In less than a week, I have witnessed 2 safety incidents onboard AA flights.

1. A BWI-ORD flight on a 737. The flight attendants seemed to struggle with how to operate the video PA system. Upon starting the safety video (overhead screens), we got to the part showing the exits, and then the video stopped suddenly. The crew looked at each other, walked down the aisle saying “seat belts please” and nothing more. There was no attempt to restart the video or perform the briefing manually. Essentially, half of the mandated safety instructions were not presented to the flight.

2. At MDT, a passenger notified the gate agent that he forgot to remove some spare lithium batteries for his electric drill. The agent said “I don’t control that, only the TSA does”. She made a phone call, and then told the passenger, “don’t worry, the bag has already been loaded onto the plane”. He knew it was a problem, and asked them to bring him the batteries so he could put them in his carry on.

Both incidents jeopardize the safety of all on board. 1 with passengers possibly not knowing what to do in an emergency, and 2 if the batteries were to start a fire.

I wrote in about the first incident, and received a canned response that the info would be added to a database for review (I’ve seen that one before”.

What can and should be done about this?

Would anything actually come of that, or just “added to a database”? These are serious issues and I want to be sure something is done about this. In my note to AA, I even noted I don’t want anything except for assurance that this will be handled seriously, and perhaps some follow up regarding it

Good news on number 2: AA had a manager meet the plane in Charlotte to investigate the battery in the bag. They were given the information of the passenger that had the battery so they could locate the bag and get more detailed information about the agent at the origin airport (as to what transpired).

This was definitely handled serious and with urgency. I had my doubts based on the initial reply, which seemed to just be putting in a database for review. Overall pleased with the response, but this never should have happened in the first place.

I’m sure most frequent flyers don’t, but newbies probably do. At the end of it, it is the law for a safety demo to take place. We’ve seen way too many instances where passengers fail to follow instructions in an emergency (not wearing oxygen masks properly, bringing bags with them during and evacuation). Not doing the demo fully no only could make these issues worse, but could open AA up to huge liability if it wasn’t done, and something were to have happened.

Second issue - probably just laziness