The Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigating an incident at Hobart last year when smoke and sparks began shooting from the right engine of a Jetstar aircraft, has found that chatting crew contributed to what was described as a chaotic evacuation with eleven passengers sustaining minor injuries during the evacuation.
The ATB report released yesterday says that what should have been an orderly evacuation became chaos with flight crew not focusing on safety procedures by engaging in conversations not confined to the engine start process or other operational matters during both engine start sequences.
It also said that while the three aircraft doors were opened by flight attendants, when the right front door was opened, the escape slide fell to the ground uninflated.
Jetstar in response said that they generally believe that the evacuation was performed very briskly and they believed, very well, with the report adding that it was not just Jetstar staff who added to the evacuation drama, with the aircraft’s dispatcher not having received any education in emergency communications with flight crew nor aircraft evacuations at the terminal.”
The Report says that as the evacuation was ordered before a checklist had been completed, leading to some passengers grappling in the dark of the plane’s tail without emergency lighting, adding that as a result of this incident, the operator has undertaken several safety actions to enhance passenger safety.
The Report also says that the cabin crew evacuated themselves without making contact with the flight crew and only one member of the cabin crew ordered high heels to be taken off.
Jetstar will in future tell passengers to take their high heels off in the event of an evacuation and has issued new guidelines governing cockpit conversation,
Report by The Mole
