737tanker said:
In a couple of months all of SWA's aircraft will have ACARS for contacting Dispatch. SWA is not planning on adding rafts or flares to any of it's aircraft. The plan is to only add life vests. That way SWA can fly 162 miles off the coast instead of the current 50. This will allow for shorter flights from HOU & MSY to TPA, as well as from the Northeast to Florida.
Not quite as simple as putting life vests on the aircraft and off you go 162nm from land.
The exempted equipment includes:
• Life rafts
• Pyrotechnic signaling devices
• Survival Emergency Transmitters
• Survival Kit
Operation under this deviation in these areas is subject to the following conditions:
• Minimum enroute altitudes are planned and maintained at FL250 or above;
• Inflight operations do not exceed 162 nautical miles from a shoreline;
• Crewmember training programs and procedures for ditching and diversion contingency planning remain equivalent to or better than those existing as of the effective date of this deviation authority; and
• Engine reliability levels remain equivalent to, or better than, the reliability levels that existed as of the effective date of the deviation authority.
Now, WN's deviation may be slightly different, but I would not be surprised if it looked like the above.
