury or blocking egress. Typically, windows are intended to be discarded out the window opening. Speaking of egress, exiting improperly can cause injuries and evacuation delays. While most briefing cards show the leg-body-leg manner of exiting, actually doing it can be awkward (depending on interior configuration) and result in painfully bruised inner thighs.

Donning safety jackets also can be perplexing. While airline passengers have the advantage of being on an aircraft equipped with one kind of vest and a flight attendant demonstrating how to get into it properly, business jet passengers may be faced with a variety of manufacturers, and the instructions (sometimes written upside down) can be confusing. 

A handful of companies offer initial and recurrent hands-on training—pioneered some 50 years ago by Air Care International’s FACTS program—for passengers to: open and close main cabin and baggage doors; open and egress emergency exits; don a flight safety vest; find usable exits in a smoke-filled cabin; use fire extinguishers and AEDs; and apply CPR and other life-saving actions.

Some training outfits have several locations and cabin mockups that can be modified to represent different interior configurations, as well as having emergency exit windows from popular business aircraft models.   

Training providers can also send instructors to an operator to conduct training on the passenger’s own aircraft. These sessions—typically one day long—at your facility are particularly valuable because they save travel time to a training location and, more importantly, passengers become familiar with the emergency equipment, exits, and procedures unique to their aircraft and interior configurations.

The FACTS program also offers a sea survival course that includes climbing into a life raft while you are in the water—a difficult and exhausting task even in calm seas, especially if there is no one in the raft to assist. Life raft and sea survival training are done in the actual sea, where waves and saltwater provide real-world challenges. Seasickness is a common occurrence during these exercises.

Passengers who have taken cabin safety and/or sea survival training typically report afterwards how helpful and confident it’s made them feel. The bottom line: Regularly scheduled hands-on training and practice will help to ensure that passengers are properly prepared to convert all those oral and written safety instructions into successful use if faced with a real cabin emergency.