VS Cabin Crew - Safety Video Opinion

[Departures Beckham]

Having flown back today from Kennedy with Virgin, I was a little concerned with one element of their inflight safety video (Dani Behr and Vic Reeves/744). The video showed the main deck exit proceedure as being 1. Rotate Door Arm - 2. Door Will Open.

This is quite simply not true. It takes a certain amount of force to open the door, force which involves pulling one side in, while pushing and rotating the other. I felt the video would have left the majority of passengers waiting at the exit for it to swing open like the front door of their house.

I'd like to know the opinion of VS cabin crew on this element of the video, which otherwise seemed to be very good.

[Balboy]

Hi...

Not familiar with 774 Main doors, however I assume that they behave in a similar fashion to 757 Main doors; that being when the handle is rotated whilst the door is armed/automatic, the electrical assist mechanism is activated, and will push the door outwards...very fast.

So remember to let go of the door once you feel it swinging away from you...god forbid you ever find yourself in that situation.

Hope this helps.........Merry Christmas

[scroggs]

When the door is in automatic (anytime away from the gate), opening is power-assisted and requires no force from the person operating it.

[Departures Beckham]

Thanks SC and Bal for the answer ... I knew I should never doubt Mr Reeves!

Can you just clarify one further point for me. When doors are 'automatic' this simply means that the power-assist and the automatic opening of the slide are armed. Therefore when manual, the usual 'push-and-pull' method is required to open the door and manual (pull-cord) inflation of the slide is required.

Thansk again, and Happy Holidays.

[starship]

The escape slide is contained in the slide bustle, as part of the door in normal operation. The arming lever, has two settings - Armed (or automatic) and Disarmed (or manual). At pushback, all doors will be placed to automatic (Armed). The slide has a 'girt bar' - a bar which when automatic is selected, attaches to the fuselage of the aircraft at floor level. Therefore, the slide is attached to the aircraft (whereas in manual/disarmed mode, it was contained in the bustle, or housing on the door). When the the doors are set to Automatic, the 'power assist' mechanism becomes active.

Manual - Open door in normal operation, slide can not be used as it is still contained in the slide bustle and is not attached to the aircraft. No Power assist, standard opening of the door required.

Automatic / Armed - Slide attached, Power assist active. On rotating the operating handle, the door will be forced open - no force required by the crewmember. As the slide was attached to the aircraft, it will stay as so, and as the door moves out, the slide will drop from the bustle, activating the inflation sequence.

The slide can not be used when the door is in manual mode, but if the slide fails to inflate on opening the door in automatic (when it would be attached to the fuselage and simply hanging outside the aircraft), then your first priority would be to pull the manual inflation handle.

cheers,

starship

Merry Xmas :cool:

[Departures Beckham]

Thanks Starship, all received and understood.

[Call_Belle]

The drill for opening a door for emergency Pax evacuation would be to pull the manual inflation handle as soon as the door is open rather than to wait and see if the slide inflates/fully inflates.

[starship]

I agree Call_Belle that pulling the Manual Inflation Handle in all instances is the best action to take, and would certainly do it anyway as soon as the door was open, whether or not it was included in the drill.

cheers,

starship :cool:

[galley-wench22]

I believe the pulling of the manual inflation handle is specific to certain airlines.

The proceedure for the airline I work for is to pull the inflation handle as soon as the door is open. This is to save time, just in case the slide does not inflate automatically.

[gladrags]

Hi Guys,
The procedure here at BA is that slide mounted manual inflation handle must ALWAYS be pulled in the event of an escape chute being deployed for emergency evacuation purposes.
This has to be done even if the slide appears to be inflating under it's own steam.

Better to be safe than sorry!!

gladrags:cool:

[Cabin Pressure89]

Hey guys and gals!!!!

Just thought I would let you know that the main deck door on the 747-200/400 series should be pushed open until it reaches 25 degrees, this is called the cocked position.

When the door is pushed 25 degrees power assit will kick in. If power assist fails then you push it so hard until it opens!!!!!

Always pull the manual inflation handle.

If the door is not pushed open nothing would happen!!!! As I work for Virgin I will let the SEP dept know about the video, see what they say.

Just giving information what I have been taught by my last two airlines!!!! Dont want to ruffle any feathers!!!!