What has become of the airline industry? First we lost the smoked almonds and peanuts. Then we started paying for headsets. We have since lost the blankets. And we are now paying for plastic food. In spite of all of these cut backs it never occurred to me that any airline would compromise safety. Unfortunately it appears that Air Canada has done just that on its regional airline Jazz when it made the decision to remove life vests from its planes.

This move is a cost cutting measure to reduce overall weight and save fuel. I’d like someone to tell me exactly how much in dollars and cents this potential disaster is going to save. A commercial airline life vest only weighs one pound. Are we supposed to believe that eliminating life vests will keep the airline afloat (pun intended)?

If the plane goes down in water we are supposed to have the presence of mind to take our seat cushions with us and use them as flotation devices. Life vests for babies have not been removed because it must have occurred to some genius that a baby could not take a seat cushion with him/her and hang onto it in the water until help arrived. In the panic of a disaster situation, could you? Air Canada says that you can.

What shocks me is that Transport Canada approved this action. Apparently this regulatory body permits airlines to provide flotation devices rather than life vests as long as the planes fly no farther than 50 miles from the coastline. Jazz doesn’t fly over the open ocean but it does fly over the Great Lakes and along the coastline of the eastern seaboard on routes from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Boston and New York. We are supposed to be happy to hear that according to Jazz the number of flights operating over water is minimal. HOORAY!

Image Courtesy Flickr