I’m adding that memorable line from “Death Becomes Her” to the Ethics Alarms Hollywood Clip Archive. I don’t think I’ll have much use for it—at least I hope I won’t—but it sure fits here.
In that scene, the awful aging star played by Meryl Streep has just paid a fortune to get dosed with a magic formula that restores youth and guarantees immortality. After she downs the glowing blue elixer, the mysterious woman who provided it adds, “And now a warning…”
American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest have issued a warning to flyers to avoid short skirts and shorts when flying. If a flight emergency forces a plane to land and passengers have to use a slide to “deboard,” the friction from the device can rip a passenger’s skin off.
Oh. Funny, I don’t remember people screaming in all of those airplane movies.
The slides have substances in their composition to maximize sliding speed, as the objective is to save lives, not ensure comfort. I am assuming we never heard of this peril before because those slides aren’t used very often. However, airlines have been in many controversies over dress code enforcement: why wouldn’t they use the “if you want to have your skin ripped off, go ahead, fly like that!” response?
Remember this post, about the fitness model who presented herself at the gate dressed thusly….
…?
Heck, if that stuff about the slides is true, after an emergency landing she would have ended up looking like one of the victims in “The Towering Inferno”!
“Better late than never” is often a rationalization (#35. The Tortoise’s Pass), but in this case, it’s nice to finally know the risk of short shorts and short skirts. I’m still wondering what took so long, however.
Ethics Alarms 
The high school mentality never ends. Public decency laws would fix a lot of this.
THE WORLD WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE WITH MORE MIRRORS. TALKING MIRRORS UNLIKE THE ONE IN IN SNOW WHITE. MIRRORS THAT TELL THE TRUTH!
That’s interesting. I have been watching a lot of episodes from a series called “Air disasters”, which features a different crash every week.
I’ve seen videos of peoples using those slides a number of times, and being skinned was never an issue.
Perhaps American, Delta, and Southwest have recently installed newer, more prudish escape slides on their planes.
I will confess, though, I haven’t paid much attention to what escaping passengers were wearing. However, if these slides tear off your skin, would they do the same to clothing?
Is this a case where some litigious passenger got a scrape and then sued the airline? What nasty people those airlines are, trying to save your worthless life!
Maybe take the removable seat cushion with you and sit on it? It has handles for use as a floatation device. Or the provided blanket? This seems like an easy fix. Do they not already do that?
…Further research indicates that might take too much time. Supposedly “the FAA requires evacuation of the entire aircraft in 90 seconds using 50% of the available evacuation exits.” That already seems unrealistic to me, but if they can pull it off I imagine they need as much haste as they can get.
That is the standard and it is how the planes are designed and the crews are trained.
The reason for 90 seconds is that studies have shown that, in a crash, you only have less than two minutes before the airplane cabin becomes lethal. Typically when a plane crashes there is fire and smoke.
If you cannot get the passengers out in 90 seconds, you may not get them out at all.