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Prepare to Die
ChrisCrossings · July 15, 1999

Q: I was a passenger on British Airways flight 286 on April 23, 1999 from San Francisco to London. Three and a half-hours into the flight, we got a message that the plane was about to crash-land in the ocean. We were asked to get our life vests and assumed the emergency position. The pilot did not make an announcement until 15 minutes later and only said "I understand there has been an emergency announcement, I want to let everyone know that the aircraft is OK." The only explanation that we have had so far is that it was a prank. I got two form letters from British Airways apologizing for the inconvenience but what I would like to know more than anything is what really happened.

-- Herminia Aceituno

A: It may indeed have been a cruel in-flight hoax that you experienced. What you heard was a tape recorded message intended to prepare passengers for an emergency landing. The plane was over northern Canada at the time, and if you had looked out the window, you would have noticed that there was no ocean to splash into.

British Airways spokesman John Lampl says the button that activates the recorded message is hidden and covered on a console near the bathroom, and that a passenger may have pressed it as a joke. The crew shut the message off after a few seconds and reassured passengers all was well, he adds.

Here's where his story and yours don't quite mesh. He insists that passengers were told immediately after the announcement that this wasn't something to worry about. However, you claim that the crew waited 15 minutes. I'm inclined to believe you, not just because you were there, but also because there were independent reports that some passengers needed medical attention after the button was pushed. Seems you weren't the only one who saw their life flashing before their eyes that evening.

Did British Airways do enough? Nah. Two form letters aren't going to pay off the psychologist that will be needed to get you and about half the other travelers back on a plane without suffering an anxiety attack.

I've had two near-death experiences myself: one aborted takeoff on a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Newark, and a positively awful case of clear air turbulence over Greenland on a Swissair flight from Zurich to New York. These aren't laughing matters. When you say your last prayers -- as I did over Greenland -- you can consider yourself inconvenienced. But when the crew fails to tell you everything is OK (as happened on the Swissair flight) you can consider yourself ticked-off in every sense of the word.

I think the reason flight crews don't make an announcement after a close call is that they're so relieved they survived that they forget what to do next. But that's no excuse. British Airways simply waited too long and ought to be ashamed of itself for stringing you and your fellow passengers along for what must have been the longest 15 minutes of your life.

The next time you have to fly, my recommendation is to check out a nifty Web site called Airsafe.com. Click over to the page of Fatal Events and Fatal Event Rates By Airline Since 1970 and ask yourself: how likely am I to die in a plane crash? Statistically speaking, you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than dying on a commercial flight.

I'm not about to tell you that your fears are groundless -- only that even though airlines may be incompetent, they're more or less safe.

Christopher Elliott can be reached at christopher@elliott.org. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.