Overview
- UK local outlets on Monday highlighted a YouTube physics lesson urging passengers to keep life jackets deflated until they are outside the aircraft.
- The teacher explains that CO2 cartridges make vests inflate instantly, which can make a person so buoyant they get forced up to the ceiling in a flooded cabin.
- That sudden lift can stop people from diving down toward an exit and swimming out of the plane.
- As a cautionary example, she cites the 1996 hijacking and ocean crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, where reporting says some who inflated vests inside were trapped and 125 of 175 aboard died.
- The coverage reiterates standard briefings to inflate only after exit by pulling the red toggles, and viewers note an inflated vest can also hinder movement through narrow aisles.