Do infants count in the crew to pax ration of 1-50?

[jetset lady]

We had a situation yesterday of having 21 infants on lap, on board a 737 with 3 crew. Our 737-400 has a config to 147. The question came up as to wether infants should be counted in the over all head count, as that would then require a 4th crew member for a full flight with over 3 infants on board. Having spent ages searching through our JPM's, the answer appeared to be yes, in that it stated, per passenger on board rather than per seat. However, the company has now come back to us saying it is, in actual fact, per seat that counts. I have been trawling the internet in search of the answer but, so far have failed to find anything useful. Can anyone on here point me in the direction of the difinitive answer?

Thanks

Jsl

[Mercenary Pilot]

The company is correct, it is per seat.

From the Air Navigation Order:

(13) The crew of an aircraft on a flight to which this paragraph applies shall include cabin crew carried for the purposes of performing in the interests of the safety of passengers, duties to be assigned by the operator or the commander of the aircraft but who shall not act as members of the flight crew.

(14) On a flight to which this paragraph applies—

• (a) there shall, subject to sub-paragraph (b), be carried not less than one member of the cabin crew for every 50 or fraction of 50 passenger seats installed in the aircraft;
  
  (b) the number of members of the cabin crew calculated in accordance with sub-paragraph (a) need not be carried if the CAA has granted written permission to the operator to carry a lesser number on that flight and the operator carries the number specified in that permission and complies with any other terms and conditions subject to which such permission is granted.

Regards

MP

[Boxshifter]

Brand new EU OPS says:

OPS 1.990

Number and composition of cabin crew

(a) An operator shall not operate an aeroplane with a maximum approved passenger seating configuration of more than 19, when carrying one or more passengers, unless at least one cabin crew member is included in the crew for the purpose of performing duties, specified in the operations manual, in the interests of the safety of passengers.

(b) When complying with subparagraph (a), an operator shall ensure that the minimum number of cabin crew is the greater of:

(1) one cabin crew member for every 50, or fraction of 50, passenger seats installed on the same deck of the aeroplane;

So based on this 3 cabin crew seems to be in line with the EU OPS.

However if something different, more restricting, is stated in the Operations Manual the rules of the Operations Manual shall be observed.

[jetset lady]

Thanks for that Mercenary Pilot and Boxshifter. This is as I had originally thought but when we checked our onboard Ops Manual, it stated "per passenger presence" which is where the confusion has originated from. I will let the company know to ammend the manual.

Thanks again

Jsl

[A Very Civil Pilot]

Jetset lady, as you're flying a 737-400 I guess that you are not a 'Jetset' anymore, but the TOM/FCA ops manual has a maximum of 15.

[jetset lady]

A Very Civil Pilot,

I operate on the 737, A319 and 777 so still a Jetset!

Our manual appears to be slightly contradictory in that it states, we can carry an extra 10% of the total load capacity in the form of infants, so in our case 15 and as such, we have 15 infant belts on board. However, we have been told that approved belts can be supplied by the out station to carry more infants if neccessary. It seems this is an issue with our manuals rather than legal regulations.

Thanks

Jsl