notquiteaff

New experience today for me (and apparently everyone else, incl. crew) on AS589 (SEA-LAX, A320). Boarding was almost complete when a really, REALLY loud bang was heard from row six. I was in row 8 and it totally sounded like a gunshot. Clearly a lot of people around me thought the same (a few seconds on panic where no one really knew what to do or where to hide), but kudos to one of the FAs nearby, who immediate knew what had happened and calmly explained that the airbags (all three on the ABC side) had deployed.

Paramedics were called to check out the pax in that row. Minor injuries, but they are moving with us to another aircraft.

Steve in Olympia

Were these airbags (as in automobiles) or oxygen masks?

wrp96

Sounds like it was the airbags in the seatbelts in the bulkhead row that deployed.

notquiteaff

Yes, row 1 and 6 have seat belt air bags. Maintenance and crew seemed surprised that all three �fired� simultaneously, and I think that is why they made us change to another aircraft, to not take the risk that the other side or row 1 might deploy spontaneously inflight.

notquiteaff

Here is a pic I took while deplaning.

econ

Looks like someone�s PDB didn�t quite make it intact.

notquiteaff

In PC? Nope. That’s from bags of ice provided to the passengers in that row who had airbag burns on their arms.

econ

Well I figured It would have been the self-procured variety.

notquiteaff

I wouldn�t be surprised if a free self-procured PDBs were spilled when passengers where trying to hit the deck.

Madison Guy

I wonder what's up with the taped-up end of the armrest. (That clearly was not done recently.) I don't fly AS, but if that is their idea of maintenance, I'm glad I don�t. (Yes, I've seen similar "repairs" on other aircraft, but that coupled with the deployment of the airbags does make me wonder. Of course, I'll be the first to say I have no idea where the triggering mechanisms/sensors are for them.) Quite possibly there could not be a relationship between the two, but I found it interesting.

amc184

I was also on the 8th of October AS589 flight, and it sure was a strange incident. notquiteaff was quite a few rows closer - I initially thought someone had slammed an overhead bin near me closed, but quickly realized it was much loader than that. My second thought was a negligent discharge of a sky marshal's firearm, but I heard an airbag mentioned, which made sense.

My understanding is that these are used to provide crash protection where the normal way (bracing against the collapsible seat back in front of you) isn't available. I've seen these in herringbone business class seats, but I guess sometimes they're used in bulkhead row economy too. I was pretty shocked to see this happen, I would have thought a safety critical system involving an explosive charge and possible passenger injury would be designed with a likelihood of failure so low that and incident like this would be almost inconceivable. I'm also a little surprised to see that there's a common trigger for a group of airbags.

Considering an aircraft change was required the delay wasn't too bad, only about 90 minutes if I remember right. We simply reboarded onto a different plane of the same type with the same boarding passes, and I was kind of surprised that they put two of the three affected passengers into the same seats, also equipped with airbags. That must have been fun for them, but maybe they weren't that rattled by the whole thing.

tinkicker

Inadvertent deployment does happen and any sensor can go wrong.

I'm curious about the medical treatment and the rapid turn about for the affected passengers. Typical airbags can result in a mix of friction, thermal and chemical burns. Flushing and cooling with large volumes of saline (water in a pinch) would be normal but I'm not sure bags of ice is entirely recommended? It would't remove any chemical residue anyhow. I have seen a report of a child being seen by airport paramedics and released back on a long haul flight only to end up in hospital on arrival and need 12 months of intermittent skin treatment as facial burns developed during the flight. Uncommon perhaps but also unpleasant.

thatmikereed

That, and they can't fly with three disabled airbags / have to fly without passengers in those three seats.

Given the impact of an airbag coming straight up, I can imagine three folks are going to have claims for injuries, even if small.

notquiteaff

They were first going to reseat the three passengers in other empty seats and then decided to switch planes.

Fortunately it happens very, very rarely. The captain came out and spoke to the row six passengers and told them that he had never experienced this (he at first thought it was a gun shot, too), and that he had only heard of one incident on a UA 777.

I have never really paid much attention to the air bags. I frequently book row six and don’t actually recall why I didn’t for this particular flight. I am in row six again in a couple of weeks (unless I get upgraded) and won’t change. It’s just some very rare issue that I don’t worry about - I’d be shocked if it ever happened again on one of my flights.

The affected passengers had a connection at LAX that they didn’t want to miss (not going to say more, even though the captain talked about it on the PA, so the whole plane knew where they were going). And I am not going to comment on medical issues for privacy reasons.

thatmikereed

I don't know, but I'd be surprised to learn that functional airbags - occupied seats or not - aren't required equipment on a plane, meaning it can't fly until they're replaced.

Won't argue against your perspective, but people in public in a public incident. Not sure where the privacy concern comes from in giving a generic description of injuries sustained.