Vacant Cabin Crew Seat at Emergency Exit
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Vacant Cabin Crew Seat at Emergency Exit
I am posting on here to get some expert feedback, me being a freight dawg, about the requirement for cabin crew to be at their station on takeoff/landing etc.
On a recent flight with a ME airline on an A321 I was sat at the emergency exit at the R2 door. These exits (L2+R2) are floor level exits with one cabin crew station at R2. I was a tad surprised that during taxi and take off no CC sat at this station. This meant two floor level exits were unmanned. The only time that the station was used was for landing.
Additionally when parked on stand after the flight both doors were left armed. On this flight I did not hear the flt crew call for doors to be disarmed, there was a call but wasn't paying attention, but on other flights with the same operator since this is clearly the order when coming onto stand. I assume because the L/R2 and L/R3 doors are often used during a turnaround these are left armed. However when looking out of the R2 window there was so much ground equipment under the door the chute would have been unusable.
I queried this with the purser who said that the cc was needed elsewhere in case of an emergency and the doors should be armed on the ground.
Can someone here more educated than I confirm if these actions are acceptable, normal etc. I can't imagine two floor level exits can be unmanned unless some mitigation has taken place.
Cheers and many thanks in advance
DPWN
On a recent flight with a ME airline on an A321 I was sat at the emergency exit at the R2 door. These exits (L2+R2) are floor level exits with one cabin crew station at R2. I was a tad surprised that during taxi and take off no CC sat at this station. This meant two floor level exits were unmanned. The only time that the station was used was for landing.
Additionally when parked on stand after the flight both doors were left armed. On this flight I did not hear the flt crew call for doors to be disarmed, there was a call but wasn't paying attention, but on other flights with the same operator since this is clearly the order when coming onto stand. I assume because the L/R2 and L/R3 doors are often used during a turnaround these are left armed. However when looking out of the R2 window there was so much ground equipment under the door the chute would have been unusable.
I queried this with the purser who said that the cc was needed elsewhere in case of an emergency and the doors should be armed on the ground.
Can someone here more educated than I confirm if these actions are acceptable, normal etc. I can't imagine two floor level exits can be unmanned unless some mitigation has taken place.
Cheers and many thanks in advance
DPWN
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The Civil Aviation rules for different countries vary but most are 1 CC for every 50 seats. If you were on a plane with 138 seats then there should have been 3 CC. I worked on a 747SP with 9 exits and 4 flight attendants. Had 94 seats and the upper deck was not used for passengers.
As far as arming and disarming, all doors should be disarmed once the plane is parked at the gate. This prevents accidental inflation of the slides. To repack a single lane slide takes time, a maintenance department and a sign off by an IA. An expensive mistake.
I am in the USA so am pretty much going by FAA regulations, but have flown overseas and have instructed flight attendants for Hajj. Always disarm.
As far as arming and disarming, all doors should be disarmed once the plane is parked at the gate. This prevents accidental inflation of the slides. To repack a single lane slide takes time, a maintenance department and a sign off by an IA. An expensive mistake.
I am in the USA so am pretty much going by FAA regulations, but have flown overseas and have instructed flight attendants for Hajj. Always disarm.
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Not familiar with the ME rules, but don't expect them to be much different from ours. We operate the A321 and the minimum legal cabin crew complement is 5 cabin crew. With 5 cabin crew every set of exits is covered by a trained member of cabin crew.
In certain cases we can depart with less then legal minimum cabin crew, i.e. 4 instead of 5. In this case we can only carry 200 pax (normal 214), however all exits are still covered by a member of cabin crew.
As said before, in our company all exits must be disarmed when on stand.
In certain cases we can depart with less then legal minimum cabin crew, i.e. 4 instead of 5. In this case we can only carry 200 pax (normal 214), however all exits are still covered by a member of cabin crew.
As said before, in our company all exits must be disarmed when on stand.
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Minimum legal on an A321 in my experience is four, although we always operate with five. Have never seen an A321 with 214 seats though, suspect that is charter/low cost config.
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EASA/CAA requirements for number of cabin crew are 1 for every 50 seats or fraction thereof. 214 SEATS requires 5 cabin crew even if there are only 90 passengers... 200 seats requires 4 cabin crew, Any larger crew compliment is based on service and company needs. But when getting an AOC the company goes through an egress evacuation with the minimum crew they will use. They can always add to the crew once they have passed the CAA egress. But they can never operate with fewer than what the CAA approves.
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Doors 2 and 3 on our A321's have been classified as self-help emergency exits.
We have crew sitting there, as the jumpseats are there but maybe this could explain why this airline does not require crew to be sat at them and leaves the doors permanently armed.
We have crew sitting there, as the jumpseats are there but maybe this could explain why this airline does not require crew to be sat at them and leaves the doors permanently armed.
