Easyjet inadvertent chute deployment
 

As relayed to me by a colleage (an engineer, not an aviation bod), whose daughter was on board at the time.

Airline: Easyjet
Type: Probably a 737
Place: Nice
Date: 23 June 2005


As I understand it due to some groundcrew error, the forward escape chute of the aircraft deployed just before moving away from the bridge. Apparently it deployed into the bridge, and the problem was solved by removing the entire chute, and emptying the forward pax compartment before departing en-route (with evacuation plans presumably satisfied).

I have no reason for knowing other than being a nosey blighter, and my friend and colleague would be interested to know what happened to his daughters flight.

Can anybody fill in the gaps?, either here or by PM / Email?

G

This happens from time to time with all airlines, and usually results in the crew member being grounded pending re-training.

It is very rare that the chute actually inflates as they are normally caught by the steps or airbridge. They have to fall a couple of feet before they automatically inflate. I assume that this is what happened with EZY.

EZY seems to blow a lot of slides lately... :ugh:

Happens in all airlines when introducing 'bus fleet. Daft design of arm/disarm handle too similar to door handle.

Takes a while for CCrew to get into correct habit.

Agreed, "Pin, Lever, Pin"

YS

Slides being blown is nearly always a cabin crew error, followed by a tea and biscuits chat with your manager.

Disarming lever - small square flat plate that you have to put your fingers behind (hold your hand out, palm up - you get the idea) to swing up to the disarm position. This requires little effort. When armed, the flat, flush plate completes the word "ARMED".

Door lever - a round "barrel" handle which you GRIP, much larger than arming lever. It swings in a much bigger arc than the arming lever and requires a lot more effort.

So one has ARMED and needs fingers to operate, the other is orange and has to be GRIPPED and heaved up to open the door. I'm not sure what else could be done to make them any more different.

If the door is opened from the outside then the slide should disarm.

The reason I assume groundcrew, is that apparently the captain was reported to have shouted some very choice things out of the window immediately afterwards - any clues?

G

With us the CCMs disarm doors and then check with Capt who refers to ecam e/wd door page to ensure slides are disarmed. Still I agree it can still happen.

Possibly to the tune of ....

Sur le pont
d'avion .....

:)

It's worth noting that those clever Airbus guys in Hamburg have always designed it so that lifting the outside door handle will disarm the slide and the door assist bottle.
Clever Germans.

The Germans were told how to do it.........by a Frenchman!

sehr klug!

I was told that a couple of pilots have developed a small modification to handles that will prevent this happening. The device is with Airbus as we read.

I would love to be standing behind the "perfect" kooyheiern when he or she next opens a door.

A gentle "Pssssst" in the ear usually removes any such overconfidence.:ok:

I'm just glad it was'nt a Ryanair otherwise this thread would be about 5 pages long by now!

kooyheier,
You make two assumptions . One is that the Sops are well thought out in the first place. The other is that you never get tired and that mistakes can be made. The problem with the airbus door is that the arming lever and the opening lever work in the same sense. It is a bad design!

I agree with Kooyheier, the levers are different and it even says whether they are armed or not and I assume (oh oh, more assumptions) that most people these days can read.

Come on, if cabin crew are allowed to operate those doors, how hard can it be! :hmm:

(not for the girls dressed in red of course)

Many years ago I bowled up to the gate at YYZ. We had a very senior lady on board line-checking the cabin staff.

Very senior lady line-checker volunteered to open 1 Door Left and forgot to disarm the slide.

DC-10 slides are quite large and this one inflated INSIDE the jetway. The "meeters and greeters" on the outside had to run for their lives to avoid suffocation!

Another supporter of Kooyheier here.....
I mean we are talking about opening and closing doors here.... It's not rocket science is it!!!!!
And having worked with them myself I found them pretty easy to use.
RWU how can you assume kooyheier isn't pleasent to work with or a professional who takes his job very serious for that matter... Just by judging him from a couple of posts??????

Very shallow don't you think.

Have to go now Direct VTB....Adios

Ghengis,

The a/c was an airbus A319. The dispatcher on the airbridge knocked on door 1L and a cabin crew member (not assigned to this door) opened it before it was disarmed. These are the facts. The reasons behind these facts are too many to divulge.

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