Gas Prices Cause Airline to Remove Life Vests

[HopeHoops]

Source: AP via ABC News online

TORONTO (AP) -- An official with Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz says the airline is removing life vests from all its planes to save weight and fuel.
...
A commercial-style life vest weighs roughly a half-kilogram, meaning 25 kilograms would be saved by removing them from a Dash-8 aircraft with 50 seats.






Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=5677587

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25 kg is just about 55 lbs, or roughly what Rush Limbaugh eats for lunch.

I know this is for flights that are at least 50 miles from the shore (article text states this), but come on. There are lakes here and there, and if I were looking for a place to drop a plane, I would go for water over land every time.

I was held up on a flight from Atlanta because the pilots were fighting with the tower over how much fuel was loaded - they were trying to keep it to a minimum for weight reasons. The pilots both won and lost - they got more fuel but had to change their route and reduce speed. They were not shy about sharing this information with us and you could tell by their voices they were unhappy about it. Yes the plane arrived very late.

Gets me all JAZZed up to get on a plane!

[no_hypocrisy]

1. S. S. Titanic with wings waiting to happen.

[phantom power]

2. But... your seat cushion still functions as a floatation device!

[dysfunctional press]

21. i think i'd rather drown than get my face anywhere near a nasty airline seat cushion...

i've SEEN the kind of people who have sat on them....

:shudder:

[RantinRavin]

3. Actually the tower has no say so in the matter

They may have been fighting with their dispatcher over how much fuel they were allowed to carry.

[HopeHoops]

4. Agreed. The tower just had to play moderator

[KansDem]

5. I've often wondered anyway that when hitting the water at several hundred mile an hour...

you'd be saved by a simple life vest. :shrug:

[geomon666]

6. No need to wonder, because you wouldn't survive that.

However if the crash was softer, say on a glide path, the life vest would help as the plane started to sink.

[screembloodymurder]

9. Has any airline passenger ever been saved by a PFD?

I really want to know.

[Doctor Cynic]

10. Yes.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961

The trick is to inflate the life jacket AFTER you get out of the fuselage. If you inflate beforehand you will drown as the fuselage sinks.

[ailsagirl]

14. Exactly-- when I was a kid I took solace in them. Now, obviously,

I can see they don't do anything except lull people into a false sense of security...

[dbonds]

7. Every plane I ever was on, you are supposed to use the seat as a flotation device.

Does this mean they are removing the seats? or is there some other life vests hidden around. How much would blow up life vests weigh anyway?

[BrotherBuzz]

12. Half a kilo - the vest is a blow up device - the seats remain...

Safety cards in the seat pockets of Jazz aircraft now direct passengers to use the seat cushions as floatation devices.

[Gamey]

8. or roughly what Rush Limbaugh eats for lunch. ROFLMAO!

[undeterred]

11. What's next? The bathroom door?

[HopeHoops]

13. The entire bathroom

[geomon666]

19. Passenger seats will just have holes cut in them.

And the waste just falls from the plane during the flight.

[ailsagirl]

15. LOL!!

[Gormy Cuss]

16. The seat backs.

There's no need for those pesky tray tables now that they don't serve meals and if they eliminate the upright seat checks they can probably cut out one more flight attendant job. Win-win!
:sarcasm:

[NickB79]

22. Plus, without seatbacks passengers have more room to work the slave oars after a water landing

Stroke, motherfuckers, stroke!!!

[damntexdem]

17. A great marketing slogan: With fuel prices and airline services as they are, ...

you won't want to survive, anyway!

;-)

[Flagrante]

18. Where the hell is my parachute?

[Tesha]

24. "On a low-flying mission over a WAC" (NT)

[fudge stripe cookays]

20. Water is worse than land.

It's actually worse to land on water than it is on land.

I know there are pilots here who can give a better idea, but every show on plane crashes and flying I've ever seen has said that it is worse-- the water is actually rougher and more awful when you hit...

Examples would be the plane that went down in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia and the one that went down off the coast of Africa after being hijacked about 1996 or so.

[Thothmes]

23. Really don't see this as a problem on a flight

from Saskatoo to Montreal. Bigger problem from Gander to London.

[mnhtnbb]

25. Won't they charge extra?