Before taking off, passengers sitting near emergency exits are always reminded by hostesses not to toy with exit buttons or open emergency exits unless requested to do so.

However, the exits have been opened arbitrarily by passengers for trivial reasons; they are simply curious, or don’t want to wait in line to exit the aircraft once it has landed. These people are not aware of the fact that it costs at least US$10,000 to install a new emergency exit once it has been opened, not to mention other expenses incurred by the delay or cancellation of subsequent flights.

According to one aviation official, once an emergency exit is activated, floatation devices are opened, rendering the plane unusable until they are replaced. Subsequent  flights are thus delayed for repair. For some aircrafts, new emergency exits can only be installed in Singapore or China, thus raising the price of repair even more.

According to regulations, a passenger is fined between VND10-15 million (US$480 – 721) for a violation.

Odd cases

In August of last year, a passenger named L.N.V. on flight VN 1265 from Vinh to Ho Chi Minh City decided to open an emergency exit after he heard another passenger suggest someone should open more doors so they could all leave the aircraft more quickly.

He then pulled the lever and three seconds later, the floats burst out. At that moment, he realized he had opened an emergency exit.

Another passenger, L.V.T, was nicknamed a “kind hearted violator” after he opened an emergency exit on a flight in February of last year. On queuing to leave the aircraft, a young mother holding a crying infant in front of him asked for his help to open an emergency exit so she could leave the airplane faster.

After the fact, he admitted that he was reminded twice by a stewardess not to open the exit, but forgot this once the mother requested him to do so, and he just wanted to help her.

He was fined VND15 million.

Loss of life jackets

Luong Hoai Nam, former general director of Jetstar Pacific Airline (JPA), admitted that he and his staff were greatly concerned with the loss of life jackets from underneath the seats in passenger aircrafts.

After each flight, at least 5-7 life jackets were stolen, and sometimes as many as 40 (out of a total of 150), were taken, he said.

“Many passengers don’t know they are single use jackets. They can be very attractive to passengers because they can be folded easily,” Nam said. “The loss of the jackets lost us a lot of money because we had to leave the seat empty if we couldn’t replace the jacket.”

This is the reason hostesses must often refuse passengers their request to change their registered seat to an empty seat in a flight.

A flight to a coastal destination may have more life jackets stolen than a flight to other locations, according to the JPA.

Recently, JPA has broadcast announcements before the end of flights with the message, ‘life jackets are essential to our aircraft and passengers are not allowed to take them for personal use.’

Perhaps because of this reminder, the loss of life jackets has sharply reduced recently, Nam added.