Inadvertant Slide Deployment A320

[Scylla]

Just read that US Airways are introducing a red velcro strap across the door handle of their A320s to act as a 'reminder' to crew when the door is armed and to try to prevent their rash of inadvertant slide deployments. Reminds me a bit of the 'flag' we put across the B737 window.

Anyone Stateside got a photo of the mod? Might be interested in doing it in Europe too.

[Chuchinchow]

There is absolutely no innovation in the idea:TWA were doing the self-same thing on their 707s forty years ago.

[prim737]

Interseting since Boeing and even Mcdonell Douglas have use Red Warning flags for years. Airbus system is not the best in my mind. Worked years agon on the 320 and our company had many slide deployments at the gate ( not myself). Flew recently as pax on a large European carrier on their A340 and heard from the flightdeck over PA that all doors not dis-armed, could lead to a fatal accident. Red Flags are a good visual warning.

[Scylla]

The 'good' thing about the 'Bus is that the door disarms if opened from outside. Also we've discovered that if the cabin crew do blow a slide with the steps / bridge outside, then the slide will flop onto the platform but shouldn't inflate - it requires the weight of the slide falling to set off the gas. Still not a good thing mind you and I wouldn't want to be the gate staff seeing that big yellow chute unravelling in my direction.

Any photo of the US mod appreciated as we may like to use it here and have been discussing various SOP options for a few months now to prevent these.

[superllama87]

will a velcro strap really work as a reminder? if the crew are so tired they are already going for the door open handle rather than the slide disarm lever i dont think it will really work?

[TeamJQboy]

Qantas and Jetstar procedure is that standard door opening on Airbus types in a normal operating situation is never performed by cabin crew from the inside.

Ground staff approach the door from the outside, give two firm knocks on the viewing window, cabin crew assess that the door is disarmed and safe to open, give a thumbs-up through the viewing window which is met "thumb-to-thumb" with the same gesture from the ground staff, and then the exterior door opening sequence takes place.

This means that if the door is ever opened from the outside in the armed mode then it will automatically disarm (as most of you know with Airbus doors). With cabin crew never opening the door from the inside then it should eliminate the chance of ever having inadvertent slide deployment.

Having a velcro-strap there, whilst a prominent feature, can still be another safeguard that is missed in the process of cabin crew opening the door from the inside.

To those who say having crew open doors every day gives them the ability to 'feel' and 'experience' the door operating handle so they are prepared to use it instinctively during an emergency; thorough re-current training and emergency door opening exercises should provide for this.

Just another angle to consider.

[EW73]

I seem to remember that Classic B747 doors would not deploy the chute if opened from the outside, hows my memory with that?

ew73

[Piltdown Man]

TeamJQBoy - What an excellent idea. We loose just under one slide per 200,000 flights and are keen to reduce this number, obviously with minimum effort and cost. This appears to be minimum effort and very cheap.

PM

[brian_dromey]

I know a number of carriers have painted the slide arming handles yellow to avoid confusion.

Could the carrier in question implement a cross-check procedure? Where there are two cabin crew one "gets" door L and one door R both crew members must confirm the sides are disarmed on both doors before the door can be opened on-stand. Where there is one cabin crew at a door a call-back procedure could be implemented. (I've seen what I best describe as a "confrence call" on the A321, for example) each member needs to confirm "their" door is armed/disarmed before doors can be opened.

Another option would be to implement a "crew yellow selector handles - disarm" call to be made once on-stand, or just before it. Either made by the No.1 or flight deck.

[Boomerang_Butt]

The QF procedure also works on the B767.

The only variation to this procedure is for the 737... the crew "crack" the door to show the ground staff that the girt bar is disengaged and the ground crew then continue door opening.

*If* the door happens to be armed, cracking the door ensures the slide pack does not have the space to actually drop and thus deploy, giving the crew member the chance to close the door again.

Always found this procedure to be the most sensible & logical way of doing things, especially when bone tired after a BOC flight.

[dixi188]

On our vintage A300-B4s, the door handle has a warning system that sounds a "Beep" and illuminates a red light when the handle is pulled about 10 degrees, if the slide is still armed. Do the newer types have this feature?

I always pull the handle a little bit and wait a moment before pulling all the way. I have once had the warning alert me to a slide not disarmed!

I have seen several slides blown in my 40+ years in aviation including the one on "Air Force One" shown on CNN.

[givemewings]

Not sure about other carriers but at mine we have that buzzer feature on the A380.

[Markhkg]

Frontier Airlines equips their A320 doors with a red "armed" strap that is attached by a button-style snap. One part is attached the the door handle and it will cross over the orange operation handle.

You can see a picture of the disarmed configuration here (the strap is on the right...not the safety flag on the left):

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