One of the most mundane yet essential parts of any passenger flight is the safety briefing. Through staged tests and unfortunate experience, the industry learned that flyers who pay attention every time to crew instructions and read the safety card will have a much higher chance of leaving the cabin safely in the event of an emergency. So while printed timetables and magazines were phased out after 9/11 and the COVID-19 crisis, the safety card remains as perhaps the last collectible printed item with aircraft and company information as we head into the mid-21st Century.
Comparing these cards through time also gives us hints at how travelers were represented and how iconography and language evolved from narrow assumptions about class and education to be more effective with the broad population who eagerly took to the skies. NWA of course, with its international clientele, started using multiple languages before many other airlines. Northwest’s smoking ban from 1994 is also a turning point on safety documents.
We polled aviation enthusiasts and users of this site about how to organize these scans – more respondents said to arrange the files by aircraft type. Each listing will also include the carrier and effective date where known.
Many of you will have a card or two stashed away as a memento from a trip or from your service as flight crew – if you scan them and email the files to northwestairlines @ comcast.net, we’ll be happy to add them to this listing (and credit you if you like!) We are definitely looking for cards from before the Republic-Northwest merger, more from the Airlink and Express partners, and especially from the precursor carriers like Hughes, North Central, Southern, and Bonanza.
Airbus A319
- Northwest – VIP configuration – July 2008 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – August 2006
- Northwest – September 2004
- Northwest – November 2003 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – May 1999
Airbus A320
- Northwest – standard configuration – August 2006
- Northwest – SR configuration – August 2006
- Northwest – standard configuraton – July 2005
- Northwest – SR configuration – July 2005
- Northwest – SR configuration – December 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – standard configuration – August 2004
- Northwest – SR configuration – April 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – SR configuration – May 2001
- Northwest – standard configuration – May 2001 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – March 1993
- Northwest – June 1991
- Northwest – June 1989 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Airbus A330
- Northwest – for both -200 and -300 versions – July 2005
- Northwest – for both -200 and -300 versions – August 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Avro RJ85
BAe Jetstream 31
- Express II/Northwest Airlink – August 1993 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Express II/Northwest Airlink – December 1990 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Boeing 727-100
- Northwest – June 1991
- Northwest – June 1989 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – circa 1998 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Boeing 727-200
- Northwest – April 2001
- Northwest – overwater version – May 1999 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – June 1991 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – overwater version – June 1991 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – circa 1998 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – NBA Charter version – October 1997 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – September 1986 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Republic – August 1985
- Republic – August 1980
Boeing 747-200
- Northwest – standard version – July 2005
- Northwest – HD version – July 2005 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – HD version – March 2001
- Northwest – common version – circa 1998 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – frames 622-628-631-635 – circa 1998 – from the collection of Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
- Northwest – common version – February 1995 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – common version – June 1991 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – frames 601-615, 620-621, and 636-638 – January 1987 – NEW January 2025, from the collection of Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
- Northwest Orient – frames 622-628 and 631-635 – February 1985
Boeing 747-400
- Northwest – series 6300 configuration – July 2005
- Northwest – series 6300 configuration – December 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – June 1991
Boeing 757
- Northwest – Series 200 (5600) – January 2007
- Northwest – Series 200 (5500) – August 2006
- Northwest – Series 200 (5600) – August 2006
- Northwest – Series 300 (5800) – August 2006
- Northwest – Series 200 (5600) – July 2005 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 200 (5500) – July 2005
- Northwest – Series 200 (5600) – September 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 200 (5500) – August 2004
- Northwest – Series 300 (5800) – August 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 300 (5800) – May 2004 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 300 (5800) – June 2002 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 200 – October 1995 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 200 – June 1991
- Northwest – Series 200 – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest Orient – Series 200 – March 1985
- Republic – December 1985
Bombardier / Canadair CRJ
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink (Delta transition) – November 2008 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – August 2008
- Compass/Northwest Airlink – March 2007 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – August 2005 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Pinnacle/Northwest Airlink – July 2005
- Express I/Northwest Airlink – April 2000 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Bombardier CRJ-900
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink (Delta transition) – LV version – February 2009 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink (Delta transition) – November 2008 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – August 2007 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – March 2007 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Convair 580
- Northwest – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – September 1986
- Republic – November 1981
DeHavilland Canada Dash-8-100
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – December 1996
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – 1992 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Douglas DC-9
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – July 2005
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – July 2004
- Northwest – Series 10 – May 2003 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – January 2001 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 10 – January 2001 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 10 – October 1997 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – February 1997
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – October 1996 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30 Overwater – February 1996
- Northwest – Series 30 – July 1995 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – June 1991
- Northwest – Series 30 Overwater – June 1991 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 10 – June 1991
- Northwest – Series 30/40/50 – January 1990
- Northwest – Series 30/50 – January 1990 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30/50 – June 1989 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 10 – June 1989 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30/50 – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 30 Overwater – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – Series 10 – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Republic – Series 10 – May 1986
- Republic – Series 30/50 – August 1985
- Republic – Series 30 Overwater – August 1985
- Republic – Series 10 Overwater – August 1985
- Republic – Series 15F/30/50 – April 1983
Embraer 175/170
- Compass – February 2015– NEW April 2024, from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Compass/Delta Connection – August 2014 – NEW April 2024, from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Compass/Northwest Airlink – July 2008 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Compass/Northwest Airlink – July 2007 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Fairchild F-27
- Pacific – 1960s – from Michael Harwood via Pacific Airlines Portfolio / Dan Veenstra
Fokker F-27
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – April 1989 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Martin 404
- Pacific – 1960s – from Michael Harwood via Pacific Airlines Portfolio / Dan Veenstra
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- Northwest – July 2005 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – July 2004
- Northwest – September 2000
- Northwest – June 1991
- Northwest – January 1990
- Northwest – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest Orient – October 1982
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Northwest – June 1991
- Northwest – circa 1988 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Northwest – July 1986
- Republic – July 1981
Saab 340
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink (Delta transition) – November 2008 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – August 2008
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – March 2005
- Pinnacle/Northwest Airlink – circa 2005 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – April 1998
- Mesaba/Northwest Airlink – October 1996 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Express I/Northwest Airlink – February 1995 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
- Express I/Northwest Airlink – January 1993 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
Other Cabin Safety Materials:
- Exit Seating Restrictions and Requirements Card – September 1993
- Life Vest instructional insert – December 1986 – from the collection of Jason Zessin
All safety cards are presented under “fair use” copyright terms for education, review, and archiving – please do not reproduce them.
