Minimum Crew - Compromising Safety ?
I recently travelled on a B737-300 flight with a legal minimum cabin crew compliment of three.
The policy of operating with the legal minimum crew does not unduly concern me but the mix of experience within the crew gave me somewhat of an uneasy feeling.
This particular crew consisted of one experienced senior and two young junior members who were quite clearly, not only new to the airline, but new to the cabin crew job as well. Throughout the flight, the senior member had to guide the two junior members through most of the tasks and was, let's say, ready for a rest on landing.
(The experience I quote is simply through observation of crew actions and conversations between crew members overheard from seat 2C.)
Whilst I realise that cabin crew are trained to deal with all anticipated eventualities, could the lack of practical experience (for this read lack of familiarity with aircraft equipment) within a minimum crew compliment constitute a compromise in safety standards?
Is it common practise to integrate new recruits into a minimum crew compliment or for new recruits to be additional to the minimum compliment until some pre-determined experience has been gained ?