Southwest Airways says it’s ending its cabin service earlier on its flights beginning subsequent month.
Starting on Dec. 4, an organization spokesperson mentioned, flight attendants will start getting ready the cabin for touchdown at an altitude of 18,000 toes (5,486 meters) as an alternative of 10,000 toes (3,048 meters). The change in process is designed to “scale back the chance of in-flight turbulence accidents” for crew members and passengers, the corporate mentioned.
For passengers, which means they might want to do the same old pre-landing procedures — reminiscent of making certain their seatbelts are fixed and returning their seats to an upright place — sooner than earlier than.
Whereas turbulence-related fatalities are fairly uncommon, accidents have piled up through the years. Multiple-third of all airline incidents in the US from 2009 by 2018 had been associated to turbulence, and most of them resulted in a number of severe accidents however no injury to the airplane, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board reported.
In Could, a 73-year previous man died on board a Singapore Airways flight when the airplane 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 custom of “open seating” — passengers choosing their very own seats after boarding the airplane.
