For the most part, the safety announcements flight attendants make on the PA are pretty much the same, regardless of the airline. The FAA mandates a specific pre-take-off announcement, with certain parts said during general boarding, departure, etc. It gets updated here and there as needed.
There’s a little leeway allowed, which is how the world has been lucky enough to wind up with what may be some of the funniest flight attendant safety announcements ever. But for the most part, the basic information is still there and always the same.
A new addition?
Joe and I had a quick weekend trip to NYC, where we took jetBlue up to EWR from our home airport of MCO. The safety announcements were about the same as they always were, but there was something new at the end. It went something like this:
Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to remind you to please not change your baby’s diapers on the seats of the plane. There are baby changing facilities in the lavatory.
Also, please do not dispose of wipes in the toilet or in the pocket of the seat in front of you. Please dispose of them in the trash.
I hadn’t been on a flight since (could it really be???) December, so I didn’t know if it was something new/required or what. But I had free Wi-Fi, so I DMed my friend Jamie, who is a Delta flight attendant.
So since it wasn’t a safety issue (well, save for the people next to the baby-being-changed possibly puking), and didn’t happen often enough where it was a “thing,” it wasn’t typically part o the announcement. At least for “Jamie,” anyway – they said it’s only happened twice on their flights in the 6 years they’d been a flight attendant.
That was the end of the conversation, and I settled into “flying to NY” mode.
The rest of the story
But when we landed and were disembarking, I stopped and talked to the flight attendant who made the announcement.
“So, how often DO parents change babies’ diapers on the seats that it’s part of the announcement?” I asked.
“Oh, on practically every flight!” they replied.
I’ll be honest – I don’t know what my friend “Jamie’s” typical route is (we’re more acquaintances than friends, but I know they’re there if I have “FA” or “Delta” questions). But if they typically don’t fly in and out of Orlando, which is practically the family vacation destination of the whole freakin’ world, that would make sense why they haven’t experienced very many “change the baby’s diaper on the plane seat.” And why jetBlue FAs, who, I assume, fly between MCO and EWR on a regular basis, have? For them, it is an ongoing issue, so it got tacked on to the end of the spiel.
Makes sense.
Feature Photo: Mattes // Wikimedia // Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Germany license
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