MD80 tail stairs
 

I have flown the MD80 on several occasions and boarded and disembarked through the tail stairs. Who are the stairs operated (opened and closed) by; the cabin crew or ground staff?

seasick

Usually it will be opened & closed by the ground personel( Engineer or Technision) but in some remote cases can be done by the cabin crew from inside.
To Open the stair you don't need hyd. sys. once it's unlocked, it will open and unfoleds by it's own wight and design, however for closing you do need a hyd. sys. (normal way). But if for some reason there is no hyd. sys. or malfunction in the retracting sys. it can be folded and closed manually.


Hope I could answered your question.

Fixitor...:)

Ground staff, as the operating handle is on outside of the aircraft. On the DC-9, the cabin crew could raise the stairway but not lower it.

The company I work for used to have the cabin crew operate the aft stairs. From the handle that was placed inside the aircraft.
It was very rare to see ground personnel operate the stairs.