# senior member of various RAF Flight Safety committees
# active pilot
# spent more hours in the air in the front and the back than you can shake a big stick at

and finally.....

# perfectly good eyesight that can easily recognise a grossly overweight person that would have extreme difficulty in getting through an overwing escape hatch let alone getting down the aisle without undue difficulty.

Now.....if you could just put your handbags away ladies and let some sense percolate as betpump suggests....

In the USA you must be able to fasten the seat belt without an extender and be able to walk down the aisle without turning sideways. And if a full figured flight attendant passes recurrent training with no issues there is no way they can be grounded!

We, the travelling public, are constantly reminded by airlines that cabin crew are there for our safety and are NOT there simply to dole out meals, pander to passengers inane requests / demands, be abused by PAX who think the universe revolves around them the minute they step on a plane etc etc etc ...

Is it unreasonable for passengers to expect that in return ALL cabin crew are actually capable of performing the safety-related aspects of their job and that airlines will ensure that their employees are up to that?

Just asking like ...

CS

There are civil aviation requirements in place by all countries that cabin crew remain up to date on safety procedures. Generally every 12 months they go through recurrent, some countries could be less but never more. If they can pass recurrent they stay. There are no civil aviation requirements that all female cabin crew weigh less than 135 pounds!

At Qantas recurrent training (ep's) are every 6 months. She obviously passes or else she would not be able to crew a flight. Also as crew are last off in any emergency what does it matter to you the passenger if she can't fit out of the exit?? I do work with some very large ladies and besides them being extremely good at their job and a pleasure to work with I have no doubt in my mind that they would fit through any exit on the aircraft in an emergency situation.

The OP (sisemen) deleted this thread his/her self, along with derogatory comments about moderators and any other contributors to this thread that took a different view. I have now reinstated it - PPRuNe doesn't operate in Tantrum mode.

There is an issue here worth discussing, although some of the language and attitudes demonstrated in both the original post, and some follow-up posts have done little except polarise. The OP was unable to recognise that a potentially serious issue is trivialised by inappropriate language and attitudes: Let's try to address the issue without falling in to the same trap?

Yawn. Pardon me, but so what? None of the above makes you qualified to assess this particular flight attendant.

Unless you've got access to her EP records, were an instructor on her last EP session, or saw her performance in an actual evacuation, all you're able to do is give us an unqualified opinion.

Did you even see her walk down an aircraft aisle? Not according to your opening post!

If you are a "Senior member of various RAF Flight Safety committees", then I hope to god that you apply better reasoning and judgement skills on those committees than you're displaying here on this thread.

Referring to Ep's as a reference for 'being safe' isn't a very good judgement. Unfortunately the specific examining criteria from what both the company and the regulator expect isn't very high.

Shouting 'commands' and operating a door isn't rocket science. Being able to manoeuvre one's body through a hatch/door at a practice event every 6 months doesn't necessarily reflect what one would do during an event.

Sadly, the quality of EP instructors isn't increasing. Many prefer the easy way out with turning a blind eye as opposed to taking someone offline for their inability to perform due to physical proportions. Let's face it, it seems the easier way out instead of having to deal with unions and cabin crew manager blowins.

If the current advertising campaign by Virgin Australia is anything to go by it would seem that they have sound policies wrt size and weight :E