Incorrect panicked instructions to passengers

[RSD]

Well that escalated quickly...

 

[moa999]

Coming out 2 wks later?
All sounds very strange.

 

[AuSammy]

If this is true, VA truly going downhill fast.

From Fakebook post:


“November 6 passengers on a flight to Fiji, in the South Pacific Ocean, were told to prepare for a water ditching after a rapid descent to 10,000 feet

Pilots had shared concern about a cracked windscreen to cabin crew and somehow the situation was misinterpreted as much more serious.

Pilots heard the public announcement about the water ditching possibility being made by cabin crew. One pilot left the flight deck to personally clarify the situation. At least two passengers had removed life jackets from their bags at this point but Virgin Australia said crew did not issue instructions to wear them.

“Virgin Australia has contacted affected guests directly to offer support,” said a statement which insisted the descent was “precautionary and gradual”. Passengers have been offered trauma counseling by the airline.

Immediately following the flight, cabin crew were stood down and drug and alcohol tested — which is a standard post-incident requirement.

Within Virgin Australia, the incident is believed to have caused considerable consternation among senior management, with key personnel unhappy they were not briefed for some time after.

Boeing 737 NG MSN 39926 VH-YIS
Serial number 39926 LN:4201
Type 737-8FE
First flight date 19/09/2012
Plane age 13.2 years
Seat configuration C8 Y174 Seat
Hex code 7C7AB2
Engines 2 x CFMI CFM56-7B26”


If it is true, why has this not been reported in MSM, if it was QF it would be blasted out repeatedly and hyped on all channels for days on end.

 

[RooFlyer]

Bad stuff up by the cabin crew but pilots and management seem to have the right reaction.

 

[oz_mark]

AFAIK was VA175 on 6 Nov. Not sure why the miscommunication.

 

[flyingfan]

If it is true, why has this not been reported in MSM, if it was QF it would be blasted out repeatedly and hyped on all channels for days on end.

It seems to be reported in The Australian but I don’t have a subscription to read the details. Agree with your point re QF.

 

[Aeryn]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/virgin-australia-passengers-offered-trauma-counselling-after-false-alarm-over-water-ditching/news-story/70c94cc579c0e9d4a43220ad5f3e7437

The article doesn't have anything different to what the OP noted above.

 

[Saab34]

No doubt the Head of Cabin crew and Chief Pilot will be having words.

 

[ozstamps]

Wow. What an unprofessional shambles.

Passengers starting to remove life jackets sounds like it was announced as a potentially serious event by cabin crew.

VERY luckily for Virgin, this seems to have escaped widespread media.

'Within Virgin Australia, the incident is believed to have caused considerable consternation among senior management, with key personnel unhappy they were not briefed for some time after.'

 

[RooFlyer]

Passengers starting to remove life jackets sounds like it was announced as a potentially serious event by cabin crew.

Sounds like ignorant passengers as usual, because the instructions are always that you put your life jacket on at the time of exiting rom the plane.

Thanks for the bolded para I must say I missed it in the very first post when it was unbolded.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sounds like ignorant passengers as usual, because the instructions are always that you put your life jacket on at the time of exiting rom the plane.

Totally incorrect!!!

The instruction is not to inflate your life jacket until leaving the aircraft.

You are supposed to put your life jacket on while still seated, before the aircraft impacts the water, if you have time to do so.

 

[Quickstatus]

Wow. What an unprofessional shambles.

I would not go that far. Clearly they made a mistake interpreting what the pilots told them but I would like to know what the pilots said exactly before passing judgement.

While not making a mistake is always better, I would rather Cabin crew err on the side of putting on lifejackets than not

It's a pity that the passengers can't keep the lifejackets after putting them on... (yes ai know they can't, because they are essential safety equipment and reusable).

The instruction is not to inflate your life jacket until leaving the aircraft.

I want to know if any passenger inflated their life jackets at the seat.

 

[RooFlyer]

Totally incorrect!!!

The instruction is not to inflate your life jacket until leaving the aircraft.

You are supposed to put your life jacket on while still seated, before the aircraft impacts the water, if you have time to do so.

Sorry - mis-reading by me

 

[ozstamps]

Whichever is correct, the cabin announcement sounds like it was premature. And plain wrong.

I'd be reaching for my life jacket too. Over the Pacific Ocean and a very long way to another airport is NOT when you want to hear such panicky and un-necessary stuff over the PA from the lead FA.

if the Captain heard it, and then needed to emerge to refute it to the passengers, a serious miscommunication. Dad's Army stuff.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Whichever is correct, the cabin announcement sounds like it was premature. And plain wrong.

I'd be reaching for my life jacket too. Over the Pacific Ocean and a very long way to another airport is NOT when you want to hear such stuff over the PA from the lead FA.

if the Captain heard it, and then needed to emerge to refute it, a serious miscommunication. Dad's Army stuff.

terrifying in fact:

 

[RooFlyer]

Whichever is correct, the cabin announcement sounds like it was premature. And plain wrong.

No kidding. I think I think that’s the point of the whole story, isn’t it?

 

[Quickstatus]

Communication errors are actually quite common and actually reproducible in a simulator environment.

Errors come from misunderstanding the message, sender assuming the receiver got the message and the receiver assuming they got the message and understood it.. Other factors that disrupt communications include distractions, workload pressures, cognitive bias, hearing certain trigger words completely change the meaning of the communication.

It is actually not as uncommon as we would like it to be.

 

[AuSammy]

Communication errors are actually quite common and actually reproducible in a simulator environment.

Errors come from misunderstanding the message, sender assuming the receiver got the message and the receiver assuming they got the message and understood it.. Other factors that disrupt communications include distractions, workload pressures, cognitive bias, hearing certain trigger words completely change the meaning of the communication.

It is actually not as uncommon as we would like it to be.

Not sure how ostensibly “we have cracked windscreen and going to descend to a safe height” became translated to “everybody panic we are about to ditch in the ocean”

At least one of the passengers (most probably not the only one) is in a bad way and getting counselling.

 

[Quickstatus]

Not sure how ostensibly “we have cracked windscreen and going to descend to a safe height”

Do you know what the pilot actually said?. And separately what the cabin crew actually heard?.
What if the pilot said "the windscreen is cracked and we are going down" . Cabin crew hears the words going down. It is not beyond the realms of possibilities that the cabin crew interpreted the message as an emergency and then acted accordingly. Often a message is not heard in its entirety. There is strong evidence in human factor study that demonstrate that sometimes only part of the message is heard - even though the listener listened to the entire message.

I suggest again that what was actually said may not be heard in exactly the way or interpreted in the way it was intended.

That's why in team environments and in this case crew environments something called closed loop communication is so important. An example is Pilot A says we have cracked windscreen and we are descending to a safer altitude. Cabin crew then repeats what they think they heard. If the cabin crew repeats, cracked windscreen and we are going to ditch, then there is opportunity to correct the misinterpretation.

The other classic is pilot saying left engine on fire shutdown left engine and the other pilot hears right engine and shuts that down. There are verification procedures that help to mitigate such errors.

 

[clifford]

What if the pilot said "the windscreen is cracked and we are going down" . Cabin crew hears the words going down. It is not beyond the realms of possibilities that the cabin crew interpreted the message as an emergency and then acted accordingly.

I imagine that if it was a ditching scenario the pilot's tone may have been a little different. And he/she likely wouldn't have just left it at that. But without a transcript of the conversations, we just don't know. It's purely conjecture at this stage, so no point in over analysing.