Southwest Airlines says it’s ending its cabin service earlier on its flights beginning subsequent month.
Starting on Dec. 4, an organization spokesperson stated, flight attendants will start getting ready the cabin for touchdown at an altitude of 18,000 ft (5,486 meters) as a substitute of 10,000 ft (3,048 meters). The change in process is designed to “cut back the danger of in-flight turbulence accidents” for crew members and passengers, the corporate stated.
For passengers, which means they might want to do the standard pre-landing procedures — similar to making certain their seatbelts are mounted and returning their seats to an upright place — sooner than earlier than.
Whereas turbulence-related fatalities are fairly uncommon, injuries have piled up over time. Multiple-third of all airline incidents in america from 2009 by means of 2018 had been associated to turbulence, and most of them resulted in a number of critical accidents however no harm to the aircraft, the National Transportation Safety Board reported.
In Might, a 73-year outdated man died on board a Singapore Airlines flight when the aircraft hit extreme turbulence over the Indian Ocean.
The airline had additionally beforehand introduced different adjustments.
Beginning subsequent yr, Southwest will toss out a half-century tradition of “open seating” — passengers selecting their very own seats after boarding the aircraft.
