Fake panic button to make the passengers feel better

[Lauwrah]

I am trying to remember a book I read years ago....the main characters are in a crashing ship and they press the panic/in case of emergency button, but it's fake. Engineers installed it to make the passengers feel better while flying but it actually does nothing. Thanks!

 

[Catswold]

Sounds like one of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide books, but that's as far as I would hazard.

 

[gully_foyle]

Sounds Red Dwarfish to me. A bit like avoiding going to code red because it means changing the light bulb.