GG> I wondered that myself last time I looked for the jacket.

SH> You will find them under or between the seats
SH> on all major domestic and international carriers.

GG> Bull.  In all the flights I've had in the last 2 years, only ONCE
GG> was there a jacket under my seat, and that was on the Qantas flight.

Bull yourself, he's right.

GG> The other worry is when flying in USA over absolutely NO water at
GG> all, they tell you that the seat can be used as floatation device.

SH> Psssst!  Ever hear of "lakes", and "rivers"?

GG> Psssst!   I come from the "Great Lakes" state of Michigan.
GG> It takes about 5 minutes to fly over Lake Michigan (the
GG> one large lake most cross country flights fly over).

Still a tad of a problem if you land in the water.

Even the internal airlines in Aust carry lifejackets, even when they
fly over bugger all water like Hazeltons that fly just in NSW and VIC.

GG> Lakes Erie and Huron take about 3 minutes. With the exception
GG> of Lake Superior, the rest are small enough that it would take
GG> an amazing stroke of (un)luck to crash a plane into them.

Shit happens. There have even been some examples of planes that have
dropped right into the river off the end of the runway in the US too.

One of ours fell in the water off the end of the runway in Sydney too.

GG> Lake Superior, OTOH takes a fair bit to fly over and yeah,
GG> jackets should be required - and if you're flying across
GG> it (north/south) you're on an International flight anyway.

Its basically easier to just have them there all the time.
@EOT:

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