Evacuation or Deplane
Good evening,
A couple of days ago there was an emergency landing at ORT in South Africa. The causes are still unknown, but basically the left main bogey on a 737-400 failed and separated on landing. The crew chose not to evacuate, but instead waited for the emergency stairs and deplaned the aircraft. I'm not trying to fault the crew's decision making - everybody walked away unhurt and that's all that really matters - but I am curious what other people would have done.
Personally I would probably have called for an evacuation. I know it increases the risk of injuries, but after structural failure like that and when the fire department deems it necessary to start foaming the aircraft, then I think it is time to get out.
From a the cabin crew's point of view, would you have initiated the evacuation yourself? Our company's policy is that the cabin crew can initiate an evacuation in case of a catastrophic event. I'm pretty sure that is an international guideline as well. Would you deem such an event "catastrophic" enough to make that decision?
Some pictures of the event can be found on this forum: http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=165007&start=60
Looking forward to hearing your inputs.
Prop Job