What aircraft maintenance team does to ensure passenger safety?

Aircraft Pressure and Oxygen mask

Aircrafts hover above 30,000 feet, where the atmospheric pressure is just about 1/4th of the atmospheric pressure at sea level. The lack of pressure will lead to difficulty in breathing and if unattended, may even result in death in less than a minute. To avoid such a situation, aircrafts pump air into the aircraft to maintain the interior pressure at a comfortable level for passengers. However, depressurization can still occur due to the malfunctioning of ventilation system or through leaks in the hull. When the aircraft’s sensors detect such decrease in pressure, breathing equipment (oxygen mask) is triggered to drop automatically in front of the passenger.

Life Vests

As part of the safety equipment onboard, all aircrafts have life vests - used in emergency situations involving landing on water. Life vests are generally kept under the passenger seat. It does not deter an enthusiastic passenger from adding the life vest to his ‘Collections’. Besides, the condition of these life vests is checked manually which is not very efficient.

Other important life saving devices

An aircraft’s lifesaving equipment is not just limited to life vest and oxygen mask. Some of them are Halon fire extinguisher, which is a non-conducting, gaseous fire extinguisher that does not leave a residue upon evaporation, smoke hoods that protect against smoke inhalation, crash axe for getting emergency access to inaccessible parts of the airplane such as behind electrical panels, emergency radio beacon which is used to alert search and rescue team.

Alongside First Aid kit, there is also an Emergency Medical Kit containing essential medical supplies in the event of life-threatening medical emergency.

For people suffering from sudden cardiac arrest, a lightweight portable device checks the heart rhythm and sends a shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm. Fire proof gloves and full face oxygen mask are some of the other devices.

Emergency Descent Device allows pilots and crew members to descend safely on the tarmac during an on-ground emergency situation when ramps or stairs are unavailable. Portable Emergency Location Transmitter, Supplemental survival kit and polar kit, Child Restraint system, Escape slide, Reservoir assembly and bracket for PBE are some of the other devices on an aircraft, while life rafts are used during emergency water landing.

Migrate to Digital Pre-flight Safety Audit

While airports and airlines have state of the art systems for the prevention of carrying dangerous goods by passengers or crew, the manual approach of pre-flight safety audit do not effectively demonstrate, as proof of carrying out the audit in compliance with the safety policy. There is a visibility gap in the effectiveness of the safety check. Also, human screening is not error-free.

EnTrackSafety from TrackIT, the inflight equipment tracking system is designed to digitally carry out safety audit, ensure availability of all lifesaving equipment, expiry validated and tamper proof to gain greater control on critical in-flight assets enabling passenger safety. EnTrackSafety significantly reduces flight clearance time while ensuring visibility and safety compliance.