The Pre-Flight Safety Video Airlines Don’t Want You To See (And Response From A Pilot)

by SharonKurheg

If you’ve ever been on a plane, you’ve been through a pre-flight safety video. Or if not, then a live demonstration. If you’ve been through more than one of those (and if you’re reading a travel blog like this, we’re going to assume that you’ve been through several of ’em), chances are decent that you maybe paid less attention to it than you could/should have.

a plane crashed into a field

Snark set aside, save for the safety videos that are really funny, I could see how safety videos and demonstrations start to feel a little boring after several viewings.

Welp, over the summer of 2020, an entity called ReThinkingTourism made their own version of a pre-flight safety demonstration video that tells what they claim is what “airlines are afraid to show you.” I don’t know if the last part of that sentence is true or not, but as they describe it:

We’ve all heard the pre-flight safety speech a million times. There’s some stuff we should know about airline safety, but they’re not telling us. I spoke to an active commercial pilot and did some research to provide some more interesting and relevant info you should be getting before you fly.

Just a little travel-related info-tainment for the summer. Enjoy.

Here’s the video (heads up that there are a few instances of adult language):

Thanks to coverage from the likes of Boing Boing, Reddit and a few bajillion others, the video wound up going viral, with over 5.5 million views (I hope they had monetized their page LOL! [and yes, I’m sure they had]). So what else could be done but get a reaction from a pilot, right?

Captain Petter Hornfeldt is a pilot who flies for a major European airline. He has a YouTube channel where, as he says, “Join my channel and learn about the fascinating world of aviation. I will give you MY view of current events, trends and procedures.” He posts about 2 aviation-themed videos a week and has about 672K followers.

Capt. Hornfeldt apparently saw the “honest pre-flight safety video” and had plenty to say about it. Take a look:

I thought it was an interesting look at the video, from someone who would know. Kind of divided up the truth from the “Well, maybe…”

What did you think?

Feature Photo: Magnus Manske / Wikimedia

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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