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British Airways In-Flight Recording Incorrectly Tells Passengers The Plane Will Crash

August 27, 2010 at 2:05 PM | by | Comments (0)

Did you know that airplanes have automated pre-recorded warnings for when you're about to crash? And that those warnings apparently have a sick sense of humor and enjoy going off randomly? The passengers on a recent British Airways flight from LHR to Hong Kong discovered all of that the hard way, presumably to the amusement of nobody who was on board. Oops:

British Airways apologised to passengers after an emergency message warning they were about to crash into the sea was played by mistake. About 275 passengers were on the London Heathrow to Hong Kong flight on Tuesday evening when the automated message went out. The plane was flying over the North Sea at the time. Cabin crew quickly realised the error and moved to reassure the terrified passengers. 'We all thought we were going to die,' Michelle Lord, 32, of Preston, told The Sun newspaper.

If you kind of tilt your head and squint you can find an airline industry angle here. BA's management and unionized crews are in an epic and nasty battle, and the airline has responded to repeated strikes by creating parallel non-unionized crews. If it turns out that this incident was caused by human error on the part of a newly minted flight attendant, you have a ready-made argument for why inexperience can be costly. If it was human error by an employee with years on the job, of course, then you have the argument going the other way: experience isn't as valuable as the union would like you to believe it is.

One way or another, though, costly this mistake will be. BA's lawyers can't be looking forward to the inevitable wave of lawsuits from traumatized passengers ("every time I try to go to sleep, Your Honor, I hear that awful warning in my head—it's ruined my life" etc etc). The airline should should just save time by handing out cash to everyone who was on the plane. We hear they've got an extra half a million dollars lying around.

[Photo: Luis Argerich from Buenos Aires, Argentina / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· "We're about to crash," BA passengers told in error [Reuters]
· Airline Safety [Jaunted]
· Airline News [Jaunted]

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