You see, this is exactly the problem I'm talking about. There was no evidence that it was in-op. Only that it "looked funny". That from a cabin crew who by her own admission had spent almost no time on the aircraft for practical training. If Ryanair had no "record" of it, that's probably because it was absolutely fine and didn't actually need fixing in the first place. Be careful about what conclusions you jump to based on significantly incomplete evidence!

(I'm really, really not trying to defend Ryanair, honest!)

Don't normally look at the staff. Couldn't take my eyes of the Abercrombie catalogue!..

LOL :D I know exactly where you're coming from mate. ;)

IIRC the programme said that two crew members believed the indicator showed the slide was u/s and that they informed the No.1 who took no action.

And you've just made the programme's point; if the reporter who had completed the training course is not qualified to determine if an exit is u/s, why on earth are they flying as crew?

I'm ex BA staff...and since leaving (and losing my concessions) had become a real Ryanair convert....less than £50 to a small uncongested airport that's ultimately closer to my destination....great on time performance...no hassle.

I watched this documentary expecting to jump to Ryanair's defence....afterall all airlines (including BA) have their own unsavoury stories to tell.

However, the evidence filmed by C4 was truly appalling. The occassional napping cabin crew member or security infringment were startling if not altogether surprising..but perhaps the most alarming of all was the complete contempt that Ryanair staff seem to have for both their employer and their customers.

This company doesn't deserve to be doing as well as it is....I shall be boycotting it from now on..I hope others do the same and give Michael O'Leary his just desserts!!!

My Sky+ planner is saying THURSDAY 16th @ 4.10am...

well.. just goes to show, there are other ways... and then there's British Airways!!! :p

been dying to say that!!!

I have to agree that, while i think that programs like this normally sensationalise oversights of laxes of security and procedures, that the fact the flight crew didnt seem particularly bothered with pushing the point of getting the captain to check the slide was ok was worrying enough, as was the fact that no.1 didnt seem to do anything about it. It would be different if the other CC had said that no 1 had looked and stated that it was ok - this would indicate that they were taking charge and responsibility for checking etc, but in this case the crew the reporter was working with seemed completely uninterested. This is not a good thing when they are ultimately responsible for the lives and safety of over a hundred pax.

Efin

Thank you, I was trying to find a word to best express my feelings of this wretched airline - contemptible sums it up.

Dave_C, I agree it's not a particularly desirable situation - that's why I'm not defending Ryanair. The training situation (i.e. only training to pass the test and not doing any near enough practical training) seems to be particularly bad - very worrying in fact. But even then, you only saw one or two bad pieces of advice in how many months of full time training?

I was just trying to show how incomplete evidence can be presented in such a way to lead viewers to a certain conclusion. For example the only evidence that the No.1 did nothing about the situation is that our undercover crew didn't see them do anything about it. Given the observed chaos during turnaround/boarding, she could easily have missed the No.1 doing something about it, couldn't she? Now you can make assumptions about the likelihood of that, based on subjectivity or preconceived thoughts built up and encouraged earlier in the programme, but that's exactly the kind of stuff that these type of programmes rely on for their effectiveness.

Ryanair Pay
 

I was intrigued by the pay that the Flight Attendants receive i.e. for each leg in the air. Is this a common practice??

So, to summarise, the crew aren't able to determine if an exit is u/s or not because they haven't had the training.

When they think an exit is u/s and escalate it, the No.1 is too busy to deal with because of the short turn around time. So the reporter, who is crew, doesn't know if it's been escalated, reported to the captain, and / or resolved? And then they take off?

I understand your point about the programme not being very selective about what they show, and what they don't, however they did state that the reporter was unaware if the exit was fixed. CRM (Crew Resource Management) in most airlines would ensure that if an exit was u/s, all crew would know (so they don't direct pax in that direction). Also, if an u/s was fixed, they should also be informed. The programme made it clear, that this was not the case.

Changes
 

Though programmes like this are specifically designed to generate knee jerk reactions against their subjects, (and i think the example given earlier was very good at getting across exactly how these programmes can do that) they can be useful in getting problem areas within public services reviewed. If they crews are so tired, so pushed, so constrained by their management to do the wrong thing then changes need to be made. I hope and hope that this will be the case and that effective and maintained improvements within ryanair's working policies, especially where safety is concerned, will be the result. My concern however is that i suspect the general public's memory of these types of infringments are a lot shorter than a terrorists.

I have to say I am always pretty sceptical of these types of programmes, but I certainly did not like what I saw tonight. :( And I have flow them!

A lot of points on the truth or otherwise have already been well made on this thread.

The fact remains, why would you fly them when (with a bit of advanced planning) you can get as competitive a deal on a proper airline for far less hassle. I know the arguments have been rehearsed many times, but you get a degree of service and security (both physical and in a/c maintenance) that is surely worth a small price premium anyway. Add to that the out of town locations of many of their airports, unclean a/c, dodgy food, complete disregard for the customer, no backup if the a/c goes u/s etc. etc. etc.

Oh well, I suppose I'll have to stick to BA then... :D

Having reflected on this a bit since it was shown, whilst there some elements that were quite shocking, such as the inadequate training, some parts of this programme were very general and hardly major revelations, ie Ryanair's well-documented "F*** the lot of you" approach to customer service.

I think it is worth noting that there was no "whistleblowing" in this programme. All filming of Ryanair staff was undercover - and we've no idea whether the footage used were one-off incidents or just examples of regular occurrences. There were no to-camera interviews the former or current cabin crew, pilots, or management (current staff would obviously speak anonymously). All to-camera interviews were with third parties.

I'm far from qualified to comment on technical aspects of Ryanair's safety procedures, but looking at this from a journalistic point of view, I don't think this investigation was what it could have been.