The visuals coming out of the Emirates flight which caught fire after landing in Dubai is comical only because all passengers, their children, their laptops and pickles all exited safely before fire engulfed it. The situation could have been different and everybody including the videographer would have been burnt to death due to their behavior had the crew did not do a marvelous job. But I will not fault the passengers, for most of them would have never gone through an emergency drill in their life, and hence their behavior is entirely understandable though totally unsafe. Let me outline a few tips that could come handy during air travel.
Air travel is safe: While we often hear about accidents involving aircraft, air travel is comparatively safe and has been getting safer. According to data available with International Air Travel Association, the 2015 global jet accident rate (measured in hull losses per 1 million flights) was 0.32, which is equivalent to one major accident for every 3.1 million flights. According to the 2014 data of the National Crime Records Bureau of India, only 15 people died in India in air crashes as against 1,41,526 people in road accidents. It’s true a lot more people travel by road than by air but air travel is still comparatively safer. This is because here are strict controls over the manufacturing and maintenance of aircraft and the training requirements for those who operate them.
Check the safety record: That said, not all airlines have the same safety records and it will be useful to check out the safety statistics of airlines. The minimum one should do is to check out on various internet rating sites and see which airlines are frequently listed as having poor safety records. As a thumb rule, airlines from developing countries and large airlines often have better safety records. A second useful rule is that the bigger the aircraft, the more redundancies it has, making them comparatively safer. So an aircraft with 4 engines can land safety if even three engines are stalled while a single or double engine aircraft does not have the same safety margin. Also, smalltime chartered aircraft often tries to cut costs by meeting the minimum requirements on maintenance and crew qualifications, making them relatively unsafe.
Listen to instructions: People from Kerala are increasingly travelling by air for work, studies and vacation. Before every flight, air crew gives clear guidance on safety and additional information is available in the seat pocket. However, it is a fact that most people, including frequent fliers, hardly pay attention to them. As we have seen in Dubai, people also don't follow instructions. This can put the safety of themselves and others at risk. The basic solution to this is to bring in a new safety culture, training children on fire evacuation drills right from the first year at school.
Count your number from exit: One can improve one’s survival chances by verifying which is the nearest exit in an aircraft relative to one’s seat and counting the number of seats in between. There is often fire in the cabin when a plane crashlands and you may not be able see clearly. You can then use the number of seats as the guidance to get out safely. If there is smoke in the cabin, it is likely to accumulate near the sealing so bent down, crouch or even crawl.
Keep a ‘grab bag’: The tendency to recover valuables in an accident is a natural instinct and is to be expected. Losing the passport could be a major hassle for passengers travelling abroad; as even if embassies can issue emergency travel documents, all the visas need to be re-stamped which may take months leading to loss of opportunities. However, the solution to this situation is not to put your safety at risk but to always have a “grab bag” with you while travelling abroad on short missions.
Prepare a will: Even though flying is safe, an accident is always a possibility and one should be prepared. While there are international conventions on compensation after aircraft accidents (Warsaw Convention and Montreal convention), they often set only the lower limit of compensation. There is big variation between what people in different countries and airlines will receive which could range from a sum equivalent to Rs 20 crore in the US to less than Rs 50 lakh as has happened in the case of Mangalore air crash. People flying should know that there are such differences and hence should top up their insurance cover by taking travel insurance which is available cheaply. As with all adults with assets or liabilities, it is always a good idea to have a will written so that the family will not need to fight over the entitlements on top of the emotional trauma associated with the accidents.
New laws needed: There have been two incidents around us where a plane went missing without a trace of the plane or passengers. This puts the person into a legal limbo. If a person is employed, he or she will cease to receive his salary within a month after the plane disappeared as he or she is no longer reporting to work. At the same time relatives will not be able to claim insurance as there is no proof of death, nor will the relatives be able to access bank accounts or sell properties. This can put the family into serious financial trouble while at the same time be eternally worried about their near one having got no closure on their life. Sadly there is no legal remedy to this situation and the two recent incidents may prompt some international guidelines on how to deal with such situations. Till that time passengers should think through that and ensure that families have access to some of their resources, be by a joint account or power attorney to dispose of properties.
(The writer is Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at UN Environment Programme. Opinions are personal and need not reflect that of the UN).
