how much does this screw-up cost?

[luvthe9]

Too many!
Trust me when I say that the last thing a mainline F/A should do is start harping on RP for 1 slide deployment.

About 48

 

[Jonnyd]

A fully-loaded 757 bound for LAS had a slide blown in PHX by a mechanic last week. I hear the look on his face was priceless. Rampers do it. Cleaners do it. FAs do it. Union people do it. Rent-a-rampers do it. Everybody does it. I haven't done it. Not yet, anyways. Give me time.

This reminds me of a safety poster in a PHX ramp breakroom. There was an article about an AS aircraft that depressurized in flight because a rent-a-ramper whacked the plane with a beltloader (leaving a crease) and he failed to notify anyone. Some wag wrote, "Non-union fleet service at work!" on the article. Let's forget how people whack into engines, punch holes in planes with beltloaders, tear holes in bin floors, etc on a weekly basis in PHX. <_<

I love that look on people's face when it happens. I remember back in the good ole' MidAtlantic days when we were working in F-Term and a slide deployed. I was walking up the jetway with 2 CS agents continuing a conversation as the plane was pulling up. They pulled the jetway on, and all of a sudden the door pops open, and I hear sort of a "hissing" noise. All I thought was "holy s&*# the slide!". After the short "hiss" came the "pop". Luckily, they only opened the door halfway, so it sorta stopped the slide from coming out. The look on the FA's face was priceless though, and we all had a pretty good chuckle about it. The mechanics were even pretty cool about it.

 

[FlyOnWall]

Yeah but the thing is when its an employee thet can be disciplined or retrained. When it's an employee of a contractor they have no control, but still eat all of the direct and indirect costs and loss of revenue.

 

[N965VJ]

I *almost* blew a 1R slide on an F100.

We were sitting on the taxiway for a while and I was kneeling down looking through the hotel room door peephole that passed for a window with my hands resting on the handle.

As I stood up, I managed to put some upward force on the handle, just enough to start to nudge it a bit (I was a big out of shape guy then, so standing up took a little effort).

I’m surprised I didn’t trip the microswitch. At the very least I could’ve messed up our pay by cracking the door, but maybe that only happened with the 1L door after the brakes were set.

Just goes to show there are a lot of ways to do something really embarrassing.

 

[ONT_CP]

A fully-loaded 757 bound for LAS had a slide blown in PHX by a mechanic last week. I hear the look on his face was priceless. Rampers do it. Cleaners do it. FAs do it. Union people do it. Rent-a-rampers do it. Everybody does it. I haven't done it. Not yet, anyways. Give me time.

This reminds me of a safety poster in a PHX ramp breakroom. There was an article about an AS aircraft that depressurized in flight because a rent-a-ramper whacked the plane with a beltloader (leaving a crease) and he failed to notify anyone. Some wag wrote, "Non-union fleet service at work!" on the article. Let's forget how people whack into engines, punch holes in planes with beltloaders, tear holes in bin floors, etc on a weekly basis in PHX. <_<

I was flying from the Big Island back to LAX on UA.. and a quick storm hit the Hawaiian island... unfortunatly, the ramp worked did not secure the baggage cart and viola "BANG" into the engine... and "BANG" against the aircraft... although no one noticed damage, the flight was cancelled... it was interesting when the fingers went pointing on who should have stopped it..

Not a Slide deployment, but interesting.

 

[Charlie_Tuna]

My guess would be not to many!

As usual you speak as authority on things you have no clue about. Oh course because of your limited experience flying with every F/A at USAirways you think you have the answer. Its approx 48 and that puts your experienced guess somewhere way out in left feild.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Its approx 48 and that puts your experienced guess somewhere way out in left feild.

Ok, let's compare apples to apples.

What's the rate of inadvertent slide deployments per 1000 departures per month for Republic's US Express vs at US mainline/MDA.

That should determine who has "the most" - after all, comparing raw numbers can be misleading given the wide disparity in the size of the operations.

Jim

 

[Charlie_Tuna]

Ok, let's compare apples to apples.

What's the rate of inadvertent slide deployments per 1000 departures per month for Republic's US Express vs at US mainline/MDA.

That should determine who has "the most" - after all, comparing raw numbers can be misleading given the wide disparity in the size of the operations.

Jim

Well original question was how many slides mainline blew not to compare the amount to Republic's. Would you say 48 is many or few? I say one is too many.

 

[BoeingBoy]

"One is too many" applies to many things, including inadvertent slide deployments.But, as always is the case, stuff happens.

But an absolute number means nothing without context and your answer to the original question seems to paint US F/A's as much worse in this respect than Republic F/A's.

Now that may be true, or it may be false - I have no idea. The only thing I know for sure is that there's never been an inadvertent deployment by "my" F/A's in 26-1/2 years. Given that this represents many more opportunities than Republic has had in their 5 months of flying for US, it's at least anecdotal evidence of an answer - but only anecdotal.

Thus what could be construed as the intent of the original question - is Republic's record better or worse than US' in this regard? That question requires the rate of deployments to answer.

Jim

 

[Allegheny Commuter]

Sorry if the facts get in the way...but this wasn't a blown slide.

Before the depature back to FLL, crew noticed the slide material was coming out of the slide door compartment, attached to the door. Slide material was dragging on the floor. After inspection by contract MTX, it was determined the slide would have to be replaced.

Not real sure why the slide was inflated and laying on the ground.

 

[FlyOnWall]

Sorry if the facts get in the way...but this wasn't a blown slide.

Before the depature back to FLL, crew noticed the slide material was coming out of the slide door compartment, attached to the door. Slide material was dragging on the floor. After inspection by contract MTX, it was determined the slide would have to be replaced.

Not real sure why the slide was inflated and laying on the ground.

Contract crew, contract maintenance. Only thing genuine US Airways is the stranded passengers.

 

[SegmentKing]

Sorry if the facts get in the way...but this wasn't a blown slide.

Before the depature back to FLL, crew noticed the slide material was coming out of the slide door compartment, attached to the door. Slide material was dragging on the floor. After inspection by contract MTX, it was determined the slide would have to be replaced.

Not real sure why the slide was inflated and laying on the ground.

Unfortunately that is what happened TODAY... the slide didn't deploy but was hanging from the door, with the left side about 2" below the door line.

The events in the photo did in fact happen, about 2 weeks ago, and the slide did deploy after the door opened.

 

[jimntx]

well.... rumors are that somehow the slide unraveld after the door opened.. if it blew while the door was being opened (armed) then the agent on the airstairs would have been severely injured or killed as it would push them back and down the stairs.

That may be true on the Embraer, but I doubt it. They used to tell us that we would kill the agent if we failed to disarm before opening the door. However, I know that at AA all of our slides have a lanyard attached which is long enough that the slide pack has to drop about 2 feet before the slide will deploy. This is to keep the slide from blowing if (for instance) the nose gear collapses and the door is at ground level. A blown slide in that case would block the door preventing exit.

If the slide pack simply comes out of the door bustle and falls on the airstairs, I doubt it would inflate. The f/a's self-esteem might deflate, but I don't think the slide would inflate. If anyone knows differently for sure about the Embraer, please post.

How do I know? It happened to me at ORD one day. The agent (a newbie) re-opened the door without knocking first (procedural violation) after I had closed and armed it. The slide pack simply plopped out onto the jetbridge. It took a mechanic about 2 minutes to put it back in the bustle and we were on our way.

 

[Charlie_Tuna]

But an absolute number means nothing without context and your answer to the original question seems to paint US F/A's as much worse in this respect than Republic F/A's.


Thus what could be construed as the intent of the original question - is Republic's record better or worse than US' in this regard? That question requires the rate of deployments to answer.

Jim

No you took my comments wrong. The full intent of my answer was to show that El Bobby was showing his ignorance and infatuation with himself again by commenting on what he has no idea about or first hand knowledge of.

And by the way the original question "How many slides did US Mainline Flight Attentants blow last year?" Seems to have been brought up from this comment from EMBFA which seems to imply that all the big girls on mainland aircraft know how to handle doors with slides so they never mess up. Seems to me traderjake wanted a number to prove that this was a false statement by EMBFA. This is the poiny El bobby jumped in feet first with his useless comment.

"slide popped on an emb170 in key west. NOT a midatlantic plane with mainline crews. guess they don't warn the replacement flight attendants at republic air that these planes have escape slides on them and doors that need armed and disarmed. WE know how to handle doors on big-girl planes but i guess usair doesn't want us anymore."

 

[Charlie_Tuna]

Charlie perhaps you might want to consult a dictionary. "Guess" means just that, a guess, or a perception. In 6 years at over a 100 segments a year I personally have NEVER seen a slide deploy except for pics on here. So my comment that my "Guess" is not to many.

US Airways has 1462 M/L departures a day and 2,293 Express Departure each day or roughly a half a million departures per year on M/L and about 50 deployements or .0001%

So I ask you is that "Not to Many" or is it "A few"? Or perhaps "Not a Lot"?

Should I have used "Estimate" instead of guess Charlie? Wouldn't want to insult your tender heart now so please advise on the correct verbbiage, oh wordsmith of the boards!

No El bobby you just jumping in something you have no clue about. 100 segments in a year out of over half a million flights and never saw a deployment. Excuse me expert extraordinaire. No silly stop thinking about your poor self the best thing would have been to keep your trap shut and not guessestimate anything as your answer had no meaning or basis in fact at all. But we know some have to involve themselves in everything and seem to enjoy putting their foot in their mouth and make a fool of themselves..