Are airline seat cushions still flotation devices?
I was starting to wonder if any commercial airline seat cushions were still usable as flotation devices since they’re never briefed on routes I tend to fly. However, during a recent flight down the West Coast of the United States, the safety briefing indicated your seat cushion could be used for flotation in an emergency.
An NTSB recommendation after US Airways flight 1549 ditched into the Hudson River in 2009, was for commercial airlines to brief passengers on all flotation equipment on board the aircraft. That would include both life preservers and seat cushion flotation devices. (https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-main-public/sr-details/A-10-083)
The FAA declined this recommendation believing passengers briefed on too many floatation options would be confused which one to use in an emergency.
US Airways flight 1549 was equipped with both life preservers and seat cushion flotation devices, but only the seat cushion flotation was mentioned during the flight attendant safety brief. Because it wasn’t planned to fly more than 50 nautical miles from shore, the flight wasn’t required to have life preservers, even though it did. (Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Parts 121.339, 125.209, 135.167).
Of 150 evacuating passengers on flight 1549, only 33 retrieved life preservers, and of those, 21 were handed out by the flight crew as the passengers actively evacuated the aircraft. Another 77 exited with seat cushion flotation devices.
Any aircraft not certified for ditching under 14 CFR part 25, § 25.801 and not having a life preserver must have an approved flotation means for each occupant. Seat cushion flotation devices are required to maintain buoyancy for eight hours.
If there are red straps on the underside of your seat cushion, it is an approved flotation device. Just because the safety brief mentions life preservers, doesn’t mean the seat cushion isn’t also a flotation device, but you’ll have to check.
Note to self, your seat companion may not appreciate your tearing apart their seat to look for red straps as they board the plane… In a water landing, I think I’d grab both the life preserver and my red-strap equipped seat cushion.
