Just when I thought I'd seen it all....

Last evening, I was on a Saab 340 flight from MSP to RST. We boarded in time, but then I heard the FA say to the pilot that "we can't leave without that card." Turns out we were short one of the emergency cards that they put in the seat pockets, and FAA regulations prohibit flying short. It seemed kind of odd because the flight was only 2/3 full and there were plenty of cards for us, but I understand the return flight could very well be full. Fine so far right?

Well, it turns out that NOBODY had a clue as to where they could find another card. I could hear the pilot talking to MSP Ops, then tell the FA "Ops says they don't have any." The GA comes on board and says the same. Then it gets really weird. They start talking about trying to get a spare off another Saab...but it turns out that a whole batch had just taken off and we were the only one that they could see at a gate. Seemed odd that the GA couldn't check on their computers where others were for sure -- she just kept looking out the door on the jetbridge, craning her neck to look over the CRJ next door to see if a Saab was at a gate. Finally, they think there might be one on the B concourse (we were on A), so someone runs over there and comes back empty handed -- apparently, they had just departed. Then, we hear propellers and everybody perks up again! Hooray! A Saab is here, a Saab is here! Someone goes over (again to B) and snatches a card, and we finally depart, 30 minutes late.

Now I fly enough to know not to get worked up over a 30-minute delay, and understand the need to follow FAA rules. But in this one, the cause of the delay and the Larry-Curly-Moe routine trying to fix it was just ridiculous. I have never seen a group so tragically unprepared to deal with a problem. Anyone ever been through something like that??

Wow - amazing the delay was only 30 minutes.

I wonder if a possible solution could have been to simply make a copy of one of the existing cards.

I'm sorry, that's really a dumb rule. Almost no one reads them in the first place.

They could have easily copied one or asked 2 people to share one.

Sounds, to me, like a FA just didn't want to go to RST

It doesn't matter to anyone what you feel about the law.

The airlines are required to follow FAA rules. If they don't, they can be fined or otherwise severely penalized by the FAA and perhaps put in jeopardy the jobs of those who decided to buck the FAA regulations.

If people would stop stealing the briefing cards, placards and other required equipment for souveniers, you wouldn't have been in that situation. Unfortunately, this happens from time to time and when it does, it's a circus. It isn't a maintenance item, it isn't a ground staff issue and it isn't something we normally have lying around. Usually ops has them, but it sounds like last night they didn't have any. Sounds like the crew did the best they could short of canceling the flight.

Mikey - you're not serious are you?


AZJ

What are you doing in RST on a weekend Not much to do around here...

My CO flight early Monday was delayed because it had too much fuel. At first they announced at least a 45 minute delay, and they were offloading luggage (most people would have missed their IAH connection); but then they quickly reloaded everybody and got out about 25 minutes late after fuel had been siphoned off.

The aircraft was originally scheduled to fly to Newark, then was swapped for another the night before, and when the pilots boarded in the morning for the intra-Texan flight they said they couldn't leave with that much fuel onboard for the half-hour flight.

You got to be kidding! This weekend is the begining of the Christmas Mayowood Mansion tours!!! Lots going on here!

BTW, they could have taken a seat out of service. Bummer if the flight is full on the way back but a solution.

Sounds like we have a larger RST contingent here than I thought! In response to the first comment about nothing to do here on the weekend, I'll give the standard RST response: "But it's a great place to raise kids...."

As to the other comments, lots of folks suggested photocopying, etc., but that apparently isn't permitted by the FAA rule. And we all agreed that the rule seems a bit like overkill, but understood that the NWA staff doesn't have a choice in whether to follow it. The bottom line thing that angered us all the most was how utterly unprepared everybody was to deal with it.

The other maddening thing was that they waited until we were all on the plane to deal with it. Our plane was sitting there at least an hour before we started boarding -- and at that point, there were several other Saabs nearby. By the time we were onboard and they started calling around, the other Saabs had departed, compounding our delay.

Wouldn't want to miss those

This is an interesting question, because that is exactly what a GA did for my CO Express flight from EWR to CLT last month when we were short 2 cards.

That's wonderful that the plane was there for over an hour. I am willing to bet large sums of money that the crew didn't CHOOSE to wait until the last minute to try and solve the problem. Most times the crew doesn't arrive at the airplane any more than 20-30 min prior to departure. Once onboard we do our pre flight checks and when the FA is done, the gate agent boards.

So you can see that it very well could have been the crew wasn't aware of the issue until shortly before boarding. At that point, unbeknownced to you, they probably started to track down the card. This isn't something we would delay boarding for, because normally we would have been able to track one down.

So what you as passengers see is only one TINY piece of the puzzle. There are lots of things that ocurr that you have no concept of. HAving said that, it's a little irritating to assume the crew should have done something earlier. I wasn't there, but I've been in many delay situations where the passengers complain why we didn't do anything sooner. It just isn't that simple.


AZJ

Do they actually go seat to seat and check for the cards before boarding for every flight?

Thank you for your enlightened answer

It is still a dumb rule

My job and career isn't worth risking by ignoring "dumb rules." Thanks for sharing though. So until then, I guess the flying public will have to put up with the dumb rules we have in the business. We run on the basis of "what if" and "worst case scenario." The rule wouldn't be so dumb if you're in the seat without the briefing card and an emergency evacuation is necessary.

As for if the FA looks at every pocket... well, theoretically when the plane is cleaned all the pockets are looked at. THen when the FA does his/her preflight they're supposed to be looking to make sure that placards, briefing cards etc. are in the right places. When they're not, the FA alerts the Captain and we take it from there.


AZJ