Last night I was on a commercial flight coming into SFO when the pilot announced that we had a problem with the landing gear indicator. We circled and flew over the tower and they looked at the bottom of the plane; the wheels appeared to be down, but the crew was taking no chances and told us to assume the "brace" position when we landed, and to be prepared to evacuate. The flight attendants gave us a quick review of the pertinent details of the safety card, and it was quite impressive how much more we paid attention this time around compared with the pre-takeoff presentation. (One of the flight attendants quipped, "and I bet you thought these safety cards were boring.") We landed without difficulty, and everyone did well: pilot, crew, AND passengers. There was a large group of fire trucks and emergency vehicles off to the side of the field with all their lights flashing.

Two points:
1) We were instructed to remove our glasses and put them away before landing/sliding/crashing, since they could fly off or get smashed against our faces. Like all other good ETSers, no doubt, I have mentally rehearsed opening the exit door, bravely leaping down the chute using the proper technique, and then assisting all the admiring passengers who follow after me. In my fantasy, however, I neglected to work in the factor that without my glasses, I'd be lucky not to miss the escape chute altogether. I don't know how often these landing gear problems happen, but I'll probably add some kind of glasses case to my airplane EDC.

2) The person next to me didn't get the implications of the pilot's announcement right away. I suggested that "if I were you, I'd put on my shoes right now." After the crew explained what it could mean (and we were a few hundred feet above sea level), my neighbor asked me if we would be using the oxygen masks. Don't laugh - in stressful situations, people don't always think logically, and the average person doesn't necessarily understand the things that the folks on this board do. We need to be aware of that when we communicate with them.