First post on the site--I hope this is the right forum. Basically I was hoping to seek input on whether/how to file a complaint with a safety issue that my wife encountered on her trip from London earlier in the day.
Here is what happened: my wife had a window seat today. When the flight landed at the Boston, the "piece" secured underneath the overhead bin fell off. By the "piece", I meant the entire panel that has the air gaspers and the reading lights, and also holds onto a bunch of interior gadgets and cables that passengers normally don't see. The size and weight of the whole thing is pretty substantial and likely enough to cause injury . Here is a picture of the scene:
Fortunately, my wife was not injured. She had felt something strange earlier. And since the flight was pretty empty, she checked with a FA and moved herself a few seats away while leaving her stuff at the original place. So no, no physical harm was done to her thanks to some "sixth sense". Still she was really scared with what happened and keeps saying she should avoid DL in the future.
So I guess my two questions are: a) how often do things like this happened? She's shocked that DL's maintenance could not have prevented this. And since she still has plenty of trips to take in the near future, she's hoping to see if similar issues can be avoided. Also, b) would a complaint do anything meaningful, like help ramp up the DL's safety?
Sorry for the long post...this is the first time we've encountered anything like this (both of us are FO for years), and we are just not quite sure what to do. Any input is appreciated!
Last edited by porfu; Dec 6, 12 at 12:22 am..
Reason: Embbed picture link not visible
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Quote:
Originally Posted by porfu
First post on the site--I hope this is the right forum. Basically I was hoping to seek input on whether/how to file a complaint with a safety issue that my wife encountered on her trip from London earlier in the day.
Here is what happened: my wife had a window seat today. When the flight landed at the Boston, the "piece" secured underneath the overhead bin fell off. By the "piece", I meant the entire panel that has the air gaspers and the reading lights, and also holds onto a bunch of interior gadgets and cables that passengers normally don't see. The size and weight of the whole thing is pretty substantial and likely enough to cause injury . Here is a picture of the scene:
Fortunately, my wife was not injured. She had felt something strange earlier. And since the flight was pretty empty, she checked with a FA and moved herself a few seats away while leaving her stuff at the original place. So no, no physical harm was done to her thanks to some "sixth sense". Still she was really scared with what happened and keeps saying she should avoid DL in the future.
So I guess my two questions are: a) how often do things like this happened? She's shocked that DL's maintenance could not have prevented this. And since she still has plenty of trips to take in the near future, she's hoping to see if similar issues can be avoided. Also, b) would a complaint do anything meaningful, like help ramp up the DL's safety?
Sorry for the long post...this is the first time we've encountered anything like this (both of us are FO for years), and we are just not quite sure what to do. Any input is appreciated!
Was it the direct to BOS or a connection? We had pretty much the same happening in a 757 in September after a hard landing in ATL. The purser pretty much just pushed it back in place and I would anticipate it happening again.
BTW: we cannot access the picture.
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Dont waste your time reporting it. Something like that happens very rarely, and can not be prevented normally as its hard to detect. Two or three hard landings could've loosened the panel. E-mailing Delta is just going to get a canned response and no action on their part. I cant see your picture to determine how big it is, so I wont try to dis-credit the notion that it might hurt if it were to fall on somebody, but I imagine this is probably minor on the day to day issues that Delta does encounter and again, its not like there's anything Delta can do to prevent this if it isnt easily visible.
Now if you were flying on AA, and the seats were popping out of the floors...then you might have something worth complaining about.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingHigh20
Dont waste your time reporting it. Something like that happens very rarely, and can not be prevented normally as its hard to detect. Two or three hard landings could've loosened the panel. E-mailing Delta is just going to get a canned response and no action on their part. I cant see your picture to determine how big it is, so I wont try to dis-credit the notion that it might hurt if it were to fall on somebody, but I imagine this is probably minor on the day to day issues that Delta does encounter and again, its not like there's anything Delta can do to prevent this if it isnt easily visible.
Now if you were flying on AA, and the seats were popping out of the floors...then you might have something worth complaining about.
I beg to differ. The overhead assembly features a set of sharp edges and clocks in between 10 and 20 lbs. I also disagree to that being unavoidable - the problem is that DL would probably not remove an entire plane for something "small" like that. In the case I witnessed it seemed to have happened before - there was a tiny string and scotch tape attached.
__________________ DL '12 SEG'S 38 MQM 137000 CO|UA '12 EQM 2000 - Loyalty should go both ways but DL is trying the one way street on me.
If you saw the documentary "The Plane Crash" where a 727 was deliberately hard landed (very) into the Mexican desert the cabin was pretty much intact except all the overhead panels "popped" out. Seems like the fasteners are designed for easy removal and not to hold on tight.
Dont waste your time reporting it. Something like that happens very rarely, and can not be prevented normally as its hard to detect. Two or three hard landings could've loosened the panel. E-mailing Delta is just going to get a canned response and no action on their part. I cant see your picture to determine how big it is, so I wont try to dis-credit the notion that it might hurt if it were to fall on somebody, but I imagine this is probably minor on the day to day issues that Delta does encounter and again, its not like there's anything Delta can do to prevent this if it isnt easily visible.
Now if you were flying on AA, and the seats were popping out of the floors...then you might have something worth complaining about.
Agreed. I was once on a CR9 (N604LR iirc) and the covering around the reading light in my row was totally removed so you could see the circuit board(s) and some of the wiring. Did not complain to Delta. If it did not cause an injury there is nothing to see here beyond just alerting the flight crew who can have maintenance take care of it after the flight is over
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I suggest emailing cabin.mtc@delta.com, making sure you share your flight #, seat #, and date so they can track down the aircraft. I don't know if they'll reply, but it'll go directly to maintenance instead of customer care.
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So I guess my two questions are: a) how often do things like this happened? She's shocked that DL's maintenance could not have prevented this. And since she still has plenty of trips to take in the near future, she's hoping to see if similar issues can be avoided. Also, b) would a complaint do anything meaningful, like help ramp up the DL's safety?
A) Almost never. Also, it's not a DL specific problem, heck it's not even a problem, in the chronic sense.
B) You can mention it and likely get some miles. For certain the panel was repaired before the plane took off again. Maintenance is surely aware that these panels can come loose and I'm sure do all they can to ensure they do not while the plane is loaded. Unfortunately, it's one of those things that is terribly difficult to anticipate.
If loose overhead panels on DL are a concern and beyond the comfort level of your wife, she should book elsewhere, but it's an irrational concern with DL, as the chances of it happening on any other airline are exactly the same; near 0%.
I suggest emailing cabin.mtc@delta.com, making sure you share your flight #, seat #, and date so they can track down the aircraft. I don't know if they'll reply, but it'll go directly to maintenance instead of customer care.
Again, no need. There's a 100% chance the panel was repaired before the plane ever saw another passenger.
Agree with others that this issue was quite evident & would have been reported, resulting in maintenance on the aircraft.
OP: Welcome to FT! In general, I do think it's worth reporting things that need to be fixed.
As nystateofmind suggested, when I have encountered mtc issues, for example a seat back that wouldn't recline, or a J IFE that's acting up, I'll report it to the crew during/after flight so they can make note of it. In the seat example they were already aware of the problem (it had been locked upright) & it was on the list for the next time there was time to fix it (i.e. long stopover at a mtc base, or when other mtc on the aircraft was scheduled to take it offline). There are some routine maintenance issues, AKA 'go items,' that are known to require fixing, but don't require keeping the aircraft out of the air. But IMHO it's still worth mentioning even a minor fix to the crew in case it's a new issue. And reporting directly to the crew doesn't result in pesky miles being dumped into your account as a consolation prize.
Anytime I observe a maintenance issue, I simply write a little note with the pertinent information and hand it to an FA or a member of the flight crew as I exit the aircraft.
The most recent note said something like: 4B - Reading light is broken.
I think this is helpful because if you tell an FA while s/he is walking through the aisles, it's possible that s/he will forget. This also makes it clear that you are simply making them aware, rather than "trying to complain."
Just make sure you do this after the flight; in today's flying culture, giving an FA a folded note, while in flight, might raise some eyebrows.
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Here is another picture after a hard landing. I swapped phones and I am unable to find the one with the overhead segment fallen down all the way.
This particular segment flipped out on three sides but remained attached to the frame on the window-facing side. The purser just used a string and some scotch tape to secure it loosely. Both passengers sitting there were comparably small, thank god, as this thing would have hit someone right on the head when when it swung down.
PS: Maybe the traditional FT welcome was not fully appreciated by porfu. Non super KM/DM/VFF are very concerned about safety or parts dropping from a plane rood and have not fully embraced all of your "been there, done that" attitude.
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Last edited by Canarsie; Dec 6, 12 at 1:07 pm..
Reason: Removed now-deleted quoted content.
Thank you all for the suggestions and comments. I tried to add the picture to the original post last night, but it apparently did not work out. I hope this current attempt shows how the panel swang through where my wife's head would have been.
It was a direct flight LHR-BOS, an older 767 if I remember correctly. I believe DL already fixed this one--the FA definitely took notice when it happened. Plenty of people where taking pictures
And it is good to know that this does not appear to be a common issue. I guess we were a bit emotional yesterday. My wife was glad that she was spared from an injury by sheer luck, but mad that this could ever happened. In the near future, we'll probably just use some caution and double check around the seat when we fly.
