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 making ready the cabin for touchdown at an altitude of 18,000 toes (5,486 meters) as a substitute of 10,000 toes (3,048 meters). The change in process is designed to “reduce the risk of in-flight turbulence injuries” for crew members and passengers, the corporate mentioned.
For passengers, which means they might want to do the standard pre-landing procedures — similar to 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. A couple of-third of all airline incidents in the USA from 2009 by 2018 have been associated to turbulence, and most of them resulted in a number of critical 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 modifications.
Beginning subsequent yr, Southwest will toss out a half-century custom of “open seating” — passengers choosing their very own seats after boarding the airplane.
