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It’s the little things that can cause big problems.
American Airlines flight 2399 from Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) to Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) was delayed today. But the reason why is rather interesting: one writer says the incorrect emergency procedure cards were placed in the seatback pockets.
In a piece titled “AAmateur Hour” (c’mon, that’s funny!), BocaNewsNow.com’s Andrew Colton says, “Maintenance crews at its home base can’t find enough cards for all of the seats.”
Well, that’s annoying.
“The crew thought the problem was solved when [a] maintenance worker… delivered several cards for distribution. But it turned out he pulled the wrong cards, and now can’t find the correct cards.”
Mr. Colton said that the A321 was remodeled. But the replacement cards were outdated — and pertained to the plane’s previous, pre-refurb state.
The apologetic captain reportedly said, “I don’t know what to say. Once we get the cards, I’m going to fly the plane like I stole it.”
The whoopsie caused the plane flight to depart about two hours late. “The cards were ultimately found in an airport storage facility. Passengers were told to ‘pretend you’re in school’ and pass the old cards to the aisle before new cards were distributed,” said Mr. Colton.
He pointed out that the aircraft arrived from Seattle — presumably with the old seatback cards. Folks in the aviation industry: is having the wrong seatback cards a big FAA violation? Does this sort of thing happen often or is AA2399 an isolated case?
The plane is scheduled to return to DFW tonight. But it’s already running over an hour late.
We contacted American Airlines for comment and will update this post when they get back to us.
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seems like a lot of trouble and delay for nothing.
Your comment is offensive because making sense is a crime. You’re right. It was a delay over nothing. Maybe the flight crew were concerned about some bureaucratic rule that has nothing to do with flight safety and delayed the flight because of the kafkaesque nature of government and regulators that don’t allow for reason in operation. Flight safety cards are like with security theatre. They really don’t make people safe. Very few read them. Most people have been on a plane before and know the general safety routine.
A rational solution was for flight attendants to announce there are no cards, give the demonstration, and if anyone as questions to ask them. If I were the pilot, I would have left on time and the Fed’s would be none the wiser. Maybe because of social media and people broadcasting anything is why the pilot remained.
“A rational solution was for flight attendants to announce there are no cards, give the demonstration, and if anyone as questions to ask them…Maybe because of social media and people broadcasting anything is why the pilot remained.”
I get what you’re saying. But perhaps there are company and/or government mandates about safety cards. If something happened during that flight and the correct safety cards weren’t in their places, there would be all sorts of hell (and money) to pay for that oversight.
How hard is it to Google something? This is from an article on flight safety card design. “The safety card is actually critical to takeoff. “If you don’t have a safety card on board, in every seat, the plane is grounded,” Ferguson said, citing FAA rules.” Crikey.