I just finished reading the book Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why. It is a book everyone should read. There were a number of things in the book that jumped out at me about our day to day preparation. Here are just a few:
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Fewer than half of the World Trade Center survivors from the attacks on September 11, 2001 had ever entered the stairwells prior to the evacuations that day.
- Only 45% of 445 World Trade Center workers interviewed by one research group following the attacks had known the building had three stairwells.
- 94% of fire marshals interviewed after the event had never exited the building as part of a drill and only 50% were knowledgeable enough to evacuate on their own.
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In one incident where 55 people died and another 15 people were injured when a commercial airliner suffered an engine problem and ultimately and engine fire on takeoff one of the complicating factors during the evacuation that likely cost people their lives was a woman seated beside an over wing exit. The woman was unfamiliar with how to open the hatch and was unable to do so. "She spent precious seconds pulling on what turned out to be her armrest." Another passenger had to pull the release handle.When the hatch opened it fell into the woman's lap trapping her and passengers had to get the door off her and out of the way before people could exit the plane.
- Resilience comes from having confidence. Confidence comes from realistic rehearsal.
At your office, or your apartment or condo building when was the last time you practiced getting out in an emergency? Do you know where all the stairwells and exits are? What about when you are at a meeting in another building or at a conference? Do you know where all the exits are and at least mentally plan on how you would get out in an emergency?
On a plane do you pay attention to the safety briefings and review the safety card in the seat back pocket? Do you count the number of seats you would need to touch to get to the emergency exits in all directions? Do you think about and mentally rehearse accessing the life jacket and putting it on in the event of a water landing? If you sit in the emergency exit row for the extra legroom do you pay attention to how the hatch opens and mentally rehearse opening it. (The emphasis here is on mentally rehearsing. Please do not physically practice opening the hatch as the flight crew gets very agitated.)
What's Important Now? - Train hard for the unexpected and when it happens it will be neither hard nor unexpected.
Brian Willis
A man with many questions
www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com - Coming Soon
