The group met while undergrad students at
Mount Allison University, in
Sackville. At university the members of In-Flight Safety studied non-musical subjects:
Daniel Ledwell was enrolled in fine arts, Brad Goodsell majored in geography, Mullane pursued a computer science degree and Nicholson studied art history and classics. Inspired by a short email from
David Bowie praising their basement-recorded
Vacation Land EP (sent to the band via
Emm Gryner) the members began dedicating the majority of their time to music. The band self-released its debut
EP,
Vacation Land, in 2004. The EP was distributed by
Universal Music Canada. They subsequently signed to Emm Gryner's
Dead Daisy Records, and released their full-length debut album,
The Coast Is Clear, in early 2006.
The Coast Is Clear was produced by Warne Livesey. The band is in
rotation on
CBC Radio and has garnered airplay on Halifax rock station
Q104. The band toured across Canada in the spring of 2006 to support both recordings. In-Flight Safety completed a tour of the
United Kingdom and
Ireland in the fall of the same year. They completed a Canadian tour with fellow rock band
Raising the Fawn from 25 October 2006 to 25 November 2006. It was their second tour across Canada with Raising the Fawn. Following the Raising the Fawn tour, the band linked up with
Young Galaxy for a west coast tour in 2007.
Dell Computers used In-Flight Safety's "Surround" as the score for their North American ad campaign in 2006. The award-winning video for "Coast Is Clear" was released in 2006 and received regular play on
MuchMusic and
MuchMoreMusic in Canada. It was directed by
Drew Lightfoot and filmed on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Their second album,
We Are an Empire, My Dear, was released in 2009. After the release of
We Are an Empire, My Dear the band completed two more national tours, one in the fall of 2009 with
Library Voices and one in March 2010 with
Said the Whale and
Yukon Blonde.
We Are an Empire, My Dear was released in UK and Germany in 2011. The band toured Europe in support of the album in March, April and May 2011. In September 2011, BBC Radio 1 presenter
Zane Lowe chose "Paperthin" as the next hype track. ==Other activities==