QF - 737 door arming?
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QF - 737 door arming?
Is it actually a requirement that Cabin Crew kneel down to arm the doors on the 737? I always thought it was, and have always seen it done this way when I have been able to see the doors from my seat on QF and DJ 737s, however flying from MEL-SYD yesterday from my seat in J I saw a more senior looking Flight Attendant (therefore I assume she certainly knows what she's doing) essentially stomp the girt bar into place with her feet? It looked a bit odd to me!
Is this normal?
Is this normal?
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The ONLY possible thing I can think of is are you SURE that she was the one actually arming the door (slide)?
Is it possible that it was already armed by another Flight Attendant and she was only cross checking it?
Is it possible that it was already armed by another Flight Attendant and she was only cross checking it?
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Qantas doesn't crosscheck.
PLEASE tell me safety at Qantas hasn't sunk to that level.
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1. Yes kneeling to insert/remove the girt bar is SOP, however, there are *some* crew who choose to do it the way you've described. Whether or not this is what you saw, I cannot say, but yes- I have seen it and yes it is against QF's policy. If caught a CC is likely to get sent back to EP training.
2. Crosschecking has been deemed not necessary, as Qantas feel that cabin crew should be adult enough to take responsibility for their own door. I believe that in the past, some crew got lazy/complacent about dis/arming doors properly because they figured the other crew 'would catch it' during the cross check. As I was told during initial training, when they removed the cross-checking procedure, in conjuction with door opening being (mostly) done from the outside, the rate of inadvertent slide deployments fell dramatically (they do seem to have less than other airlines in Oz over the last few years- whether this is due to aircraft type I couldn't tell you....)
2. Crosschecking has been deemed not necessary, as Qantas feel that cabin crew should be adult enough to take responsibility for their own door. I believe that in the past, some crew got lazy/complacent about dis/arming doors properly because they figured the other crew 'would catch it' during the cross check. As I was told during initial training, when they removed the cross-checking procedure, in conjuction with door opening being (mostly) done from the outside, the rate of inadvertent slide deployments fell dramatically (they do seem to have less than other airlines in Oz over the last few years- whether this is due to aircraft type I couldn't tell you....)
Nunc est bibendum
It would be at least half a decade since QF crew have been told to cross check the door. Part of the reason was to make one person responsible for the door. And yes, our rate of slide deployments has dropped. I disagreed with it at the time but you can't argue with the results.
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Does anyone know exactly how long ago the cross-check was removed from their SOPs? I recall reading a post on this forum that said it was 20 years ago, however this seems a little long to me.
As far as I remember, the removal of the "cross check" requirement on door arm/disarm was also driven by the idea of making the primary responsible for the door through which s/he would evacuate. A great motivator I would think, cock it up and it might get ugly for YOU personally if things go bad.
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As far as I remember, the removal of the "cross check" requirement on door arm/disarm was also driven by the idea of making the primary responsible for the door through which s/he would evacuate. A great motivator I would think, cock it up and it might get ugly for YOU personally if things go bad.