Can Seat Cushions Be Used As Life Jackets? Here's What Airlines Have To Say

The thought of evacuating an aeroplane in an emergency in a neon life jacket is not something most people want to imagine. It’s a stressful scenario, and everyone hopes it never happens. However, these life jackets, designed to keep you afloat in water even if you are unconscious, are one of the most remembered aspects of the pre-flight safety demonstration, particularly because being able to grasp them quickly might make the difference between life and death.

It has a whistle and a light, and it can only be inflated after you’ve exited the plane. So overall, life jackets are a useful piece of equipment that can have a huge impact during a dangerous incident. But some travel firms provide tourists with an unusual and bizarre alternative instead of life vests. Yes, you read that right.

Picture how terrified passengers could be if everything they’ve ever known about safety in the skies is chucked out of the window while flying with certain carriers. These strange replacements will probably give chills down the spines of flyers when they see the alternative they are supposed to rely on during such a terrifying incident.

Wondering what it may be? Hold on to your horses. Instead of strapping on a life jacket, some airlines offer passengers the thing they sit and rest upon as a life preserver, ‘flotation seat cushions.’

However, unlike wearing a life jacket, using a flotation seat device cannot keep a person afloat or face up when they are unconscious, as it requires the person to maintain control of it.

As reported by Ladbible, the European Technical Standard Order, published by the European Aviation Safety Agency, states that there are a range of items onboard that can also act as floatation devices. The order states, “Seat cushions, arm rests, head rests, pillows, or similar aircraft equipment are eligible as flotation devices under this standard provided, they fulfil minimum requirements for safety and performance.

“Compression through extended service use, perspiration, and periodic cleaning must not reduce the buoyancy characteristics of these devices below the minimum level prescribed in this standard,” it elucidates.

While this revelation sounds silly to a lot of flyers, it made perfect sense to airlines, and they believe that sometimes they snub life jackets in favour of flotation seat cushions to save fuel, weight, and therefore money.

Spokeswoman Manon Stuart previously told NBC that the nature of their operations doesn’t require that they carry both, according to Ladbible.

Airline Safety Advocate and US safety professional Woody French also told the publication in 2008, “A lot of these airlines say, ‘Well, our passengers are our main concern.’ That’s a bit of a misnomer. We’re a distant second. Profits are the first.”

Air Canada’s regional carrier Jazz previously said, “They are abiding by government regulations that allow firms to use floatation devices instead of life vests, provided the planes remain within 50 nautical miles of shore.”