Jet Airways India forgot to pressurise plane

[Hvr]

Pilots operating a Jet Airways India flight on Thursday forgot to turn on a switch that maintains optimal pressure in the cabin during ascent, causing injuries to some passengers.

About 30 of the 166 flyers aboard the Boeing 737 aircraft from Mumbai to Jaipur suffered bleeding in their noses, and some in their ears, and forced the plane to return, according to a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi. The carrier said it has taken the coughpit crew off duty pending an investigation into the incident.

Pilots forget to pressurise cabin, causing passengers to bleed

How can this possibly occur? Surely there must've been multiple warnings about the failure of the plane to attain the required pressure inside the cabin?

How many items on the checklist relate to this important safety item?

 

[daft009]

and Jet is supposed to be one of the better carriers there.. woah!
two pilots, such thorough checklists.. how can something like this be missed!

 

[Vic]

Well the oxygen masks deployed, and there was 1 passenger on TV complaining that they didn't get told to use the masks.
I'm sensing a distinct lack of common sense by many people involved including the pilots. Maybe cultural?

 

[blacksultan]

Well the oxygen masks deployed, and there was 1 passenger on TV complaining that they didn't get told to use the masks.
I'm sensing a distinct lack of common sense by many people involved including the pilots. Maybe cultural?

common sense lacking in the culture? rascist comment?

 

[AviatorInsight]

How can this possibly occur?

I had to really think about this one before answering. The 737 is still being operated like it was in the 60s. It is a very ‘manual’ aircraft. The article says that the crew “failed to flip the bleed switch". The aircraft can actually be dispatched with both engine bleeds off but the APU bleed must be on. This is not a normal configuration.

Without getting into too much detail: If both the aircon packs were off, aircraft is unpressurised. Even if only one was one off it could still operate at FL250. At 6:30am it was already about 30°c. With the packs off, if would have been noticeably hot and stuffy both in the cabin and flight deck. An indicator that there’s no airflow.

The last thing being the actual pressurisation mode selector was selected to manual (think Helios).

Surely there must've been multiple warnings about the failure of the plane to attain the required pressure inside the cabin?

There may have been a master caution after start up (will check) but definitely an altitude horn at 10,000ft. This is consistent with the FR24 data that shows it got to 11,000ft before making a descent back to 10,000. Automatic activation of the oxy masks is 14,000ft so the crew manually activated the masks.

How many items on the checklist relate to this important safety item?

As I said above the 737 is a ‘manual’ aeroplane. The FO on the ground has the job of covering the entire overhead panel, MCP, their side or EFIS controls and the centre pedestal. In a preflight scan, I check to make sure every switch is where it needs to be. The preflight checklist, checks the pressurisation mode control in AUTO.

The next time the checklist picks it up is in the after take off checklist, ENG bleeds and both packs in AUTO. Both pilots usually check this and I’ll also add the check to the cabin rate to see if it’s pressurising. Then that is it. At 10,000ft I’ll do a last check of the pressurisation (my last chance to capture it) but there’s no checklist and no mention of it.

 

[Franky]

common sense lacking in the culture? rascist comment?

Get serious..

 

[blacksultan]

Get serious..

I very much am!

 

[Franky]

I very much am!

In my reading of the original post, there were two different sentences, one about a lack of common sense by a number of people, and the other about a possible cultural issue. Neither could be construed as racist. The poster did not state there was a lack of common sense in their culture.

 

[straitman]

common sense lacking in the culture? rascist comment?

The comment is not racist and is actually relevant. I have trained pilots from several countries and the training methods required are quite different for some of them due to their backgrounds. The same applies within group of people in society with much of it going back to their background, experiences, upbringing and culture.

 

[Quickstatus]

To err is human.....

 

[harvyk]

common sense lacking in the culture? rascist comment?

My reading of the word cultural was referring to the safety culture of the airline or the regulation environment which they operated in. Not every countries aviation safety culture is as strong as ours and not every airline operates with a safety first culture.

This is something that can apply regardless of ethnicity.

 

[straitman]

My reading of the word cultural was referring to the safety culture of the airline or the regulation environment which they operated in. Not every countries aviation safety culture is as strong as ours and not every airline operates with a safety first culture.

This is something that can apply regardless of ethnicity.

There have been many aircraft accidents over the years caused by cultural issues. They are often caused by crew members who, for cultural reasons will not challenge a poor or wrong decision by another/senior crew member.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The poster did not state there was a lack of common sense in their culture.

That was one potential reading of it.

But I don't believe the lack of common sense is linked to any particular culture. Plenty of western crew and passengers that demonstrate the same charateristics (taking cabin baggage for example). Lack of common sense seems to transcend cultures.

 

[Quickstatus]

If the pilots had not deployed the masks “rubber jungle” the aircraft could have continued. Once they pressed the button they had to land.

 

[Vic]

common sense lacking in the culture? rascist comment?

Wow! I don't know about you, but if I'm ever on a plane and the oxygen masks deploy and I'm bleeding from my nose, I'm sure as hell going to use the oxygen mask without being told to do so. I can't imagine why anyone would need to wait for an annoucement to use the oxygen mask in this situation.
So I'm asking why someone would need such an annoucement. It's a question not a statement.

 

[Quickstatus]

I can see why some would not put on mask even if it drops.

Passengers are reminded all the time to follow crew instructions. At the same time, it is explicitly clear that preflight instructions say when a mask appears put it on. So it may be confusing to see a mask appear without crew instructions. Most airline passengers will go through their whole travelling career and not have to put on a mask

Take home message is that passengers can not be relied upon to do as instructed by explicit unambiguous crew instructions let alone a preflight safety briefing/card

 

[blacksultan]

I can see why some would not put on mask even if it drops.

Passengers are reminded all the time to follow crew instructions. So it may be confusing to see a mask appear without crew instructions. Most airline passengers will go through their whole travelling career and not have to put on a mask

Though it is explicitly clear that preflight instructions say when a mask appears put it on.

thats true. Depends on how sophisticated a person( age group being a factor) is- not on their ethnicity.

 

[Quickstatus]

thats true. Depends on how sophisticated a person( age group being a factor) is- not on their ethnicity.

Cognitive performance takes a dive irrespective of “sophistication” in unexpected emergent situations. Older Age has been shown to not have a beneficial difference

What makes a difference is prior experience or practice in emergent situations

If airlines want passengers to be truly versed in the safety briefing then it needs to be rehearsed by the passenger. Telling them to read the card makes little difference

That’s why pilots and cabin crew (and for that matter civil first responders have to rehearse emergencies. = AKA the drill / simulation

 

[daft009]

Domestic Air travel is still relatively new to Indians compared to the rest of the western world. As society has more disposable income more people choose to fly.

Most Indians also seem to have big ego's. They know everything and listen to no one.

 

[Vic]

thats true. Depends on how sophisticated a person( age group being a factor) is- not on their ethnicity.

Dude. Ethnicity DOES NOT EQUAL Culture.
It would appear this false equavilancy is the cause of your issue in this case