Ground staff at Jakarta's Terminal 3 got another surprise today when the escape slide from the aft right door accidentally deployed from Indonesia Air Asia's A320, PK-AXI.
 |
After the slide deployed, aircraft AOG-ed, schedules are guaranteed to be a mess!
(Photo by: "ground staff" Terminal 3) |
According to information received, one of the flight attendants forgot to check the status of the slide whether it was armed or disarmed, shortly before opening the door. However, I cannot help but ask, when the flight deck announced "disarm slide/doors and cross check", did the two flight attendants at the back really did cross check? The next questions would be, do the cockpit crew normally check whether the door slides have been disarmed or not through the ECAM, before announcing "doors may be opened"? And can the purser check the slide arm/disarm status for each door through the Flight Attendant Panel?
Whatever the cause, the aircraft had to be AOG-ed, slide and container taken off, repack it, and a new slide fitted. The slide itself costs about US $6,000, and then there are extra costs associated with the delay, averaging a total of US $100 - 150 (depending on the airline) per minute!
This is the second accidental slide deployment that has happened at Terminal 3, and also the second occurence at Indonesia Air Asia. A few years ago, a Mandala A320 had the front right door slide accidentally deploying because a flight attendant forgot to check prior to opening the door. At around the same time, Indonesia Air Asia had the misfortune of carrying a hyperactive child on board, who upon disembarking, walked towards the door, only to then run back to the emergency exit rows and open one of the overwing emergency exit windows, causing the overwing escape slide to deploy immediately "with perfection."
If you're an adult and apprehensive on whether or not you can open the window or not, think of it this way, "if a 10-year old can, why can't you?"
