How do you talk to passengers or the pilots while wearing the hood?

• A. Never break the neck seal to talk on the interphone.
• B. Shout through the hood to passengers.
• C. Hold the interphone to the phonic membrane on the front of the hood and talk.
• D. Use the aircraft intercom outside the hood.

Answer: (C)

Communicating while the hood is in place relies on using its built-in microphone path. You hold the interphone to the phonic membrane at the front of the hood and speak, so your voice is picked up by the system and heard by pilots or other crew through the intercom. This keeps the hood sealed and your oxygen supply intact while ensuring your message comes through clearly in a muffled, potentially smoky environment. Breaking the neck seal would compromise protection and could let contaminants in; shouting through the hood is unreliable and distorted; using the intercom outside the hood wouldn’t capture your voice for those inside the hood.