Originally Posted by
shukar
I was on a flight from HOU-ATL last week and everything looked normal for an on-time departure until the GA announced that FA (one of the two) has lost her voice and they are looking for a replacement FA. Ten minutes later they announced that the flight was cancelled because they can not find a replacement and it is against FAA rules to have an FA that can not clearly communicate directions in case of emergencies.
Delta cancelled the flight and re-routed pax, some of them next day (with hotel/food vouchers etc). Fortunately I was able to get the next (last flight of the day) flight due to my status.
I just thought it was peculiar and if others had run into similar situations that on the surface sounds silly/trivial but end up causing so much cost/trouble for all involved (pax and the airline).
I'm sure that was frustrating, but I can understand how it could be a safety issue if the FA couldn't be heard in an emergency.
My frustrating "safety" issue occurred about a year ago on a short flight from MSP-RST. We were all on board and ready to go when the FA announced that we were missing one safety information card, and would have to wait for a replacement. The A concourse was lined up with many similar planes, so it seemed like they'd keep extras around, but it ended up taking an hour or two.
I understand why the FAA wold consider these cards a safety issue (even though most people never read them). The really frustrating part was that we were missing only one card but had several empty seats - meaning that there were more than enough for all on board. The FA explained that we had to make sure we had one card for every seat, in case the return flight from RST-MSP was full (as they don't keep replacements in RST). So when we got to RST, I asked the GA working the return flight how full it was. He told me "less than half full."
