Training proves its worth

Although some passengers from the Air France flight are complaining that things were chaotic (no surprise there) and that they didn't know what to do once they were off the plain, the fact is that the airplane's crew did a spectacular job:

The evacuation of more than 300 people aboard an ill-fated Air France flight took less than two minutes, with a co-pilot the last to leave the flaming wreckage - a "textbook case" of how to deal with an airliner emergency, officials said Wednesday as the investigation into the dramatic crash of Flight 358 got underway in earnest.

I mention this not only to take my hat off to those crew members, but to touch on something that I've blogged about before -- the benefits of training. A few days ago, I riffed off a comment Phibian, of CDR Salamander, made about the benefits of training in an emergency situation. I never doubted the truth of Phibian's point about training, but I appreciated seeing that truth highlighted so beautifully -- and with such good results -- yesterday. Perhaps it's time for my family, not just to talk about what to do in case of a fire, but actually to run through the steps.