Jetstar FA, actually in the UAL 801 incident, in a taped interview one of the FAs mentioned above admitted having to physically stop the ABP's from taking over as they were so gung-ho they wanted to command the evac even though she was ok...
true ABPs can be handy but I'm sure you will agree, not as handy as someone who is trained and familiar with the operation of the doors. I mean, who wants to be opening a door for the first time when you've got 50-100 of your fellow pax screaming at you, smoke, dire, confusion etc, if you've never done it before?
At least an FA (even if an extra or paxing) has the backup of 'routine' experience with the door to be quicker than the average joe during an evac... also, no matter how much you brief your ABP's in the say, 20mins you might have, it's probably not long enough for them to truly understand the impoartance of not using an unusable exit - someone who doesn't know 'why' is likely to do as happened with the Manchester incident and open a door into smoke/flame/fumes... and kill a lot of pax...
An ABP is not substitute for an FA!! They're just a backup for 'worst case'!! Thinking otherwise is like saying a guy with a PPL will do as well as the tech crew 'as a backup'... let's not kid ourselves.. .as Sinala said, just because the rest of the world does it this way doesn't mean we should too!!
Last edited by SkySista; 9th Sep 2006 at 20:42.
Reason: shocking typos! :p