"Cabin Crew of Burning Jet not trained to open doors"
The above headline appeared in this morning's Times in relation to the AAIB's report into the Ryanair suspected engine fire at Stansted in February 2002.
Whilst the headline hardly sounds like an objective comment, the article (based on the AAIB report) still makes pretty distrurbing reading.
The two key points were that the female cabin crew found the two starboard doors too heavy to open with the slides engaged, (the doors were only then opened and the slides deployed with the assistance of other cabin crew) and as the fire was in the starboard engine and the fuselage was down wind of the fire the starboard doors should not have been deployed - indeed 6 passengers were ordered back into the plane off the starboard wing by fire crew
The AAIB found that Ryanair new entrant cabin crew were not properly trained in opening exit doors.
I would have expected the Ryanair response to be - obviously we have revised trained cabin crew training etc etc - but the comment quoted by the Times is rather different :"IF the IAA and the JAA modify existing procedures on the back of this recommendation then we will, of course, like all other airlines, implement new modifications fully." (emphasis added) Is this an appropriate response?
Two points (1) surely Ryanair should ensure that its cabin crew have practised opening the doors in a realistic deployment scenario and (2) how did the plane end up down wind of the fire, and how did the starboard doors get opened (in each case post the Manchester fire AAIB recommendations?