airmanofthequeen

An incident on a recent short haul flight has left me with a few niggling concerns about what I saw, particularly the safety implications of it. This was a very lightly loaded (30% full) flight back to the UK where I found myself as the only pax at any of the 4 over wing exit doors. I joked to the steward stationed for boarding in the middle of the plane that I would have to work fast to open all 4 doors myself. He laughed but didn't seem to register any issue with this. Boarding was announced as complete and we started to move. Only once we were underway was this issue noticed by the crew member I assume was what I will always refer to as the Purser (because I'm old-skool) but I'll admit I'm lost without the old silver scarf/tie to refer to! Despite having walked the cabin at least once already (and presumably reporting that the cabin was secure to the Captain), she seemed surprised to find 'unmanned' doors and set about asking pax to un-clip, stand up and move to those rows. We were by now not just manoeuvring on the ramp but were on the taxiway, and had made a relatively sharp turn to join it, all with 3 people standing up and moving around the cabin- one from a good 5 rows aft. Looking at the map of the airport, I can see that we were on the last few yards of the taxiway before the runway (and what turned out to be given the loading a 'drive it like you stole it' takeoff!) while the final man was clipping his belt on his new seat.

Where would this have left a passenger, unwilling to get up and walk around the cabin of a moving aircraft who declined to do so? Thinking here of 'obey all instructions from the crew' vs concern for personal safety and that of anyone you may fall on.

Can I help you

So firstly there should be a least one passenger or crew member seated in by over-wing exit row both sides, the Captain should have been informed that the cabin was not secure and the reason why, the aircraft should have the been brought to a stop while this was rectified.

airmanofthequeen

Thanks CIHY. That did strike me as being the safe thing to do but would obviously give rise to questions.

Being somewhat flippant- what happens if the flight is so lightly loaded that there are only 3 pax but 4 doors....

scottishpoet

seating would be done such that they sat at the seats by the doors manned by crew rather than the overwing exits

I have flown on flights (not BA) where overwing exits have been marked as in operable. the number of passengers allowed on board has been limited as a result.

RichieMc

I had the opposite last night to Geneva. Lightly loaded flight and curtain moved back late for some reason behind row 12. I was the only 1 in any exit row in 12C. FA had a really hard time selling anyone on the benefits of the extra legroom in the exit rows. But eventually enough brave souls stepped up and took on the sacred responsibility.

ginger50

Perhaps too many people have seen photos of a missing "plug" on an Alaskan flight and equate that with an emergency exit.

fransknorge

If I was one of the passenger being asked to move, I would have declined to do so while the aircraft was taxiing. What would have happened then ? Refusal to obey crew instructions?

Can I help you

You would be completely right to refuse, no Captain would expect otherwise.

Welcome On Board

Interestingly the manual does state that if is the passenger load is low (it doesn’t specify what ‘low’ is) then it is not necessary to comply with the restriction of having one person in each exit row.

I’d always ensure we have someone in each row though regardless of the passenger load.

orbitmic

In my experience, the situation is invariably noted and rectified when cabin crew complete their checks before the aircraft leaves the gate. In that case, they will ask a few people (usually nearby, or for instance in another exit row if one block has two passengers and another is empty etc) if they want to move. They would never force anyone (indeed, that people must "feel" able to help in case of need should in principle be a requirement to be in the emergency exit in the first place). It is more or less easy depending on whether the seats are in Y or C - so for instance, sometimes, the exit row maybe at the back of a largely empty C cabin, especially on a lightly loaded flight, in which case, C pax may refuse to move and crew may move the curtain and move pax from Y instead who are more likely to appreciate the privilege.

I think that here, the mystery is why the crew who did the check did not see the empty emergency exits as an issue and get it sorted, as noted by CIHY. That's hard to call this anything else than incompetence. Whenever this was noted, the taxiing should have been interrupted really and the situation resolved with some urgency but safely (ie certainly not with the aircraft being on the move but rather with it brought to a place where a full stop would be authorised, which may involve returning to the gate).

Can I help you

The manuals never cover every scenario but having just 3 passengers on the A320 you would just need to make sure that passengers where near a manned exit.

eagle4121

Boredom does more harm than changing seats on the taxi out…
It is not like the cabin crew have any extra training to walk safely when the aircraft is moving anyway.
If you only have 3 passengers on a flight and a full crew compliment then anyone concerned about over-wing exits needs a pragmatism test

ACES70

There was a thread about emergency exit rows on an American carrier recently. Rules and laws may be different.

AC681

This rule certainly isn't universal. In Canada (at least at my airline) there's no requirement for passengers to be seated at the window exit rows, unless we enter what we consider a "planned" emergency, some kind of issue requiring an emergency landing but we have the time to do extra preparation in the cabin. It's kinda like an extra in-depth safety demo. I've only had to do it once in 18 years of flying.

I've likely operated hundreds of flights (Dash 8 and CRJ family of aircraft), with window exit rows completely empty.

BOH

I have been on such a BA flight when there were about 6 pax in Y on a LGW-GOA flight in between Christmas and NY around 2016 or 17 IIRC. I had an exit row and one other pax did and the other exit row was simply left vacant after no other pax took up the offer to move.