Gamps  From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 467 posts, RR: 1
Reply 12, posted Mon Oct 20 2003 20:54:51 your local time (6 years 5 months 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 2093 times:

The explanation I received is, this is to adjust our eyes to the external condition (sunny, dark) etc - so if something bad happens and passenger need to evacuate they can easily adjust to outside conditions. Also note that they (SQ) dim the lights of the cabin while landing and takeoff so that our eyes can adjust - atleast they did so during my flights with them.

The air flight attendance once told me that we're not allowed to put down the shade when taking off and landing is to allow everyone to have a view on that outside to ensure nothing went wrong with the plane such as smoke coming out from the wing and etc. If a snoke were to be seen, at least the flight attendance can immediately contact the pilot to warn them, then to wait for the whole wing to explode. That will be too late. That's what she told me.