Originally Posted by
BizFlyin
With respect, you do not know what was going on at the plane at the moment, what the CSD was doing, or what was the most pressing issue. You do not know what instructions were given by the CSD to the crew. You don't know how the situation was managed, because you do not have all the information or all the variables.
Obviously the plane was operating well out of what would be considered the norm. For you to demand that the CSD essentially holds passengers hands as they descend the stairs strikes me as an odd requirement.
There was a fire on the plane which is non-trivial. You arrived safely. If I were you, my post would have had a very different tone. Probably giving the crew kudos rather than what we have here....
I'm not commenting about how the incident was managed. This was well after that had been dealt with. My comment is that there were 4 or 5 members of crew doing nothing but shrug their shoulders. They were just stood there. The incident was well passed and the situation was safe or else we would have landed elsewhere than LHR. There is nothing wrong in having some sort of management plan for dealing with the consequences of electrical failure in the Upper Deck.
Read my words again. And as one who you have previously accused of being an apologist, I'm surprised at you. If all the crew had been busy, I would have had no comment to make. The fact that there were no fewer than 4 stood there shrugging their shoulders and saying "dunno" in a disinterested way disappointed me.
An incident that has passed does not abdicate the CSD and the crew from leadership and organisation. There was no longer a safety issue on the plane. The situation with seats wasn't completely resolved until T-10, so the lack of organisation could have resulted in further delay.
Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail
The management of the incident was clearly good, as nobody in the UD was aware of it. But does responsibility for the care of the customers disappear as a result when that situation is resolved? I don't think so, YMMV