The Pre-Flight Safety Briefing: What are the Reasons for some Passengers’ Lack of Attentiveness during Pre-Flight Safety Briefing?

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master in Aviation Science Everglades University

By:Nabil S. DiabJuly, 2009

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Introduction

Air travel is so safe and you probably never have to use any of the advices given to you during the pre-flight safety briefing when you are on-board. But if you ever do need it, flight safety information could

save your life.

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The Problem

Airline passengers usually take safety for granted when they board an airplane. They tune out the crew's pre-flight announcements or reach for a magazine instead of the cards that show how to open the emergency exit and what to do if the oxygen mask drops down.

Because of this, passengers are needlessly hurt or killed in accidents they could have survived. Avoiding serious injury or surviving an air accident is not just a matter of luck; it's also a matter of being informed and thinking ahead.

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Statement of the Hypothesis

There is a significant difference in the level of understanding of pre-flight safety briefing between

frequent fliers, leisure travelers, and aviation professionals

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Results & Analysis

The one-way ANOVA (one-way simply means that there is only one independent variable) was used and the

following slides present the findings of this study. The main question of this study was:

What are the reasons for some passengers’ lack of attentiveness during pre-flight

safety briefing?

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Summary Results: How attentive do you believe you are during the pre-flight

safety briefing?

•Male 35%

•Female 65%

Leisure Traveler

•Male 44%

•Female 56%

Frequent Flier

•Male 60%

•Female 40%

Aviation professional

I am very attentive 37%

I am attentive 40%

I am somewhat attentive 16%

I am somewhat not attentive 3%

I am not attentive 3%

I am very attentive 6%

I am attentive 33%

I am somewhat attentive 41%

I am somewhat not attentive 3%

I am not attentive 16%

I am very attentive 31%

I am attentive 12%

I am somewhat attentive 15%

I am somewhat not attentive 8%

I am not attentive 35%

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Analysis

It is observed that the mean (4.4398) of the Aviation Professionals’ group (group 3.00) is higher than the mean (3.7935) of the Frequent Flyers group and the mean (3.5710) of the Leisure Travelers group.

Although the Aviation Professionals’ group mean is higher, this research study investigated if this mean was "significantly" higher.

Group Mean Std. Deviation N

1.00 3.7935 .96498 55

2.00 3.5710 1.16844 50

3.00 4.4398 .67823 52

Total 3.9367 1.01785 157

Table 1. The Mean Value of the Groups

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F df1 df2 Sig.

5.329 2 154 .006

Table 2. Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variances (a)

Analysis

The Levene's Test was conducted to provide information about the variances of the three different groups of passengers.

The Levene Test's value of .006 is less than the .05 p value that was chosen as the level of significance; therefore, equal variances is not assumed (there is no homogeneity in the variances).

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Source

Type III

Sum of

Squares

dfMean

SquareF Sig.

Corrected Model 20.977(a) 2 10.489 11.485 .000

Intercept 2427.004 1 2427.004 2657.522 .000

Group 20.977 2 10.489 11.485 .000

Error 140.642 154 .913

Total 2594.729 157

Corrected Total 161.619 156

Table 3. Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Analysis

The important columns of this table are first the "degrees of freedom" (df). The number of df for the (Between) “Groups” is simply the number of groups the researcher is investigating minus one (i.e., 3-1=2). The number of the "Error" (Within Groups) 154 in this case, is the number of total passengers in the three groups (157) minus the total number of groups (3).

The column titled "Sig." referred to the p value. Obviously, in this case the p value is .000; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected (.000 < .05). Consequently, it was proved in this study that there was a significant difference between the groups. However, since there are more than two groups, it is not obvious where the significant difference lies. Which scores are significantly different from the other?

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(I) Group (J) Group

Mean

Difference

(I-J)

Std. Error Sig.

95% Confidence Interval

Lower Bound Upper Bound

1.00 2.00 .2225 .18673 .493 -.2391 .6840

3.00 -.6464 .18484 .003 -1.1032 -.1895

2.00 1.00 -.2225 .18673 .493 -.6840 .2391

3.00 -.8688 .18928 .000 -1.3367-.4009

3.00 1.00 .6464 .18484 .003 .1895 1.1032

2.00 .8688 .18928 .000 .40091.3367

Table 4. Scheffe Results :Multiple ComparisonsAnalysis

In order to find out the significant differences between the three groups, the above table was observed. After comparing groups 1.00 and 2.00, the researcher observed a p value of .493, so the null hypothesis could not be rejected. The second comparison between groups 1.00 and 3.00 indicated a p value of .003; therefore, the researcher rejected the null hypothesis and stated that there was a "significant" difference between the two groups. Obviously, a third comparison between groups 2.00 and 3.00 indicated a p value of .000; therefore, the researcher rejected the null hypothesis and stated that there was a "significant" difference between these groups.

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Why Passengers are Inattentive?

Cabin distraction 41%

Embarrassing 5%

It is the same at all flights 19%

Language barriers 4%

All of the above 31%

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Ways to Engage

1. Have influential figure endorse safety

2. Make safety “tests” mandatory

3. Minimize the cabin distraction

4. Safety briefing should be demonstrated by different languages

5. Interacting more with the passengers for example of a passenger is sitting in an exit row ask them to volunteer to see if they know the precautions needed if an emergency were to happen

6. Update the videos and make the safety procedures more interesting somehow

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Conclusion

Based on the above results, this study statistically proved that the Aviation Professionals group has better understanding of the pre-flight safety briefing than the Frequent Flyer and Leisure traveler group of passengers.

Interestingly, the level of understanding of frequent flyers appears to be relatively equal to that of the leisure travelers in that the passengers in these two groups did not have mean scores in the Likert scale questions related to the understanding of the preflight safety briefing that were "significantly" different from each other.

Apparently, the Aviation Professionals’ group is the most educated in

aviation safety and takes the preflight safety briefing more seriously than the other groups of passengers; therefore, airlines should find means in educating and increasing the attention of all passengers before departure safety procedures.

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Thank you,,,