Air safety

Airline safety card

I went through a stage of being a really nervous flyer. Nervous to the extent of almost throwing up before boarding a plane and sitting in my seat praying that the plane wouldn’t crash. Unfortunately this phase coincided with the round-the-world trip that my husband and I took in 1998. In a one month period we took 13 flights from Australia to Europe to Nth America and home again. Our first flight was on a Thai Airways jumbo and as we took off the plane rattled windly and there was a huge thumping noise - the passengers were all silent except for a bunch of school boys sitting behind me who started laughing nervously. The guy seated next to me leaned to me and said “don’t worry, it did that flying out of Auckland too”. But it did make me worried and from then on I became more and more nervous before each flight.

In an attempt to calm my nerves I developed some little routines that I would *have* to do before we took off. I would watch the safety demonstration intently (even though I practically knew if off by heart), religiously count the number of rows to the nearest exit and an alternate exit and I would read the airline safety card.

Since that time I have become less nervous about flying but I still follow that little routine on the plane. It has even rubbed off on my kids. Loll will get out the card and read it too - he is particularly intrigued with the pictureof a ditched aircraft floating in the water with people getting into liferafts.

Once when we were flying to Perth when he was four, he got out the card and read it for ages. Then he turned to me and said in a serious tone, “mummy, when is the plane going to crash so we can wear the lifejackets?”. The old lady on the other side of him said “dear, I don’t think your mummy wants the plane to crash!”. It was a cute but funny moment.

By the way - not only does the airline safety card provide useful information in the event of a crash but it also provides a good distraction to a restless baby!

PS - has anyone else ever noticed that most cards tell you that you can’t bring one of those annoying Furbies on board? I wonder if there ever was a “Furby incident” (headline - Furby causes plane to crash) or the cabin crews just got sick of them?!

© 2008 Flying with Baby.