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Comment by spanktheuser | Hacker News Reader

In this case, however, the impact is knowable:

https://etsc.eu/increasing-the-survival-rate-in-aircraft-acc...

Furthermore, distracted or unprepared passengers impact the evacuation of others trapped behind them. I’ve participated in evacuation training for flight attendants and have personally witnessed how a bungled jump down evacuation slide led to a 5-10 second delay. This was equated with ~20 fatalities due to smoke inhalation in the simulation.

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My objection isn't that the impact of banning electronics during takeoff and landing is unknowable; that's not the main issue with banning car radios, cars, or bare faces either. Instead it's that the impact is too small to be worth the cost.

I think its fair to say I misread the thrust of your argument. I still come down on the other side; I am comfortable enforcing a widespread deprivation of a convenience in order to further reduce the risk of a rare but catastrophic outcome.

Realize that if you make commercial air travel sufficiently (further) unpleasant, many of those people will choose to drive to their destinations instead.

This will cause a net increase in deaths because, mile-for-mile, driving is orders of magnitude more deadly than flying commercial.

Banning car stereos would be a good idea. Besides distracting drivers, listening to music also helps people push past their normal fatigue limit and drive for much longer than they should. Driving tired is about as dangerous as driving drunk.

I'm curious what the relevant part of that article is? As far as I can tell the only pertinent reference to passenger behaviour is the listing of "Passengers' knowledge of safety procedures and their motivation to get acquainted with them" as a factor in evacuation, which...does not really have anything to do with whether the passenger is "distracted" at the moment of an incident occurring.

I feel like people are equating "not paying attention" (which, what does that even mean for a passenger in a jetliner? not paying attention to what?) with "unpreparedness" when that doesn't really make any sense.

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