There is much to be impressed by, and thankful for, in the news regarding the engine failure on Southwest flight 1380 this week. First there is the cool-as-a-cucumber response of the pilot. Captain Tammie Jo Shults exhibited ‘nerves of steel’ as she deftly handled the in-flight emergency. In addition, the two passengers who pulled Jennifer Riordan back into the plane and the nurse who spent the remainder of the flight trying to revive her all are heroes for putting the life of their fellow passenger ahead of their own interests (such as worrying about whether they themselves were going to perish). The air traffic controllers who responded to the emergency with complete professionalism are also to be commended.

However, there is also a powerful object lesson in how increased safety can actually negatively impact safe behavior. Safety experts around the world were dismayed to see the pictures of passengers who were not wearing their oxygen masks properly. The pictures clearly show passengers wearing the masks only over their mouth rather than over their nose and mouth.

Obviously all of said passengers made it safely to the ground so the reaction might be, ‘so what’? The Telegraph has an excellent article about aircraft oxygen masks but doesn’t answer quite the question about the nose-and-mouth. The answer is pretty simple. If you aren’t covering your nose and are subconsciously trying to breath (even partially) through your nose, you risk not getting enough oxygen. Similarly, the photos from the Southwest flight show the masks had gaps around the edges and thus oxygen was leaking out instead of getting into the passengers lungs. Again, it wasn’t fatal in this case but a different scenario could have ended badly.

Since it has been over nine years since the last fatal airline passenger jet crash in the United States, it would appear that passengers are getting lax regarding the pre-flight safety briefing. This is the perverse scenario whereby the excellent airline safety record we have in the US is actually leading to unsafe passenger behavior. People don’t pay attention to the briefing and don’t put the mask on properly.

While the industry grapples with inattentive passengers, the most serious question remains: Was the fan blade failure something that should have been caught in advance?