United 737 Slide Deploys in Flight
 

“When the pilot came out right after landing he said, ‘Oh golly, I’ve never seen that before.’” (Wonder if he really said "Golly"?)

I believe there has been a serious injury (or fatality) in a previous internal slide deployment. The slide takes no prisoners! The cabin crew were fortunate indeed.

While not an in-flight deployment, one or two cabin crew were trapped, injured, by slide deployment inside cabin during Asiana 214. Had difficulty deflating the slide to free those trapped.

Can we get technical for a second?

What type of malfunction have lead to in-flight deployment?

And I think in several of these slide incidents they have had trouble finding anything sharp to deflate the slides. An interesting antedote of post 9-11 travel.

(and no I am not suggesting that Rambo type survival knives and machettes be allowed as carry ons.)

There should be a fire axe in the front office.

United Airlines flight forced to land after evacuation slide deploys mid-flight | Metro News

(includes video)

I have always carried a Swiss Army knife on me up until this modern day daftness where it now goes in the hold.
Infinitely useful many times and more importantly the potential to be.
I've been traveling commercially and on offshore helicopters for 40 plus years now and have seen a case in a helicopter that flamed out after lifting of from a satellite platform in which one guy drowned as his seat belt buckle was twisted and he could not get it open in time. Maybe if he had access to a small knife it could have turned out differently.

wondering if people have forgotten the obama campaign plane (md80) incident in which the tail slide inflated, rubbing the control cables?

I wonder what happens if I pull this handle?. :eek:

What handle would that be?

It happened to us
 

While renewing slide on Tristar in Riyadh the old one opened and the door was shut, a guy was pressed so hard against the galley that he was in danger so out came our screwdrivers and problem over. But I can tell you all it fills the area very quick, we all looked at each other and said it wasn't me of course!!!!

Keep them up boys:cool:

insomniac

what handle would that be?


well, the handle identifies who did it!

it reads (or read)

JERK TO INFLATE

so it must be the captain. just ask any F/A!

Technical explanation
 

The girt bar on the 737 is a crappy little rod that has to be engaged in two slots by hand and disengaged to disarm the door.

A distinct possibility is that the girt bar was not properly in the slots, this would mean that if someone stood close to the door and stood on the bar, they may have pulled it down enough to fire the slide.

That is the only way I could see it happening.

I hear that a Jet2 737 suffered a similar incident a few months ago.

Supposedly broke an F/As arm when it threw her across the rear galley and pinned her to the opposite door.

I heard there has been some serious discussion about seat-back airbags for the pax and instrument panel ones for the pilots. A sticking point is at what G-load they should deploy; considering some of the 'firm' landings followed by max braking techniques that are sometimes employed; and the 22 stone chump who lets it all collapse into their seat scaring the hell out of the granny in the seat behind. That must be close to a 6g shock load.
Also, what safety issues should be incorporated to prevent accidental/inadvertent/unnecessary deployment.
Could it be that this was a test of such systems and it went wrong?

Tongue in cheek once more.

Ahhhhhhhhhh Errrrrrrrrrr. NO.

It was a 737 rear door slide that activated.......somehow the girt bar was pulled out and fired the slide.

What are you on about?

I know a mech who was pinned by an A330 slide going off in the rear galley. His arm broke but thankfully he managed to reach his stanley blade with his other arm before he was crushed/smothered. They have killed in the past

" The girt bar on the 737 is a crappy little rod that has to be engaged in two slots by hand and disengaged to disarm the door.

A distinct possibility is that the girt bar was not properly in the slots

I don't know about the NG, but, on the 2/3/400 series the girt bar was hardly a "crappy little rod". fairly light in construction yes, but certainly not as you describe it.

The girt bar attachment points on the floor however, were prone to sticking due to a combination of usage and the general "rubbish" that accumulates on entry door / galley floors, no matter how extensively the area is cleaned.

Having deployed plenty of "time ex." slides over the years, we can only be thankful, that, whatever the causal factor (s) there were no injuries or fatalities given the rapidity of a slide deployment which is the intention after all when being used for the purpose they were designed for.

It will be interesting to learn what did cause the activation therefore.

With no one hurt, integrity of flight unchanged, and only one Lu obstructed - why divert (especially to ICT where UAL has no mx)? The safety need for those exit doors would be no different if either ICT or SNA.

I'm sure the pax would have wanted to press on as scheduled rather than divert for an inconvenient overnight in ICT.

OK we Monday morning Q backs were not there but I agree with L-38. After deflating it with a suitable tool carried as emergency equipment it is just an annoyance. Brief for one door inop on landing and continue to destination.

There seems to be a lot of a** covering and not a lot of thought goes into abnormals these days. Probably the X generation that have got into management and pilots have to Kow Tow to them.

Does anyone know if the flight crew deflated the slide inflight?

Could the crew have been sure there was no structural damage? A quick Google search gave an inflation pressure of 3 PSI. That's maybe half the differential from aircraft pressurization, but presumably it could go higher if the slide were inflated in a confined area. And, of course, the load would be transferred to the aircraft structure differently than pressurization load.

Moosp has an excellent point that I had not considered . . . just staying one step ahead of management's relentless attempts to gig you, now plays as the ultimate consideration in dealing with any un-written abnormal - just put her down!

How easy is it to confirm that no one is pinned under a slide?
How about when the FAs escape forward and the slide divides the aircraft in half? How good is communication with the aft end?

The guys up front are pilots not engineers.
They have no idea what caused the slide to deploy or what other damage may be lurking unseen. The FE who would probably have fully understood the situation no longer exists.

Rather get it on the ground and let the experts deal with the problem.

Headcount. It's only a 737, not the Radiance of the Skies (oops, Seas).

I'm with moosp. Deflate it with the @#$ and press on.

I am pretty sure that dispatch and maintain acne were involved in the decision to divert. The captain could have done it on his own, but that would be very unusual for a United crew.

Window heat is indeed correct in the explanation of the girt bar,
many times the door is shut from the outside,only by the loaders,
and it is possible to shut the door without the girt bar being fully
engaged..depending of course on aircraft type..the A380 has a middle
button which you must depress constantly for full travel of the door.