Day: 78’8’65 (2008-08-26)

bookmark_borderOxygen for babies

Posted on by thomas


Oxygen Masks – 3
Originally uploaded by drbrain

There was a story today about a Ryanair flight which lost cabin pressure as a result of which oxygen masks were released.

Fairly standard stuff that doesn’t worry me overly.

However, it made me wonder what to do about babies under two. You see, you can’t book individual seats for them, they have to sit on your lap.

So what do you do if you need oxygen and you only get one mask for your baby and yourself?

I asked in the comments section in the article I linked to above, and somebody relied:

It depends from aircraft to aircraft but all aircraft have 4 masks on certain rows, and therefore on a full flight passengers with babies should be checked into a row which has 4 masks. If in doubt check with check-in staff who should be adequately trained to know the aircraft configuration and also with cabin crew. It is a part of basic safety training that you know which rows have 4 masks, but again I can’t give a general comment on this as every single aircraft type I have operated on has differed in this respect.

However, a different person followed up:

However we flew on a Ryan air 737 over the weekend with our small baby and asked to sit in a row with 4 oxygen masks. The cabin crew didn’t seem to know what we were talking about!

So what do you do if the crew can’t help you and you can’t find a seat with an empty seat next to it?

bookmark_borderA vote for oblivion?

Posted on by thomas


Day 115 – Vote
Originally uploaded by jackhynes

I seem consistently to disagree with the majority of libdems: I voted for Chris Huhne twice, not for Ming and not for Clegg, and this time I voted for Rumbles, not Scott. 🙁

However, Tavish Scott won easily with 59% of the first priorities.

Something is rotten in the Libdem party. In all these elections, the membership have followed the advice of the great and good, which both demonstrates that the upper echelons prefer continuity to change, and that the majority of members are happy to follow their advice instead of thinking on their own.

The specific reason I didn’t want Scott to become leader is that the Libdems have been performing dismally ever since the last Holyrood election, starting with their disastrous decision to not even enter coalition talks with the SNP, and as far as I know, Scott has been the principal architect of this policy.

To my mind, the best chance for the Libdems in Scotland would be to work constructively with the SNP, and Rumbles seemed to be the one who was closest to recommending this.

Perhaps Scott will surprise me positively, but I have my doubts. I expect the Libdems to become increasingly irrelevant until they find the courage to elect a leader who wants to make a difference.