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AN AIRLINE has revealed a very clever plane feature that will save your life in an emergency - and people are stunned.

Swiss Airlines revealed the secret on their TikTok account.

Swiss has revealed how the tray table latch is different in exit rows
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Swiss has revealed how the tray table latch is different in exit rows

In the , the airline shows a tray table in a normal row of seats, where the latch can be moved clockwise and anticlockwise.

In an exit row, this isn't the case, as it only goes one way.

They revealed why this was in the comments.

They explained: "The more you know! In the emergency exit row, the opening of the tray table is only possible in one direction, compared to all other seat rows.

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"Like this in the unlikely event of an emergency, an unintended opening of the tray table (due to people rushing by) is avoided."

Nearly 5million people have watched the video and many had no idea.

One person wrote: "Seasoned passenger but didn’t knew this."

Another said: "This changed my life."

A third added: "This is some serious attention to detail. Love it."

A former flight attendant also explained why tray tables and seats have to be up in an emergency.

Kat Kalamani explained in a video: "If there is an emergency… and your seat is backward, it’s blocking the egress [of the passenger behind you].”

The egress is how passengers are able to escape a plane in the case of a crisis or extreme situation.

She continued: “If a fire is happening on the aircraft, or it’s in water, seconds [can decide] a life or death situation.”

“This is the same thing for tray tables. If it’s down, you can’t exit the aircraft quickly.”

Just make sure to clean your tray table before using it - studies have shown it has the most germs on the plane.

Here are some other tips that will save your life in a plane emergency.

People were blown away by the tray table secret
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People were blown away by the tray table secretCredit: Getty