The seatback safety cards on airplanes are probably not something you think twice about when you fly, but believe it or not, those little pamphlets are actually the product of decades of research, all aimed at making your travel as safe as possible, even if something goes wrong.
USA TODAY spoke with Trisha Ferguson, CEO of The Interaction Group, one of the largest designers and manufacturers of seatback safety cards in the world. Here’s what travelers should know about the document that’s mandated to be in front of them on every flight.
What is an airplane safety card?
At its most basic level, the briefing card is a document that regulators require to explain the safety features on every aircraft.
“There are regulatory requirements about what information needs to be presented: the donning of the lifejacket, finding the lifejacket, taking it out of its packaging, putting it on,” Ferguson said. Other requirements include explaining the location and operation of emergency exits, as well as instructions for seatbelt and oxygen mask use.
“Those things are pretty specific about what information needs to be on the cards,” Ferguson said.
Different regulators like the Federal Aviation Administration set their own requirements for exactly what information must be included, but globally, the basic key points are the same pretty much everywhere.
“We want passengers to be prepared for emergencies. To accomplish this, the FAA requires airlines to give an oral briefing and provide safety cards. This provides passengers the basics on what to do for emergencies that may happen,” the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY.
What goes into designing an airplane safety card?
According to Ferguson, airline safety cards have had a long evolution since the dawn of the jet age in the 1960s.
The founders of The Interaction Group, then known as the Interaction Research Corporation, “realized back in that era that safety cards were almost all text … usually only in the language of the origin of the particular flight or the company,” Ferguson said, adding that it was “extremely inefficient for educating the passenger.”
So her predecessors got to work trying to make the briefing material more comprehensible to more travelers, beginning by partnering with individual airlines to create illustrated briefing materials.
“Eventually, after some significant accidents and loss of life, they went before Congress and said the airline needs to provide greater safety and security information to their passengers,” Ferguson said. “It should be in the form of a safety card that every passenger has access to at all times.”
But the illustrations aren’t just created by accident. The Interaction Group does a significant amount of research before making any changes or new cards to make sure they’ll be as effective as possible.
“We are very, very stringent on the content of the cards’ comprehension. … We have a standard here at the interaction group that every single sequence and every card as a whole is tested for understandability,” Ferguson said. “If it’s not understood by 90% or more of the people tested, we start making adjustments until it is understood.”
Over time, the cards need to be updated to reflect new aircraft types, and even changes in clothing style.
“Equipment has evolved significantly,” Ferguson said. The cards must be designed so that “it matches visually what the passenger is seeing inside the aircraft.”
Why does diversity matter in safety card illustration?
Beyond matching the aircraft layout, Ferguson said it’s important that passengers can easily identify with the characters they see in the illustrations.
“Studies show you are more apt to spend time looking at something where you see yourself in it,” she said. “We are intentional about the dress or skin tone or hair textures,” making sure to showcase diversity and also regionally-appropriate dress and other cultural markers.
Fashion counts for relatability, too.
“It also has really followed stylistically, the eras,” Ferguson said, pointing to changes between how characters in the illustrations were dressed in the 1970s and ’80s versus today.
Why don’t more people look at the safety card?
According to Ferguson, the reasons have changed over the years.
“In the original study back in the 70s, the comments were ‘an incident or an accident isn’t survivable anyway, so I don’t really need this information,’” Ferguson said, but added that in a more recent update to the company’s research, people’s thinking has shifted. “It was interesting to see the data shift upside down to where people say ‘flying is so safe, I don’t need to look at the safety card.’”
It’s true that flying is statistically safer than ever, but it’s still a good idea to be armed with knowledge in case something goes wrong.
“We really see it as our job to care for the people that are in the airlines’ care,” Ferguson said. “Pull the card out, take a look at it, consume information, and then sit back, relax and enjoy the experience of the carrier you’re with.”
