This is an emergency landing announcement!

I posted this real-life experience in facebook some time back. Putting it up here in this blog just for copy-sake.

This is an emergency landing announcement!
by Jonathan Au on Monday, August 3, 2009 at 11:28am

I was on the Silk Air shuttle flight last night, bound from KL to Singapore. I was actually booked on the later flight but decided to jump que so I can get home sooner.

The flight went well and the weather was great. About 35 mins through, the pilot announced that we were already commencing our descent to Changi Airport.

I was reading my newspaper, much like everyone else on this short 50-minute journey, when there was a faint announcement, a recording, on the PA system. I didn't even notice it at first, I was so engrosed reading the comics section of the Sunday Times... until I heard "your life jacket is under your seat, take your life jacket and wear them NOW." What the ...???

Looked around and everyone was stunned, all intently listening to the announcement. And it mentioned things like, remove your coat or jacket, loosen up your tie, remove any high-heeled shoes or any sharp objects - all followed by the word 'now'. And it repeated the instructions about the oxygen mask falling when cabin pressure drops, how to wear the life jacket, and when to go down the raft. It also reminded us of where the exits are and that we should remember them, and that we should be familiar with how to remove our seat belts.

One line that I will never forget - "Brace for impact, it may happen more than once." Wicked!

All the passengers were not moving, no one was following any of the instructions - perhaps we were all waiting for each other. A stewardess suddenly sprinted from the rear of the plane up to the front. I thought she was gonna get the passengers to start wearing life jackets.

The announcement reached the end then started again from the beginning. After about 2 or 3 lines, it stopped. Replaced by the lovely voice of the stewardess, she said "our announcement system is experiencing a technical problem, please ignore the warning that you just heard".

And everyone went back to their Sunday Times.