Alaska, Japan airline incidents highlight importance of safety demonstrations

You trudge down the aisle to your seat. You double- and triple-check that you’ve arrived at the right row. You heave your luggage into the overhead bin and squeeze past your fellow passenger to settle into your seat.

Job done. Stress-filled boarding process complete. You zone out.

Never mind that flight attendants have begun their pre-flight safety demonstration, or that a video has begun to play informing you of the procedures in case of an emergency. You’re fine. You’ve seen this one before.

“The attention rate during the safety demos is extremely low,” says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents cabin crews at United, Alaska, Frontier, Hawaiian and others.

There are many lessons to be learned from recent airline incidents, two in just the first week of the year. Among them: It’s time to start paying attention to the pre-take-off safety demonstrations.

On Jan. 2, all 379 people onboard a Japan Airlines Airbus 350-900 escaped the burning aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport after it collided with a Japanese coast guard plane carrying earthquake aid, killing five crewmembers on that aircraft.

Then, on Jan. 5, a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 when the two-month old plane was flying at 16,000 feet, sending oxygen masks down to passengers and leaving a gaping hole in the 26th row. No one was seriously injured on the flight, which returned to Portland, Oregon.

Both near-catastrophes underscore the importance of travelers paying attention to flight attendant safety information and instructions — before and during an accident.

Everyone from passengers to onlookers to aviation executives have commended the crews of those Japan Airlines and Alaska Airlines flights for shepherding passengers through safely.

It bears…