chermorg

The exits at the rear of the plane are not generally "emergency exits", and those exits as well are disarmed upon landing for servicing of catering, cleaning, etc (who enter from the rear of the plane in most cases). The article states the passenger "went to the back" so I am presuming he was using one of the rear-most doors, which depending on the situation may have been armed or disarmed at the time.

Wayside

For normal operations, overwing exits will always be armed as they aren't opened unless its an emergency. Maintenance will deactivate the exits before opening them if they are opened for non-emergency reasons.

chermorg

Which was what I thought may have happened, but then upon rereading the story this: "and then went to the back of the plane" - this makes me think he was using one of the rear galley doors. The story further separates the actions of opening the door and deploying the slide: "as other passengers were boarding, opened the emergency exit door, deployed the emergency slide and then went down it" - and the story does so with a comma. It's arguably semantics, but my reading is that he went to the back, opened the disarmed door, and pulled the slide release mechanism to deploy the slide and leave (in lieu of him just jumping out).

emcampbe

mauiUAflyer

Just don't decide you want to get off while the plane is taxiing to the runway, as happened on a flight of mine VIE-LHR. He came forward, and asked to be let off.
Needless to say, he was eventually met by folks in cars with flashing lights... The rest of us had to go to the penalty box, confirm all of our checked luggage, and re-enter the airport. Major PITA.I would have loved to send the guy a bill for my disruptions...

4sallypat

Pax will probably use public defender to plead reason of insanity - paranoia set in and had to leave...
What a moron.

fezzington

From the pictures I've seen, this plane was an airbus.

A319/320s are equipped with 4 door exits, and 4 over wing emergency exits. The over wing emergency exits are always armed, unless maintenance is being performed on them (and no pax are present). The 4 door exits are armed after main cabin door closure ("Flight attendants, prepare doors for departure....") and disarmed upon arrival to the gate.

From the pictures, it was a door exit that was blown. Looked like the 2L door to me but I can't be 100% sure. If it was the 2L, the passenger would've had to have gotten up (after door closure and arming), walked to the rear, and pulled the handle. Safety demo time is always my personal fear of this happening - the closest FA is by the OWE, leaving a clear path for someone to blow the slide.

Also, from what I've heard, it's about $20,000 to repack one of those things.

glennaa11

how could he get on the wrong plane? don't they check bps at boarding?

fezzington

I don't think this is possible due to the nature of the arming mechanism. If an unarmed door is opened, it must be shut, armed, then re-opened to blow the slide. The door must have been armed first in this scenario.

It happens more often than you would think. Gate reader beeps, GA doesn't hear/ignores it, and you have a passenger on the wrong plane. If it's a full flight, then a seat dupe is the first sign of an issue onboard. Some FAs make an announcement confirming the flight number and destination for just this reason (personally, I inject a bit of humor into mine, and get chuckles occasionally)

chermorg

To my knowledge it is not just an option but an FAA requirement that all slides have a manual deployment handle/strap in case the door either is not armed or the slide does not automatically deploy.

fezzington

There is a manual deployment strap. It's located on the slide, and is for when the slide fails to automatically inflate when deployed.

The slides are housed in the doors. "Arming" a door means connecting the slide to the body of the plane. The 737 is the easiest way to demonstrate: -- the girt bar is connected to floor brackets, so that when a door is opened in the armed mode, the slide (located in the door on the bubble near the floor) is deployed. If it fails to inflate, there's a manual handle. An airbus does the same thing, but it's done with a lever:
Opening a disarmed door leaves the slide in it's stowed location. (You can see it every time you board a plane)

zip10001

Which credit card was used to book the trip?
Will Chase/Amex/Barclays etc... foot the bill for the $20,000 expense?

wavid

The article linked by OP indicated that he did have a ticket for the flight he boarded.

DCP2016

Has economy gotten THAT bad that he couldn't survive a trip to Tampa?

transportprof

Perhaps an emotional support creature lurking in his vicinity triggered a panic attack?