Devil’s Advocate Series: Are Inflight Safety Videos sacrificing safety in pursuit of creative novelty?

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Zany flight safety videos seem to be the order of the day for airlines it would appear!

Predominantly the turf of full-service airlines that provide IFE screens, the safety video is undergoing a radical transformation. From the staid and uncomplicated animated videos of the past to the present-day, wacky and adventurous ones, laced with oodles of cultural trappings of the airline’s home country in many cases - the safety video is now the new frontier for airlines to distinguish themselves - both literally and figuratively!

The genesis for safety videos and prior to that inflight safety briefing/demonstrations, are ICAO guidelines under the prosaically numbered ‘Doc 10086’, titled - Manual on Information and Instructions for Passenger Safety. The premise being:

“Well-informed, knowledgeable passengers have a better chance of surviving a life-threatening situation that may occur on board an aircraft. Operators should communicate specific, accurate information and instructions to passengers in a variety of methods, to facilitate understanding. These methods include verbal briefings and visual safety information, such as passenger safety briefing cards.”

Not surprisingly, it was Virgin Atlantic (VS) under the leadership of the ‘colorful’ Sir Richard Branson, which pioneered the ‘cool’ safety video in the late 90s that featured animated characters in a safety demonstration, somewhat resembling the extended Simpson family!

And the rest followed!

Things have come a long way since and here’s an assortment of some top airline safety videos currently in play (in no particular order):

Air New Zealand (NZ)

Reputedly the airline with the most awarded safety videos including their most talked about - which features the 'Middle Earth' themed backdrop out of movies inspired by the Hobbit, based on JRR Tolkien's famous fantasy novel.

'Every Point Counts' is the latest edition from the airline, themed around Basketball and featuring Kiwi Basketball star: Steve Adams.

Air France (AF)

Themed around a stroll through iconic French buildings and places such as the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Château de Versailles and even down the ramp at the the famous Paris Fashion Week!

Singapore Airlines (SQ)

Also has the backdrop of a walk through iconic Singapore landmarks by the equally iconic Singapore Girl!

Emirates (EK)

In their latest, Emirates attempts to break away from the pack and seems to adopt a 'no-nonsense' approach to safety with no celebrities or song and dance routines'. Although one may recall that it was Emirates which went to town featuring a lot of sports events and personalities in their safety videos previously!

British Airways (BA)

Billed as a 'British Original Period Drama', the video is clearly an ode to British period settings and literature.

Air India (AI)

On a fresh palette from a revitalized Air India comes a safety video titled, 'Safety Mudras'. Themed around a variety of Indian Dance forms, including both classical and folk, the video offers a brief snapshot of the sheer diversity that makes up India.

United Airlines (UA)

A bit of an avant-garde attempt, titled 'Safety in Motion' and designed around the journey of a blue ball through a 'Rube Goldberg' machine; starring the airlines' own employees alongside.

Qatar Airways (QR)

Featuring celebrity comedian and Hollywood actor Kevin Hart, Qatar Airways' safety video reverberates with Kevin's raspy voice and laughter putting him front & center as the star of the video, overshadowing everything else.

Lufthansa (LH)

The Lufthansa safety video pretty much embraces the currently popular theme to reflect the holiday season around various geographical locations on their network besides celebrating the joy of travel.

Does it all help though?

Pretty much all of the above videos mentioned above, have a curated feel to them, what with controlled and calm settings, smiling faces, bright lights, soft background music - a most relaxed feel above all!

While an actual emergency would typically be with dark and perhaps smoke engulfed cabins, chaos all-round, screaming and panic ridden passengers, sense of urgency and the rush to exit et al!

Would the critical instructions have stayed long enough with passengers to recall and apply what they learnt in those zany safety videos?

An 'ideal' safety video?

Japan Airlines (JL)

This safety video from Japan Airlines eschews any fancy trappings to present potentially life-saving information in an unpretentious and balanced manner, accompanied with highly effective animated visualization and a neutral tenor - quintessentially Japanese!

It is said that this video and the deeply embedded safety culture with the Japanese, are the reasons that resulted in a near flawless evacuation of all 279 passengers and crew from a JAL A350, that was completely destroyed in the aftermath of a runway collision at Haneda Airport [HND] on 2nd January 2024.

In the name of engaging passengers and to grab their undivided attention through the full safety video, are airlines perhaps overplaying it by embellishing the videos to the point, that the audience forgets the critical information being provided and instead focuses on the extraneous details?

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