Takiteasy

For those of us not on this inside joke what is the relationship with QR? Is the OP a well known BA basher / QR lover? He’s still entitled to his opinion (which in this particular case I disagree with)

710 77345

Your ninja edit made quite the difference to your post

Think most of us agree that BA's overall safety culture to be higher than Middle Eastern airlines due to its greater experience and tenure.

makin'miles

I travel quite a bit, and have never seen an airline pushback with 9-10 passengers not yet in their seats.

I'd imagine that any western aviation safety regulator would take a pretty dim view of this indeed.

Cheapskate22

I’ll leave it to Jacob Rees Mogg to comment on the thread title!

Fitch

I take the various feedback above with equanimity. In the last 5 years, my sector count has varied between 28 and 98 annually. I have been all over Eastern Europe and Asia and have certainly seen worse.

But this was BA, operating between 2 EU countries.

Moving the aircraft with pax still standing up is not trivial. Continuing to move the aircraft, having been advised by CC that cabin was insecure, is a safety failing by the captain. A sudden stop, a passenger's head hitting something hard (or a heavy case falling on a head): it's not difficult to imagine serious consequences for the people concerned, and a painful compensation bill for BA.

Failing to have the exit row coversation AND ignoring a pax on his laptop in the exit row together amount to a safety failing by the cabin crew member concerned.

Both failings put pax at risk - completely unacceptable.

Feel free to snipe, mock and snark: this is after all an jnternet forum But these were real events which should not have happened.

P.S. If you want to check I didn't get my CCR and GGL cards out of a cornflakes packet, come and see me at the Do on 15/12

Snafu_again

I have to say that I disagree with those that say there's nothing unusual in this or that they've seen far worse. That's not the point !
As reported, this was unsafe and the BA crew have not followed their own SOP. If the captain has elected not to follow SOP on having the passengers seated and cabin secure before push-back what other bits of SOP might he choose to ignore ?

If the OP feels it's a safety violation then he should also make the CAA aware.

Bar Operator

Fitch, FWIW I think you did the right thing in reporting this to BA, but I don't think there's any harm in alerting the CAA either. They also have an interest in promoting safety.

It's not about punishment but about making people aware of the potential consequences of not following procedures.

Hopefully the SCCM will have filed an Incident report.

Knickam

I am also very surprised by some of the comments regarding safety issues

DesertNomad

On flights to/from Tbilisi on local airlines in the early 2000s it was common to have people standing during takeoff and landing. I remember a flight TBS-DUS where a few people were standing the whole flight and most everyone else got up the instant the wheels touched down.

HIDDY

Would a tug have been used to push the aircraft back?

Snafu_again

Yes. BA don't do "power backs"

duvin

Instead of what?

TravellerFrequently

I would be interested to hear BA’s response to the complaint.

Certainly sounds poor from the OP’s post, with risks for those standing and also seated nearby.

Snafu_again

And ex Soviet block aircraft / airlines used to have more accidents because of a lack of safety culture !

Whenever something goes wrong, most airlines (BA included) trot out "safety is our number one priority !" To work, that has to be part of the DNA just as much as cost cutting.

Nuster

Go easy, he doesn't travel much.

For the OP, it would be good to let aunt Mabel know as well as the CAA.