I’m a former flight attendant and this is why the fear of accidentally activating an emergency shutter gives cabin crew NIGHTMAREES (not least because they open with enough force to kill someone)

Emergency slides are installed on planes to save lives, but they are deployed with such force that they can take one away.

This fact has never gone unnoticed by cabin crew, with former flight attendant Jay Roberts revealing to MailOnline Travel that accidentally activating an emergency slide is “a mistake that flight attendants and airport workers around the world dread, giving us nightmares about.”

Jay, who has worked as senior cabin crew for Emirates and runs the popular one Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge network, said: ‘Even with various checks and balances involving more than one person to ensure that the slides do not open accidentally, accidents still happen, and on larger airlines they happen several times a year and cost airlines tens of thousands to to pack again. Besides being costly and causing great embarrassment to colleagues, known as that crew who “blew a slide,” the mistake poses a real safety hazard.

“Regardless of size, an aircraft must be able to evacuate in 90 seconds or less. Every second counts, which is why the emergency valves are deployed with enough pressure to be fully inflated within seconds.

“That power can deal a deadly blow to someone who stands in the way and does not expect his deployment.

Jay Roberts (above) – who has worked as senior cabin crew for Emirates and who runs the popular Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge network – said the fear of accidentally activating an emergency slide is “a mistake that flight attendants and airport staff worldwide fear , causing so much anxiety that we have nightmares about doing it’

“While I don’t know of an incident where anyone has died from being crushed by a slide, there have been times when it came close. In 2013, Asiana Flight 214 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport in California. The impact force caused two of the eight slides to fly in and trap two flight attendants at their stations next to the exits. One of the flight attendants reportedly suffocated from the pressure and was saved by the quick action of a senior crew member who used an emergency hatchet in the cabin to deflate the side.

Because of this safety risk, most modern aircraft exit slides are designed to automatically shut off when opened from the outside.

In addition, whether the airline’s procedure requires the door to be opened by the ground crew outside the aircraft or by the flight attendants, all airlines will have a slide disarming process at the end of each flight to reduce the risk of accidental slide deployment. minimalize. . When you enter the gate, you will always hear an announcement like “cabin crew preparing for arrival and standing by for all calls”.

“After this PA, the crew is freed from their jump seats and disarmed their doors. If they are on an aircraft large enough to have other crew stations, they will visually or physically check to see if their colleagues in the neighboring station have also disarmed their door.

“In modern aircraft, the chief flight attendant will check on a screen near the front left side door to see if the slider status has changed from enabled to disabled. That crew member will then call all flight attendants to verbally recheck the slides.

Jay said, “Regardless of size, an aircraft should be able to evacuate in 90 seconds or less. Every second counts, which is why the emergency valves are deployed with sufficient pressure to fully inflate within seconds’

Each crew member says his station’s location, followed by the confirmation “disarmed and crossed.” Then the lead crew member announces, “Ready to open doors.”

“After this, the crew member will still follow strict procedures to begin the opening process. You couldn’t open the door of my former airline without a senior crew member called “the checker” behind you. You would look at the disarm lever and confirm that it was disarmed with the words “door disarmed”. The controller would then reconfirm and say “Door disengaged – you may open.” This was followed by slowly opening the door as we watched for warning lights to indicate that the door was still attached to the arming mechanism.’

In addition, Jay revealed that ground crew are trained to disable the doors from the outside, with the most essential step being to “step to the side or back when the door opens in case the slide blows up.”

Jay said, “On my previous airline, the ground crew gave the crew a thumbs up through the window to indicate that it was safe to open the door. in case the slide blows out of its hold.’

The former flight attendant noted that even with all these procedures – “accidents happen.”

He continued, “When you see photos or videos of slides used in the media, they are usually the result of crew inattention, older aircraft with manual disarming procedures, equipment malfunctions, or a passenger opening the exits on the ground.

‘In my experience, unintentional deployment of slides was often caused by crew fatigue. For example, at my former airline we operated many long night flights and it was the airline’s procedure that all doors had to be opened by the crew when on board. In general, the slide deployments took place after these night flights.

“I remember an incident where the junior crew member disarmed their door, walked to the opposite exit to check that their colleague had disarmed their door, came back to their exit, which was verified by a checker to be disarmed, opened the arm lever safety and opened the door again, ignoring the warning lights that activate when you start opening the door in armed mode, and blew the slider when opening.

Jay said, “If you see photos or videos of slides used in the media, they’re usually the result of crew inattention, older planes with manual disarming procedures, equipment malfunctions, or a passenger opening the exits on the ground”

‘The result of a slide activation for passengers is often a long delay or flight cancellation. If the aircraft was on an active flight, a new slide will need to be attached, which can take a while to find and install. If one is not available, the aircraft can still operate. However, procedures typically require passengers to be moved from that area around the non-working door, and if the flight is full, the number of passengers must be reduced, which means you could be kicked off the flight.

Emergency slides are vital to commercial aviation, saving thousands of lives every year. They are highly respected safety tools, and for those who get the rare chance to use them, the incident is an event that will go down in their career history books, often becoming an aviation legend. Aviation safety is a system based on trial and error, where each incident is used as a case study to learn from and improve. Each slide activation is examined and the data is used to shape better procedures and aircraft components to better protect profits and people.”

For more from Jay visit www.instagram.com/aflyguytravels And www.facebook.com/aflyguyslounge.