Although the operator had procedures for conducting a verbal safety briefing prior to flight and had safety briefing cards available, its risk controls did not provide assurance that all passengers would understand the required procedures for emergency landings. More specifically:
The ATSB is satisfied that, although not every aspect of the safety issue has been or is being addressed, the safety action taken and proposed will reduce the risk associated with this safety issue.
The operator advised the ATSB that passengers were now required to adopt their landing position once all the passengers had boarded the aircraft, and that this procedure was checked by the pilot and/or ground crew prior to launch.
In addition, the operator reported that it was working on updating its passenger safety briefing cards for non-English speaking passengers. It had also considered including passenger safety information cards with its flight itinerary sent to passengers, but noted that this would be difficult when dealing with multiple languages.
The ATSB acknowledges the steps taken by the operator to introduce a procedure to ensure passengers, on boarding the aircraft, are required to demonstrate the landing position. Given that this has to occur after the pilot has boarded, the ATSB acknowledges there is less likelihood of the ground crew and pilot having a misunderstanding regarding whether a briefing has occurred. However, it would still be advisable to introduce a formal crosscheck to ensure that the briefing and demonstration takes place. In addition, the ATSB considers that further work to ensure that safety information cards are provided, or made readily available, for all passengers is important to further reduce risk.
