Airport safety

Airport songs for safety

Like other airports around the country, Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) is keeping the facilities clean.

The airport is also using signs and floor stickers to encourage passengers to remember to keep their distance and wear face coverings.

Now, SJC is also getting even more creative with getting those messages out.

The airport has enlisted Santa Cruz-based singer/songwriter artist Nick Gallant to write and record three original songs to remind passengers and employees what they can and should do to keep things safe.

The ditties are catchy.

And you’ll have plenty of time to learn them by heart. Each song is being played throughout the Airport’s terminal buildings once an hour on a 20-minute cycle.

Give a listen:

FlySJC · SJC Go Somewhere Safely

Why play safety songs in an airport?

“By now our travelers and employees know what they need to do to keep each other safe while traveling,” said SJC Assistant Director of Aviation Judy Ross, “So the challenge for us was to find a unique, engaging way to remind everyone to stay vigilant.”

Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) isn’t the first to have safety songs to remind passengers to pay attention to the rules.

Way back in 2011, Montana’s Glacier Park International Airport (FCA) was running a video of a local band named The Singing Sons of Beaches to remind passengers of the rules and routines required at the TSA checkpoint.

The “bonus reminders” aren’t always songs.

Over the years McCarran International Airport Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas has enlisted celebrities to create instructional reminder videos as well.

SFO gets FEMA OK for Wireless Emergency Alerts

Here’s a smart – and potentially life-saving new airport service:

Almost exactly a year after a gunman killed 5 people at Fort Lauderdale International Airport comes word that an airport on the other side of the country – San Francisco International – is the first US airport to get approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to issue Wireless Emergency Alerts to any cellphone on airport grounds.

No special app or subscription service is needed in order for a mobile phone on airport grounds to receive a Wireless Emergency Alert Message, but the “Emergency Alerts” tab under the “Government Alerts” section of a phone setting has to be turned on. (Look for this under “Notifications,” in the same area where you find the Amber Alert tab)

According to SFO, if there’s an incident, emergency or situation which requires critical and potentially life-saving information to be shared immediately with airport employees, passengers and the public at the airport, designated and specially-trained staff will use the system to send a text message, accompanied by an audible alert, to mobile phones on site.

“Safety and security are our highest priorities, and we continue to enhance our emergency response capabilities,” said Airport Director Ivar C. Satero in a statement announcing the service, “Being the first airport in the U.S. approved to issue Wireless Emergency Alerts gives us an important tool to help keep people safe during an emergency.”

This seems like a truly valuable service that will hopefully spread to other airports.