Real life question : Cabin Lights

[awethu]

Hi,

Why are the cabin lights turned off during night take-off and landings?

[EW]

Yes, even during cruis

[biggles70]

Im not 100% here, but Ill have a go.

The lights are dimmed at night during take off and landing so that in the event of an emergency, they're one less thing the engine driven generators have to supply power too. Possibly the engines can develop more power with a lighter load on the generators, just like turning on the A/C in your car whilst accelerating, if you have a smallish engine, youd notice the A/C cut in and rob you of some power.
As to turning the lights down in the cruise at night, I can only think thats for passenger comfort ie: to allow some sleep maybe.

Biggles70

[stebbo]

Hiya,

as a passenger, I've noticed that only some airlines / countries do this. I travel to the US quite frequently from Australia, and it seems to me that Qantas don't always do it, and yet Air New Zealand do. Something to do with airline policy maybe?

Just my AUD$0.02 worth.

Cheers,
Chris.

[ALO]

Hi,
It is to allow your eyes to get used to low lighting levels, so they they will still function should an emergency occur where there is little or no lighting,
I believe.

[McFeather]

There is a number of reasons,

On take-off, they dim them so other aircraft can determine what direction they are heading. to assist in the indentification of aircraft position and heading by night, aircraft must display such lights, storobes, beacons etc...No other lights may be displayed that would impair the effectiveness of the other lights.

All airlines should do that.

Patrick :-wave

[McFeather]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Feb-18-02 AT 12:30PM (EDT)[/font][p];-)

[Airliner1975]

Another reason is, that in a case of emergency you can clearly see the illuminated path marks on the ground and the exit-signs.

Regards,

Airliner1975
LOWW

[KathyPilot]

There are a lot of interesting answers here; some are correct.

I think some of the posters are looking at if from the wrong angle. The real reason they are turned off is purely for pax comfort after takeoff. The real focus is why are they turned on. During any ground ops they are turned on (and in fact adjusted) to the natural lighting.

Why?
If there is an emergency the pax need to have their eyes adjusted to one of two things; the light level of the emergency lights or the outside. The emergency light will come on if there is any power failure. The sudden change in light level will only add to the panic and confusion if there is an emergency. So, you loose power and you loose main lighting but the light level is still the same from the emergency lights. Less confusion – maybe a successful egress and hopefully saved lives.

Hope this helps,
Kathy

[ilh]

Very interesting, Kathy!

Lee Hetherington (KBOS)