Frenzied passengers on BMI charter flight at palma
 

I heard reports of an incident on a bmi charter flight from palma to belfast on july19th. It appears that 1 passenger got very nervous about the condensation mist from the air con, he got up of his seat during take off roll and started shouting about smoke in the cabin, this then prompted about 12 more pax to leave their seats and some of them were banging on the flight deck door to alert the crew during the rotation. Needless to say the flight deck and cabin crew were not amused.

"Needless to say the flight deck and cabin crew were not amused". I find what you have stated as quite alarming. Its obvious that the pax where very worried indeed and whilst we might know what the problem was, an lnfrequent flyer might fear the worst. I suggest you take stock and if you think pax or for that matter crew should keep quite if they suspect a problem just remember the jet out of lhr that came down in staines, again people/crew not saying anything. So are you saying you would keep quite.

Yes UKDean, they should have kept quite quiet during what was a very critical manouvre. Now I'm off before the professionals arrive who belong on this part of the forum.
s37

So, do BMI not do "packs off" take-offs? Or do they run them from the APU? Thought we were all trying to save fuel? Got to admit, when it is particularly humid I always mention the "smoke" during my welcome PA to prevent such an occurance. Happened to colleague at IBZ as well, except it was the overwing exit on stand........:ugh::rolleyes:

A4

UKD.... are you refering to the Stanes Trident? What did that have to do with pax/crew not speaking up? Wasn't it an unauthorised selection of slat to zero to "teach" the (unpopular) Captain a lesson?

4

I think it should be standard practice to include the possibility of this occuring during the first PA announcement.

Is he getting confused with people not speaking up on the LHR-BFS flight which ended up in Kegworth? (Wrong engine shut down)

One of the points to come out of the Kegworth disaster was passengers telling cabin staff about the problem engine. The cabin staff failed to pass this information on to the Flight Crew and another opportunity to change a disaster into an incident was lost. Advances in CRM should now prevent a similar situation occurring again. In the mean time don’t write off all SLF as no nothing hysterical ballast – sometimes they will spot things that pressurised Cabin and Flight Crew do not.

A4......"to teach the unpopular captain a lesson "

That's a rather stupid thing to say..........as if anybody's going to set up a fatal accident "to teach a lesson" !!!!!

(The LE flaps were erroneously retracted by the first officer, thinking he'd selected the TE flaps)

criminey we're back to the passengers aboard the train/tram pulling the cord to be let off.

This is a very bad move and is sure to cause many more accidents then it saves.

I know that nothing can/should be done about verbal concerns, but leaving one's seat when told to sit down presents the offending passenger as a missile against other passengers.

Hmm, banging on the FD door? Bonkers! Still, there are many nervous flyers out there. That doesn't however warrant behaving like a prat. If the pax could see it then the cabin crew would have been able to. If it was then indeed a serious risk, the cabin crew would have informed the flight deck. Those passengers actually endangered their own lives by standing up. Imagine what they would look like had the pilots rejected the t/o!
BEFORE you start telling me this and that about Kegworth etc, we have come a long way since then. Given the circumstances it was a bad decision to leave their seats.

Morton is quite right. When I drew the cabin staff's attention to a crack in the wing they did not appreciate what I was saying although they did ask that I remain behind to show the captain.

She thanked me and said she would tell maintenance.

I had made a value judgement that the crack was not a safety of flight matter and could be left until we were safely on the ground.

May the answer is to require an intelligence test prior to issuing a ticket. As Ron White says; Doctors can't fix stupid.

The thread has drifted off to other things, but my very first airline flight was on a Martin 202 (or 404) and the cabin filled with "smoke". Fortunately the cabin crew immediately explained it as condensation. The flight was from DCA to LGA, presumably Eastern Airlines. We then took the helicopter service across to EWR. Ancient history.

Install train type communication cords/panic buttons at every seat with a placard advising GBP 10,000 penalty for improper use..... (credit card data required prior to activation)

Damn - a certain Irish airline might just snap up this money raising scheme before I have the chance to take out a patent:E

At least they didn't pull the plug.
OCCURRENCE REPORT

(Hot start BTW)

What? 16 posts and only three abusing the customers for their unfounded fears? Gentlemen, you are slipping!

Of course really good crews anticipate these types of events and defuse the developing situation in advance, often without the Customer even knowing they have been spotted as a white knuckle flier by CC and targeted for reassurance.

767 electric hyd. pump start up and the usual bangs and thumps still makes some people jump.

If I was in that situation, then I probably would of done the same. If a passenger shouted "Smoke in the cabin" and then 11 others got up, I probably would of done the same - being the 12th.

It sounds stupid, but I don't want to find myself in a situation at 37,000FT which I could loose my life, and that of my families.

I also would of thought the crew, might of said it's totally normal or something to calm them down.

What can YOU do at 37,000 ft?
 

As a passenger, what can you realistically do at 37,000 to 'save your life'? Best thing to do is stay calm and seated unless instructed otherwise by those in charge and who have the training and knowledge to deal with the situation. 12 passengers, out of their seats and storming the flight deck aren't going to be sorted out with a few soothing words!

I suggest to include "banging on the door during rotation" tests during interview's sim rides in order to eliminate all the potentially dangerous pilots that may have panicked and crashed the plane. Another solution would be to open the door during TO to prevent such incidents and to close it in cruise to prevent hijacking or even to recruit deaf pilots to conduct rotations.

Had this happened at Lexington, Kentucky in August 2006 50 lives would possibly have ben saved.

Comair Flight 191 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia