Why Flight Attendants Ask You To Raise Your Window Shade During Take-Off and Landing

[MULTIZ321]

Why Flight Attendants Ask You To Raise Your Window Shade During Take-Off and Landing
By Heather Yamada-Hosley/ Air Travel/ Lifehacker/ lifehacker.com

"Some airlines have their flight attendants ask you and your fellow passengers to raise your window shades during take-off and landing. This isn’t about waking passengers up at the end of a red-eye or having all the shades up or down for the next flight, it’s about safety...."

Image from mlinksva.


Richard

 

[DaveNV]

Seems logical. I'll go with what this article says.

Dave

 

[pedro47]

The reasons sound liked a logical safety industry practice .

 

[BocaBoy]

The reasons sound liked a logical safety industry practice .

Theoretically maybe. But how much benefit, especially considering it is not a government safety rule (and there are many of those) and not all airlines do this? And it is really easy and quick to flip up a shade if the need arises. What if there is blinding sunlight in the passenger's eyes? I suspect preventing eye damage should be the more important safety concern.

 

[Tamino]

If you happen to be an unlucky passenger in an aircraft that, for whatever reason, executes a high-speed abort, there is an every present danger of fire. It could be an engine fire, wheel-well, or fire from some other cause. You will not want to use one of the exits that could be directly above or even near the flames. Having the shades raised gives flight attendants an immediate picture of any unsafe outside environment and allows them time to direct passengers away from dangerous exits.

It is true that the FAA does not have such a requirement but you should feel reassured knowing that the airline you are flying, one that requires window shades to be raised for takeoff and landing, takes safety seriously and does not limited their safety procedures to those defined by the FAA as the minimum required.

As for the presence of blinding sunlight, you should be more concerned that the captain is actually wearing his sunglasses.

 

[jeysa]

Nice to known. Thank you for sharing.

 

[raygo123]

It decreases the drag on the plane at a low altitude thus increasing the overall performance of the aircraft

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[Ty1on]

It decreases the drag on the plane at a low altitude thus increasing the overall performance of the aircraft

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Hahahaha

 

[dsmrp]

Since takeoff and landing are the riskiest parts of a flight, having the windows up helps the passengers be aware of what's outside the aircraft before a possible emergency. And in an unfortunate event I think raised window shades would help the emergency responders to be able to see inside the aircraft.

I can't remember the last time when flight attendants were telling people to raise their window shades. But we keep ours up as a matter of habit

 

[middleoforchid]

30-40 years ago there was a rule to have the shades up by the emergency window exits on smaller aircrafts during take off+landing. Nowadays on the bigger aircrafts with door exits...no more shades.